• What Biden Can Do After Another Failed Border Deal

    It’s no surprise that before any actual text of the bipartisan immigration bill became public, Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate said they would oppose the bill. Republican senators and the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board say that Trump believes an immigration deal would help Biden win re‐election. To get the politics right, Biden must get the policy right first. He should bet on policy, not politics, to neuter the apocalyptic border rhetoric. Allowing more immigrants to arrive legally will curb the chaos at the order – and it is the only chance to break out of a decade of failed immigration deals.

  • Chinese Migration to U.S. Is Nothing New – but the Reasons for Recent Surge at Southern Border Are

    What is most remarkable is the speed with which the number of Chinese migrants is growing. Nearly 10 times as many Chinese migrants crossed the southern border in 2023 as in 2022. In December 2023 alone, U.S. Border Patrol officials reported encounters with about 6,000 Chinese migrants, in contrast to the 900 they reported a year earlier in December 2022. The dramatic uptick is the result of a confluence of factors.

  • Two More Texas Counties Declare Invasion, Bringing Total to 55

    Two more Texas counties declared an invasion at the southern border, bringing the total to 55.County judge: ‘I’m tired of’ fentanyl poisonings occurring on weekly basis.

  • Biden Defends Immigration Policy During State of the Union, Blaming Republicans in Congress for Refusing to Act

    The U.S. passed a law in 1952 that gives any person arriving at the border or inside the U.S. the right to apply for asylum and the right to legally stay in the country, even if that person crossed the border illegally. That law has not changed. Trump was able to lawfully deport migrants at the border without processing their asylum claims during the COVID-19 pandemic under a public health law called Title 42. Biden continued that policy until a 2023 court ruling that Title 42 could no longer be used since the public health emergency had ended. Biden is now considering using section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to get more control over immigration. This sweeping law allows the president to temporarily suspend or restrict the entry of all foreigners if their arrival is detrimental to the U.S.

  • Border Patrol: 70 Percent Drop in Successful Evasions Since Title 42 Ended

    The United States has a legitimate interest in regulating the entry of serious criminals and other threats to Americans, and border security is a significant component of that effort. Ending Title 42 improved border security and reduced successful illegal entries. This should force the many members of Congress and the administration who opposed ending Title 42 to rethink their position.

  • Within Hours of Appeal, Supreme Court Stays Appellate Ruling on Texas Border Bill

    Within hours of a federal appeals court decision Monday allowing a new Texas law to stand that makes illegal entry into the state from a foreign nation a state crime, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito stayed the appellate court’s decision. Alito’s ruling prevents the law from going into effect on March 5, as originally intended, or on March 11, as the Fifth Circuit ruled unless the Supreme Court intervened.

  • The Crisis at the Border: A Primer for Confused Americans

    The volume of migrants arriving at the border without prior authorization—a historic high of 3.2 million encounters in fiscal year 2023—is indeed record-breaking. Migrants now hail from a greater diversity of countries than in the past and consist of more families and children.

  • Appeals Court Reverses Order Blocking Texas Immigration Law, Setting Up Supreme Court Showdown

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Saturday reversed a lower court’s ruling that halted a new state law allowing Texas police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally. If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t intervene in the coming days, the law making illegal entry a state crime could go into effect this weekend.

  • Federal Judge Blocks Texas Law Allowing Police to Arrest Migrants Suspected of Being in Country Illegally

    Senate Bill 4 was Texas’ latest attempt to deter people from crossing the Texas-Mexico border amid a surge in migration. SB 4 was scheduled to take effect Tuesday. “SB 4 threatens the fundamental notion that the United States must regulate immigration with one voice,” Judge David Ezra wrote.

  • New York Appeals Court Strikes Down Law Allowing Non-Citizens to Vote

    The law, pushed through the Democratic-controlled Legislature last year, was expected to add another 800,000 new eligible voters in New York City, which has a population of nearly 8.5 million. “As there is no reference to noncitizens, and thus, an irrefutable inference applies that noncitizens were intended to be excluded from those individuals entitled to vote in elections,” the court said.

  • EU Asylum Applications at 7-Year High

    Official figures reveal that the EU received more than 1.14 million asylum applications in 2023, the highest number since 2016. Far-right parties could capitalize on the influx in June’s EU elections.

  • NYC to Launch Debit-Card Pilot Program for Migrants

    New York City announced it was launching what it described as a cost-saving pilot program to provide 500 migrant families with prepaid debit cards to buy food and baby supplies. The debit-cards will be loaded with an average of $12.52 per person, per day, for 28 days, and the city says the program will save $600,000 per month and $7.2 million annually relative to the current system of providing boxes with non-perishable food.

  • AfD’s Remigration Agenda: Germany’s Challenge of Far-Right Extremism

    In November 2023, the German populist, far-right AfD organized a covert meeting in Potsdam which featured the leader of the ethnonationalist Identitarian Movement, Martin Sellner. The attendees, adherents of a conspiracy theory commonly known as the Great Replacement, which claims that there is a deliberate attempt to replace the white European population with migrants of color, debated ways forcefully to deport migrants who failed to assimilate, had non-German lineage, or demonstrated support for asylum seekers.

  • DHS Secretary Mayorkas Impeached by House

    The House, by a one-vote margin, on Tuesday voted to impeach DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In a 214-to-213 vote mostly along party lines, the House impeached Mayorkas for willfully refusing to enforce border laws and breaching the public trust. Mayorkas is the first sitting cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached.

  • Seeking Protection: How the U.S. Asylum Process Works

    Record numbers of migrants seeking to cross the southern U.S. border are challenging the Joe Biden administration’s attempts to restore asylum protections. Here’s how the asylum process works.