When will the fear stop?
Biden administration plan for immigrant spouses and children paused
A district court judge has temporarily blocked a new program implemented by President Biden that would provide a pathway to citizenship for eligible noncitizen spouses and stepchildren of American citizens after 16 Republican-led states sued the administration. Keeping Families Together would allow people to request parole in place and, if granted and determined to be otherwise eligible, may then apply for adjustment of status without being required to leave the country and be processed by a U.S. consulate outside of the U.S.
The states argued that the program violates federal law that prohibits immigrants without documentation from obtaining citizenship without first leaving the country and being readmitted. The administrative pause will remain in place for at least 14 days, but could be extended. During this time, the administration can continue to accept applications, but cannot approve them.
Several undocumented immigrants and their spouses along with the non-profit group Coalition for Humane Immigrant rights filed a motion to join the government in defending the program. “I’ve been waiting for over a decade for a program like this,” Foday Turay, one of the immigrants included in the filing, said. “Living in a country where you’ve been paying taxes for years, and yet you have to face the constant fear of being torn from your family and your community — when is that fear going to stop?”
ICE grants rare tour of a migrant processing center
After falling under scrutiny for reports of poor treatment of detained migrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers recently provided members of the media with a tour of the El Paso Processing Center. The center currently houses 730 single male and female adults, 75% of whom have a prior history of interactions with law enforcement officers, either in the U.S. or their home country. According to Mary De Anda-Ybarra, field office director of ICE in El Paso, every person in the center will have due process, a medical screening, access to legal counsel, and be treated humanely while they are in custody.
“They are not inmates; this is not punitive. […] We hold people in custody that are going through an immigration process,” De Anda-Ybarra pointed out. “We know that ICE sometimes has bad stories showing that individuals are being harassed, being tortured, that we are not caring for them properly. So, we want to be able to have that transparency.”
Written by Jenifer Wellman, our Advocacy Director at We Choose Welcome.
