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Before leaving office, Trump sends final deportation flight to Haiti
MIAMI — The Trump administration sent a final deportation flight to Haiti on the eve of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has promised to halt removals during his first 100 days. In a last salvo of President Donald Trump’s hardline policy, Immigration and Customs Enforcement chartered a flight Tuesday operated by Swift Air, which departed from Louisiana and arrived in Port-au-Prince by early afternoon. A total of 25 deportees landed in the capital, including five infants, Jean Négot Bonheur Delva, the head of Haiti’s Office of National Migration (ONM), told the Miami Herald. S...
Miami Herald
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The hardest change to immigration policy post-Trump? Ending the mindset that immigrants are criminals
PHILADELPHIA — Like heads of other Philadelphia-based agencies that support and defend immigrants, Cathryn Miller-Wilson has been staggered by the four-year onslaught of nationalist Trump administration directives, policies and rules. The incoming Biden administration has pledged to undo as much as it can as fast as it can. But the hardest single thing to change, said Miller-Wilson, director of HIAS Pennsylvania, will be the one that’s not written down on any executive order or legislation: The belief that immigration equates to criminality, that it’s wrong, a detriment and not a benefit to Am...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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In other white Christmas news, 74 pounds of cocaine found floating off the Florida Keys
MIAMI — The Keys sheriff’s office came across some white stuff Christmas week. But it wasn’t the usual kind of snow. About 74 pounds of cocaine was spotted floating off the Lower Keys by a fisherman Wednesday afternoon. The fisherman, who was boating south of Sugarloaf Key, notified a Monroe County sheriff’s deputy who was on marine patrol at the time. Because the floating packages were in federal waters, the packages were put in a Monroe County sheriff’s patrol boat and turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol. Historically but also recently, lost shipments are trending in South Florida and the ...
Miami Herald
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Lightfoot offers plan to close loopholes allowing Chicago police to cooperate with immigration agents
CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday followed through on a pledge to introduce a plan to the City Council that would eliminate loopholes in the city’s Welcoming City Ordinance that allow police to in some cases cooperate with federal immigration agents. Lightfoot drew the ire of some Latino aldermen and activists this fall when she tried to include the changes in her 2021 budget as a way to try to get their support. Facing criticism, the mayor removed the language from the package, and it passed 29-21. The mayor’s proposed ordinance would no longer let Chicago police cooperate with Immi...
Chicago Tribune
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Under Trump, hundreds of small changes in immigration rules have had a huge impact
PHILADELPHIA — Immigration lawyers call it the “no-blank-space policy.”In 2019, the Trump administration imposed a rule requiring immigrants seeking asylum or other humanitarian relief to fill in every space on the application, even if the question doesn’t apply to them. If they leave one spot empty — say, they don’t write down a middle name, because they don’t have one — the document is rejected.That causes more than delay in refiling. It can derail entire claims and open the door to deportation. Last week two national immigrant advocacy groups filed a federal class-action lawsuitBut the blan...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Michael Smolens: Biden plans big changes in immigration system — some won't be easy
Nearly 15 years ago, then-Sen. Joe Biden voted to fund hundreds of miles of new fencing along the border with Mexico.He was joined by Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other Democrats.One of the first things President-elect Biden said he will do after being sworn in on Jan. 20 is halt the construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall, though he doesn’t plan on tearing down what has been built so far.About $15 billion has been spent on the project and 450 miles of wall have been constructed, all but 12 miles of it replacing some kind of existing barrier.Biden has pledged to quickly...
The San Diego Union-Tribune
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Michigan man who fought deportation to Iraq sworn in as US citizen
DETROIT — The lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that sought the release of 1,400 Iraqi Americans was sworn in as a United States citizen on Friday after winning his immigration case.Usama “Sam” Hamama of West Bloomfield Township said he finally feels liberated.“I honestly told my wife ‘something’s gone.’ I just feel like my mind, back, shoulders, you feel free,” Hamama told The Detroit News. “Where I came from, I didn’t have rights, and when I came here, I didn’t respect the rights, and now I finally feel like I have a responsibility for my own. I thank God, I really do.”The case, filed...
The Detroit News
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It just got harder for immigrants: The US naturalization test is about to change
MIAMI — U.S. legal permanent residents who apply for citizenship through naturalization on or after Dec. 1 will face a more challenging test — in which immigrants must prove they can read, write and speak basic English, and have essential knowledge of U.S. history and government.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, announced Friday the implementation of a revised version of the citizenship civics test for naturalization applicants with a filing date (also known as a receipt date) of Dec. 1 and beyond.The test will evaluate an immigrant’s knowledge of American history, governmen...
Miami Herald
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Trump administration might use vaccine program to target undocumented immigrants, Cuomo says
NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo railed against the Trump administration’s coronavirus vaccine plan Monday, accusing the feds of trying to collect data on undocumented immigrants.Cuomo said he and other governors received a request from the federal Department of Health and Human Services to provide the feds with “ID numbers” for all COVID-19 patients once a vaccine is approved and distribution begins.Such personal data can be retrieved from passports, driver’s licenses or Social Security cards, posing a problem for immigrants without legal status, Cuomo warned.“Why would you possibly need a person...
New York Daily News