• Sharp Increase in Application for Asylum to EU Countries

    EU+ countries received around 996,000 asylum applications in 2022, a 53 percent increase over 2021. Around 70 percent of applications in 2022 were lodged in five receiving countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Austria, and Italy. As in previous years, the top countries of origin were Syria and Afghanistan, followed by Turkey, Venezuela and Colombia.

  • Supreme Court Rejects Texas Effort to Force Biden Administration to Change Deportation Policy

    Texas and Louisiana sued after the Biden administration told immigration agents to focus on deporting undocumented immigrants who are convicted of felonies or pose a risk to public safety. The Supreme Court said states didn’t have any standing to sue.

  • Refugee or Asylum-Seeker in the U.S.: What's the Difference?

    In the United States, there are notable distinctions between refugees or asylum-seekers. While the terms are often used interchangeably, there are significant differences under U.S. immigration law when pursuing these statuses. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has established specific priorities for processing individuals and groups with special humanitarian concerns who seek entry into the United States.

  • Germany Reforms Immigration Law to Attract and Retain Skilled Workers

    From healthcare to IT, carpenters to technicians, Germany’s “help wanted” sign is blinking red. Germany has two million jobs to fill, and it needs 400,000 foreign workers to make up the shortfall every year. When the baby boomers retire en masse, the problem will only get worse. Now Germany is reforming its immigration laws to help close the gap, and bring in, and keep, foreign talent.

  • New Law Targets Gun Trafficking to Mexico

    A new law that imposes harsher penalties on gun trafficking is giving U.S. prosecutors a powerful tool to combat the illicit flow of weapons from the United States to drug cartels in Mexico. The cartels use the weapons to protect their drug smuggling operations, fueling an overdose epidemic that is claiming the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.

  • U.S. Temporary Foreign Worker Visa Programs

    Temporary foreign workers have long supported the U.S. economy, providing American industries, such as agriculture and technology, with a critical labor force, and the United States accepts hundreds of thousands of foreign workers each year. Persistent U.S. labor shortages, accusations of abuse, an influx of undocumented immigrants, and pushback from domestic labor groups have reenergized the debate over the scale of these programs.  President Biden has expanded the capacity of some programs, including by streamlining the application process, but more ambitious efforts have stalled in Congress.

  • Where Professionals Want to Migrate within the European Union

    As a driving force of economic, demographic, social, and political change, migration is a top priority for policymakers, but studies were often hampered by incomplete statistics and outdated data. A new study assessing migration interest found that fewer professionals from countries in Northern, Southern, and Western Europe want to move east. But Eastern Europe’s appeal might change in the coming years.

  • Texas to Deploy Buoys to Deter Rio Grande Crossings, Gov. Abbott Announces

    The governor revealed plans for a floating river barrier at a Capitol signing ceremony for six new laws related to border security. The first 1,000-foot section will be set up near Eagle Pass.

  • Militia Members Indicted for Conspiracy to Murder Border Patrol Officers, Illegal Immigrants

    Two members of the self-styled 2nd American Militia who conspired to go “to war with border patrol” have been indicted two weeks ago by a federal grand jury on charges related to a conspiracy to murder Border Patrol officers and kill illegal immigrants crossing the border. The plot was thwarted by a shootout with FBI agents who arrested them.

  • Lifting Title 42 Restrictions Didn’t Result in Surge of Migration, After All – but Border Communities Are Still Facing Record-Breaking Migration

    There were widespread predictions that there would be a surge of migration across the U.S.-Mexico border in May 2023, when Title 42 COVID-related restrictions were lifted. There was no surge, but even without it, migration across the U.S-Mexico border continues to trend upward and remains at record-breaking levels.

  • Open Questions, Legal Hurdles for Biden’s New Border Rule

    The Biden administration announced on May 16 a new border rule that creates new pathways for lawful entry and limits access to asylum for unauthorized entrants. Shalini Bhargava Ray writes that the rule takes important steps to create alternatives to unauthorized entry for those seeking refuge, but serious questions remain about the viability and practical accessibility of those pathways.

  • Texas Senate Approves Creation New Immigration Enforcement Unit, Allow State Police to Arrest for Border Crossings

    The House has already passed the bill, but the two chambers will need to iron out the differences in their versions before it is sent to Gov. Greg Abbott. It’s the most sweeping of a Republican package of bills that aims to stiffen the state’s response to a record number of crossings at Texas’ southern border.

  • Labor Trafficking in the United States

    In 2020, DHS developed a strategy to guide its efforts to curb trafficking worldwide. Principally, the strategy calls for improving the identification and reporting of suspected trafficking. Questions about the current state of research on U.S. labor trafficking and future research needs need to be answered as the initial step in building a research agenda focused on labor trafficking.

  • Title 42 Ends as Migrants Lined Up and Border Cities Braced for the Unknown

    Long lines formed again next to the border wall in El Paso — a scene repeated in other parts of the southern border — as migrants anticipated the end of a policy that has allowed immigration agents to quickly expel them.

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

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