Immigration in Pandemic Times Vol. 1, No.8

Using the pandemic as a cover, there have been increasing attempts by the Trump administration to limit immigration to the United States. Read more, below.

• As of June 22, the USCIS has announced a change to try to stop undocumented immigrants from entering the US illegally. This new rule overlooks intent and instead prevents all undocumented immigrants who entered without legal status from obtaining employment permission when their asylum case is still pending. Moreover, this rule increases the amount of time an asylum applicant has to wait in order to obtain work authorization and includes additional grounds of deniability for work authorization. It also automatically ends any work authorization an immigrant may have the moment their asylum is denied and limits the authorization to only two years. The rule is effective as of August 25; full details can be found here.  

• The Trump Administration has managed to use the excuse of the pandemic-caused economic downturn to make more moves against immigration. This past Monday, June 22, President Trump signed an executive order that freezes specific new visas for prospective foreign workers through December 31, 2020. The visas suspended until the end of the year include the following: J visas for student or work exchanges, H-1B for technology-related work, L visas for company transfers, H-2B for low-skill labor, and H-4 for the spouses of other specific visa holders. People with COVID-19 related work will be exempted and it should be noted that this will not affect those individuals who already have a visa in the US prior to the order. Furthermore, the administration has stated that it is working on creating a new H-1B visa structure where it is possible that there will be no more lottery system, asylum seekers may be unable to gain work permits, and H-1B visas will only be awarded to those with high salaries. Although both businesses and immigration advocacy groups are pushing against the order, it does not seem like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. Unfortunately, as a senior administration official revealed, this executive order is only one part of a greater plan to prevent immigrants from competing with American citizens over jobs. Many experts say that although the new visa system is supposed to be a temporary measure, it will consequently damage future immigration, on top of the damage it is already inflicting on those trying to immigrate to the United States.

• Despite USCIS calls for increased funding, its many requests have not been heard and as of June 24, the agency plans to furlough 13,400 out of its 20,000 staff members in August. USCIS stated that its revenue drop is due to the decreasing numbers of applicants, and consequently decreasing amounts of applicant fees that are used for the majority of the agency’s budget. A furlough could incapacitate the USCIS from resuming its activities in the future.

• On Thursday, June 25, the Supreme Court sided with Trump and his administration, ruling that immigrants in accelerated deportation proceedings cannot appeal denied asylum decisions. Further, the Supreme Court ruled that these speedy deportations are not unconstitutional and do not violate the rights to due process, nullifying a previous ruling by the Ninth Court of Appeals.    

Image Credit: Yuri Samoilov