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VISASNot Indentured: H‑1B Visa Holders Have Changed Jobs 1.1 Million Times
Critics of the H 1B visa for skilled foreign workers often claim that the status amounts to “indentured” servitude. Indentured servitude is a contract to work for a single employer for a predetermined period without pay. Although H 1B workers face more obstacles to changing jobs than US citizens, H 1B workers are not tied to a single employer and change jobs regularly.
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DEMOCRACY WATCHTrump’s National Guard Deployments Reignite 200-Year-Old Legal Debate Over State vs. Federal Power
If you’re confused about what the law does and doesn’t allow the president to do with the National Guard, that’s understandable. The conflict between the Trump administration and states such as Oregon and Illinois throws into relief a question as old as the Constitution itself: Where does federal power end and state authority begin?
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DEMOCRACY WATCHUnfettered and Unaccountable: How Trump is Building a Violent, Shadowy Federal Police Force
Under President Donald Trump’s deportation mission, ICE officers are using force to detain and jail immigrants. The administration gutted guardrails and offices meant to rein in abusive actions. Some families say they have no idea where their loved ones were jailed after immigration raids.
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FAKE EMERGENCIESWhat Really Happened in Portland Before Trump Deployed the National Guard
President Donald Trump said there was a need to deploy National Guard troops to “War ravaged” Portland to protect “under-siege” ICE agents. The president’s claims were divorced from the reality on the ground. In the two months before Trump’s decision, criminal charges were announced against only three people. On nights when physical conflict did erupt, it often came from police firing on, shoving, pepper-spraying, and tackling protesters.
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PRIVACYDHS Wants States to Hand Over Driver’s License Data for Citizenship Checks
It’s the latest step in an unprecedented initiative to pool confidential data that the Trump administration claims will help identify noncitizens on voter rolls and tighten immigration enforcement.
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IMMIGRATIONArizona Looks to Legal Immigration with Trump's Border Security
In Arizona, state and local leaders have called on the federal government to enforce illegal immigration more strictly for years. But Arizona legislators have also been pushing Congress to develop an additional legal immigration pathway in the state.
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IMMIGRATIONDetails of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks of Trump Administration’s Use of Social Security Data for Voter Citizenship Checks
A recently released agreement gives the Department of Homeland Security access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ Social Security data. It contains alarmingly few provisions to ensure accuracy and privacy, experts say.
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DEPORTATIONSRemovals from Inside U.S. Outnumber Border Deportations for the First Time Since 2014
The Trump administration now expects about 600,000 total deportations in 2025, fewer than under the Biden administration’s final fiscal year, as a drop in border crossings outweighs the effect of increased deportations elsewhere.
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ACCOUNTABILITYThere’s a Right to Record ICE Raids–and There’s No Blanket Immunity for Raiders
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin have repeatedly asserted that citizens have no right to photograph or video record ICE raids or identify the officers by name. This is not an accurate description of the state of the law, and it is dangerous to tell ICE agents that they have blanket immunity whatever they do. If the agents are hearing a persistent message from their higher ups of “you’re immune no matter what you do,” it’s up to the rest of us to disabuse them of that error.
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IMMIGRATIONTexas Lawmaker Introduces Agricultural Visa Reform
A Texas lawmaker introduced legislation to reform the H-2A visa program for agricultural workers. U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) introduced the Bracero Program 2.0 Act, a bill to make wage reforms and technical upgrades to the H-2a temporary agricultural visa program.
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VISASBipartisan Lawmakers Urge Trump to End $100k Visa Fee
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging President Donald Trump to end his $100,000 fee for H-1B visa holders. the Congressional members warned that businesses will struggle with the new fee and it will weaken American competitiveness globally.
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FAKE EMERGENCIESWhite House’s Video About Supposed “Mess” in Chicago Consists Mostly of Stitched-Together Outdated Video Pieces from Six Other States
The White House released a video which, it claimed, showed unruly and violent conduct by Chicagoans in confrontations with police and ICE gents, thus justifying Trump’s order to send 300 Texas National Guard troops to deal with “the mess” in Chicago. But most of the released video had nothing to do with Chicago: It consisted of stitched-together pieces of video footage from six other states, with some of the video fragments filmed in 2023 and 2024, when Biden was president.
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IMMIGRATIONWe Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government doesn’t track how many citizens are held by immigration agents. We found more than 170 cases this year where citizens were detained at raids and protests. More than 20 citizens have reported being held for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or a lawyer. In some cases their families couldn’t find them.
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H-1B VISASTrump’s New $100K Visa Fee Could Worsen State Doctor Shortages, Experts Say
Many immigrant physicians help fill gaps in rural communities’ health care systems thanks in part to the H-1B visa, which allows skilled foreign workers to come work in the U.S.
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H-1B VISASTrump’s H-1B Visa Change: What to Know
The H-1B visa program has helped fill gaps in critical sectors like health care and technology, though it has faced criticism that it adversely affects American workers. The Trump administration’s move to sharply increase the fee for new H-1B petitions has raised concerns about its potential effects on the U.S. economy.
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The long view
CLIMATE & MIGRATION4 Key Facts About Climate Change and Human Migration
How does climate change affect human migration and what does it mean for border policies? Learn about the complex relationship between weather and cross-border migration across different demographic groups, and the role for future policies.