immigration

Are Unaccompanied ‘Border Kids’ Now The ‘New Normal’?

December 28, 2015 By CCM Staff

In a story over the Christmas weekend, the Dallas Morning News cited the increase in unaccompanied minors showing up at the United State’s southern border. Along with statistics indicating that the influx has doubled compared to recent years, the story quoted U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske saying “… the concerning part is, are we seeing the new normal?”

The situation has already prompted new shelters, a response from local charities trying to assist families and other efforts.

Read about the new normal here.

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: access to justice, Border Kids, detention center, family detention center, ICE, immigration, legal access

Private Church Camps Prepare To House ‘Border Kids’

December 11, 2015 By CCM Staff

The Dallas Morning News is reporting that “…. operators of two private camps in Ellis and Rockwall counties are scrambling to get ready for the arrival of at least 800 young immigrants from Central America, part of a recent surge crossing illegally into the U.S. from Mexico.”

Citing government sources, the paper says that about 300 immigrants — ages 12 to 18 — are expected to arrive at Sabine Creek Ranch next week for temporary shelter, and at least 500 children age 17 and under will stay at Lakeview Camp and Retreat Center near Waxahachie and could get there as early as Friday, officials in Ellis County said. At least one camp is run by a religious group.

Immigration detainment, especially of children, has been a controversial issue for months since an inflx of “Border Kids” began showing up on the U.S. border. Typically, they are not “caught” but turn themselves in and request asylum. Read more here.

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community Tagged With: Border Kids, immigration, Legal news, texas border

Govt. Adding More Beds To Handle ‘Border Kids’

December 8, 2015 By CCM Staff

The new surge in unaccompanied children showing up at U.S. borders seeking asylum has prompted the federal government to move toward two new shelters, the New York Times is reporting. The paper says that the government is moving toward “two shelters in Texas and one in California this month, adding at least 1,400 beds to handle the increased flow, senior Obama administration officials said Monday.”

According to a 12/7/15 NYT report, “A United States Border Patrol vehicle at the border wall near Abram, Tex., last month. Credit Delcia Lopez/The Monitor, via Associated Press”

Family detention centers and the unaccompanied youth centers have been controversial and a federal judge has ordered the family shelters closed, although officials hope to work around that order. The Times also notes that “… on Monday, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, asked the Pentagon to also prepare tentative plans to provide shelter for 5,000 more youths. Those beds are not needed at this time, officials said, but the health department, which runs the shelters, would give the Department of Defense 30 days’ notice to get them ready if the numbers of young border crossers continue to rise.”

Immigration cases are often incorrectly seen as criminal court issues. The “courts” are actually a function of the U.S. Justice Department and those facing actions are classified as civil court participants. One effect of that is they do not have the same rights to counsel as if they were criminally charged.

Read the NYT report here: U.S. to Open Shelters for New Surge of Youths Crossing Southwest Border

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, National Tagged With: Border Kids, border patrol, border wall, detention, detention centers, family detention centers, immigration

At USC, Law Students Provide Immigration Legal Advice

November 30, 2015 By CCM Staff

Legal assistance for asylum seekers arriving at the U.S. border has been an issue, whether that means trained volunteers or lawyers. How about a legal clinic staffed by law students looking for experience? The University of Southern California student newspaper reports that “… in January, the year-round USC clinic — the only one of its kind among Southern California law schools — will mark its 15th year of offering representation to asylum clients… since 2001, the clinic has taken on more than 170 clients. Approximately 120 of them, one-third of whom identify as LGBT, have received either asylum, withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture.”

While the Immigration Clinic clients receive life-saving legal representation, its students receive valuable experience.

‘Border Kids’ Immigration Influx Is Once Again On The Rise

November 24, 2015 By CCM Staff

As reported by NPR: Detainees sleep and watch television in a holding cell where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed at a U.S. Customs facility in Nogales, Texas.

A Texas newspaper reports that the number of unaccompanied children being apprehended at the southern United States border – I’ve dubbed them “border kids” – is once again on the increase. Reporter Dylan Baddor at the Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune writes that in the Border Patrol’s Big Bend sector of Texas, “the number of unaccompanied children apprehended trying to enter the country during that period averaged 24 between 2010 and 2014. This year agents tallied 319.”

Statewide, says the report, 7,390 unaccompanied children were caught crossing in those two months, and 85 percent increase over the same period last year. The newspaper quotes Marc Rosenblum, a deputy director at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington D.C., saying that“… we’re clearly seeing a significant uptick.”

The Border Kids crisis became a national focus last year and prompted the Obama Administration to fast-track the cases, sometimes moving them to the “front of the line” in a backed-up immigration court system. Current estimates are that more than 450,000 cases are backlogged in the courts, which are actual civil procedures held as part of the U.S. Justice Department.

See the Daily Tribune story here: http://www.dailytribune.net/site/about.html

Filed Under: Border Kids Tagged With: asylum, asylum seeker, Barack Obama, deportation, DREAM Act, Dreamers, Executive Orders, family detention center, immigration, immigration reform, Obama, President Obama, refugee, Refugee Crisis

U.S. Family Detention Centers: Still There, Still Debated

November 18, 2015 By CCM Staff

As events in Paris rivet the U.S. media on the massive immigration crisis in Europe, it’s worth noting that we still have

Photo from LA Times Report, 10/23/15, “Immigrant family detention centers are prison-like, critics say, despite order to improve”

450,000 pending cases in the United States immigration court system and our “family detention” centers have been ruled illegal by a federal judge, who has ordered them closed. The federal government has responded by trying to license them through state agencies.

