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ELECTION INTEGRITYMore States Consider Voter ID Laws Amid Conflicting Research on Their Impact
36 states require some form of identification to cast a ballot. Voting rights advocates cite research showing that such rules block many legitimate voters — especially young, Black and Latino voters — from the polls. But backers of voter ID laws point to other studies which suggest that the rules have had a minimal effect on voter turnout, partly because Democrats often respond to them by amping up their voter mobilization efforts.
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Biometric exit program DHS’s airport biometric exit program faces budgetary, legal, technical, and privacy questions
DHS has installed experimental face-recognition system in nine U.S. airports. If DHS’s current plans are executed, every traveler flying overseas, American and foreign national alike, will soon be subject to a face recognition scan as part of this “biometric exit” program. A new report notes that neither Congress nor DHS has ever justified the need for the program. Congress never provided a rationale for it. Congress never provided a rationale for it while DHS has repeatedly questioned “the additional value biometric air exit would provide.” The biometric exit program also stands on shaky legal ground, and to make matters worse, the face scanning technology used by DHS may make frequent mistakes. “The privacy concerns implicated by biometric exit are at least as troubling as the system’s legal and technical problems,” the report notes.
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Real IDAirports post REAL ID deadline warning signs
Many U.S. airports have posted signs to alert travelers that beginning 22 January 2018, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will begin to enforce the REAL ID requirements at airport security checkpoints. DHS says that a year from now, passengers presenting a driver’s license or identification card from states not in compliance with the REAL ID Act’s security standards — states, that is, which have not received an extension from DHS — may not be allowed to board.
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Green cardsUSCIS Green Card issuance problems even worse than initial findings: DHS OIG
A new DHS OIG reports says that the problems USCIS experienced in properly issuing Green Cards are worse than originally thought. USCIS produced at least 19,000 cards that included incorrect information or were issued in duplicate. Additional mistakes included over 2,400 immigrants approved for 2-year conditional residence status being inadvertently issued cards with 10-year expiration dates. The agency also received over 200,000 reports of cards potentially misdelivered, or not being delivered to approved applicants.
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U.S.-born MexicansEasing integration burdens of U.S.-born children in Mexico
About 550,000 children born in the United States are currently living in Mexico because their parents had been deported or voluntarily repatriated themselves (since 2010, the United States has deported 1.4 million Mexicans). These children face many hurdles – legal, social, cultural, linguistic, educational – trying to integrate themselves into life in Mexico. The U.S. and Mexican governments have reached an agreement on a plan to ease bureaucratic obstacles blocking these children from gaining access to health and education.
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Vetting & citizenshipMore than 800 ineligible individuals granted U.S. citizenship owing to incomplete fingerprint records
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted U.S. citizenship to at least 858 individuals from special interest countries — individuals who had been ordered deported or removed under another name. DHS IG says that this happened because neither the digital fingerprint repository at DHS nor the repository at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) contains all old fingerprint records of individuals previously deported. Currently, about 148,000 fingerprint records of aliens from special interest countries who had final deportation orders or who are criminals or fugitives have yet to be digitized.
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European securityEU backs visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to EU zone
The European Commission has recommended visa-free travel in Europe for Turkish citizens. Turkey still has to meet some of the seventy-two conditions set by the EU. The deal must be approved by the parliaments of all of the EU twenty-eight member states before the 30 June deadline. The lifting of visa requirements for Turkey’s eighty million citizens has been a subject of intense debate among EU member states. Turkey threatened that if the EU and its member states failed to approve the visa deal, Turkey would withdrew from the refugee agreement it had reached with the EU in March.
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ImmigrationEl Paso doesn't want ID as "sanctuary city"
An El Paso-based immigrant rights group could see its hopes for a municipal ID card dashed after leaders there determined that issuing the card might prompt immigration hardliners to label the town a “sanctuary city.”
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Real IDNo immediate impact on Pennsylvania from DHS update to REAL ID deadlines
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said there would be no immediate impact to Pennsylvania citizens is expected based on the recent announcement by DHS regarding its schedule for implementing the federal REAL ID Act of 2005. The act deals with identification requirements for boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft.
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VisasTravel association to DHS: Tell Congress about visa overstays before tourism is restricted
The U.S. Travel Association is urging DHS to address people who stay overstay the length of their approved visas before placing new restrictions on visa waiver programs that are designed to boost U.S. tourism. “We should not even begin to discuss further improvements to visa security without much-needed data from the Department of Homeland Security on visa overstays,” the association says.
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Driver’s licensesDHS extends deadline for Real ID-compliant driver’s licenses
DHS on Friday announced that air travelers who are residents of several states which are yet to meet the Real ID federal security standards would still be able to use their driver’s licenses at U.S. airports until 22 January 2018. From that point on, if the traveler’s state does not yet offer a Real ID-compliant driver’s license, the passenger would be required to present an alternative identification document such as a passport. Five state and American Samoa were not given the extension, and must become compliant by January 2018.
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Airport securityMan uses stolen boarding pass to get through Utah airport security
A man who had stolen a boarding pass which was left by mistake on a Southwest Airline counter, managed to get through airport security in Salt Lake City, but was stopped at a gate for a flight to California. The attendants at the boarding gate became suspicious since the woman for whom the boarding pass was printed had been given a replacement pas and had already checked in.
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Muslim AmericansTrump: Muslim Americans may be required to carry special ID noting their religion
Donald Trump said he would not rule out entering all Muslim Americans in a database or giving them “a special form of identification that noted their religion.” Trump told the interviewer that he would consider warrantless searches of Muslims and increased surveillance of mosques. “We’re going to have to do things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago,” Trump said.
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Terror in ParisFrance demands effective suspension of the Schengen open borders agreement
France will this week call for an effective suspension of the Schengen Agreement on open borders across Europe. The agreement was in 1985 in the town of Schengen in Luxembourg. It removes border checks within Europe, meaning that anyone. France will not call for a formal abrogation of the agreement, but would rather demand that all members of the Schengen Zone begin border identity checks, a move which amount to an effective suspension of the 30-year old agreement
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RefugeesEuropeans concerned over thriving trade in fake, stolen Syrian papers
The EU countries trying to formulate a cohesive policy to deal with the hundreds of thousands of refugees trying to enter the EU zone are now facing a new problem: The burgeoning trade in stolen Syrian identity documents. Most European countries are yet to agree to accept more than a token number of Syrian refugees, but Germany and Sweden have made it known that while the EU is grappling with the issue, the asylum system in both countries would offer preferential treatment for Syrians. This preference has made Syrian passports into a must-have document for non-Syrian immigrants who would otherwise not be likely to qualify as refugees.
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