The Los Angeles Times reminds us that “… this summer, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles castigated federal officials, finding they had failed to meet conditions for detaining immigrant children established by a 1997 court settlement, Flores vs. Meese. The judge prohibited the administration from holding children at centers not licensed to care for them and from holding families unless they posed a flight risk or a threat to national security…”

Find the rest of that story and related reporting about the situation here:

Immigrant family detention centers are prison-like, critics say, despite order to improve

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community Tagged With: immigration, immigration courts, immigration reform, Legal news, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee

Obama Immigration Case Has Implications For Presidential Race

November 12, 2015 By CCM Staff

The Christian Science Monitor, or a we call it around here “the other Monitor,” has an excellent analysis of how President Obama’s executive action case might influence the 2016 presidential race. You may have noted that a federal court sided with a lower court that the president over-reached in his actions that effected about 5 million of the estimated 11 million undocumented folks in the United States.

The CSM notes the timing: “If the Supreme Court opts to hear the case, it would likely issue a decision next June – just as the 2016 presidential race is heading into the home stretch. And the implications for the Latino vote could be big, not only for the top of the ticket but also in key Senate races in states with large Latino populations, such as Nevada, Florida, Colorado, and Illinois.”

Read the story here: Why immigration could be central to 2016 campaign (+video)

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: Barack Obama, deportation, DREAM Act, Dreamers, Executive Orders, immigration, immigration reform, Obama, President Obama

President’s Immigration Action Headed To Supreme Court?

November 10, 2015 By CCM Staff

As reported by Reuters on 11/10/15: “U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks at an Organizing for Action event in Washington November 9, 2015. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas”

In a move that seems likely to bring the U.S. Supreme Court into the legal fray over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans decided 2-1 to uphold a May injunction against the measure. Reuters notes that the decision “… deals a blow to Obama’s plan, opposed by Republicans and challenged by 26 states. The states, all led by Republican governors, said the federal government exceeded its authority in demanding whole categories of immigrants be protected.”

Millions of immigrants are effected by the court decision but “discretion” in law enforcement is expected pending further legal appeals, most likely to the Supreme Court.

New Delays Loom As Court Interpreters Seek New Deal

October 27, 2015 By CCM Staff

Less than 15 percent of U.S. Immigration Court proceedings are conducted entirely in English, meaning that interpreters are vital to getting things done. Now, already facing more than 450,000 cases backlogged for years, the immigration justice system may lose many of those language assets. BuzzFeed News is reporting that “… interpreters across the country are refusing to sign on to a new contract to service U.S. immigration courts, citing what they call unacceptably low pay and poor working conditions.

The background in the report: “Immigration courts are part of the executive branch and administered by the Department of Justice. DoJ uses a combination of 67 staff and 1,650 freelance interpreters to ensure that immigrants facing deportation understand the proceedings against them. In July, the Justice Department switched contractors, awarding a new contract for more than $12 million annually to SOSi, according to a database of federal contracts. The contract can be extended five years for a total of about $58 million.

“The contract was initially slated to kick in on September 21, according to DOJ. However, emails to the interpreters from from Lionbridge, the company that currently holds the contract, state that the switch had been deferred to November. Interpreters around the country refused to agree to SOSi’s terms under the new contract because of low pay and ungenerous travel reimbursement and cancellation policies, according to several interpreters interviewed by BuzzFeed News. Because the interpreters are organizing informally, the precise number refusing to sign on is unclear. However, two interpreters in different regions told BuzzFeed News they were each in direct contact with more than 100 interpreters who had refused. On any given day, there are about 300 contract interpreters working for the immigration courts, according to a spokesperson for the courts. That means that about a third of interpreters could be unavailable once the new contract kicks in.”

Read the in-depth story here: Immigration Courts Could Lose A Third Of Their Interpreters

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: Border Kids, family detention centers, immigration

NY Mayor Predicts Legal Right To Civil Lawyers

October 8, 2015 By CCM Staff

The Wall Street Journal reported (9/29/15) that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio sees “a day not too far away when indigent defendants have a legal right to a lawyer in civil cases.”

He admits that local jurisdictions will need federal help to make it happen, but New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is predicting that he can “see the day” when indigent defendants have a legal right to a lawyer in civil cases. The mayor was speaking at one of a series of hearings led by New York’s chief appeals judge on the topic of civil legal services. His comments illustrate that New York continues to lead the nation in providing civil attorneys for life-changing cases like eviction and child custody disputes.

The Wall Street Journal is among those reporting on the civil Gideon effort, backgrounding that “… in the landmark 1963 case Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court recognized an indigent defendant’s right to an attorney in a criminal trial. But the high court has never extended the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of counsel to civil cases. The story quotes New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who has led the conversation: “We are talking about the necessities, or essentials, of life… we mean the roof over someone’s head, we mean their physical safety, their livelihoods, the well-being of their families, entitlement issues.”

Check out the effort here: New York Mayor Says Right to Counsel in Civil Cases is a Good Idea but Requires Federal Help

Filed Under: Border Kids, National, Profiles, Refugee Children Tagged With: Bill de Blasio, Border Kids, GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT, immigration, INDIGENT DEFENSE, New York City