https://apnews.com/article/governme...-immigration-d7369e9a81c14e02bcb1981459a6eae6 US closes Trump-era office for victims of immigrant crime SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday it has dismantled a Trump-era government office to help victims of crimes committed by immigrants, a move that symbolizes President Joe Biden’s rejection of former President Donald Trump’s repeated efforts to link immigrants to crime. VOICE will be replaced by The Victims Engagement and Services Line, which will combine longstanding existing services, such as methods for people to report abuse and mistreatment in immigration detention centers and a notification system for lawyers and others with a vested interest in immigration cases.
We'll see. Trump judges aren't as stupid as the trumptards we encounter daily on internet forums. Hopefully they didn't sell their souls to the clown; but only pretended to in order to be appointed.
In honesty, the reason why Biden was overruled is amateur hour on Biden's part (30 day public notice). They learned that the hard way during Obama's attempt at EO'ing DAPA. So partly I almost think Biden's team did it with the knowledge they'd be stopped to satisfy donors. It's just impossible for me to believe they'd keep making this same technicality mistake.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/us/politics/biden-asylum-migrants.html U.S. to Allow Some Asylum Seekers Rejected Under Trump to Reopen Cases The move could provide tens of thousands of people enrolled in a program that sent applicants to wait in Mexico a way to return to the United States to pursue their claims again. WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is broadening the pool of migrants who will be allowed to enter the United States to make asylum claims, in the latest effort to chip away at the restrictive immigration policies put in place under President Donald J. Trump. The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that on Wednesday it would start considering migrants whose cases were terminated under a Trump-era program that gave border officials the authority to send asylum seekers back to Mexico to wait for their cases to make it through the clogged American immigration system. The change could affect tens of thousands of people. President Biden had already ended the program, known officially as the Migrant Protection Protocols. His administration this month started bringing in migrants enrolled in the program who had pending asylum cases.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article252294083.html ‘Innocent mistakes’ will no longer cost immigrants their green cards or visas Immigration authorities in the United States have rescinded one of the policies implemented by the Trump administration that had one of the most profound negative impacts on legal immigrants with pending or upcoming applications. The 2018 policy had granted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) adjudicators broader authority to issue case denials over mistakes or missing documents without giving applicants the opportunity to fix them and provide additional documentation. It “resulted in USCIS denying certain benefit requestors an immigration benefit even though they would have demonstrated their eligibility if given the chance to provide additional evidence,” the Department of Homeland Security agency said in a policy alert issued earlier this month. The rescinded guidance affected almost all immigration applications, petitions and requests, including U.S. citizenship, permanent residence or green cards and visas. Even with a green card, an immigrant could be denied U.S. citizenship for these reasons Traditionally, when applicants don’t submit enough evidence to support their benefit petitions or make innocent mistakes, USCIS adjudicators have issued courtesy warnings known as Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID). These notices gave immigrants and their attorneys the opportunity to intervene before a decision was made — avoiding case denials. For some visa holders applying for renewal, a denial could mean being placed in deportation proceedings the moment their visas expired. But during the Trump presidency, USCIS made a policy change that granted adjudicators full discretion to deny applications without first issuing an RFE or a NOID, when appropriate. Now, USCIS is returning to the adjudicative principles of a 2013 memo that instructed agency officers to issue an RFE or NOID when additional evidence could help immigrants receive an immigration benefit. “This updated policy will ensure that benefit requestors are given an opportunity to correct innocent mistakes and unintentional omissions,” USCIS said in a news release. “In general, a USCIS officer will issue an RFE or NOID when the officer determines additional information or explanation may potentially establish eligibility for an immigration benefit,” the agency added. According to the policy alert, the improved guidance: ▪ Explains that an officer should generally issue an RFE or NOID if the officer determines there is a possibility the benefit requestor can overcome a finding of ineligibility for the benefit sought by submitting additional evidence. ▪ Emphasizes that officers should not issue unnecessary RFEs and NOIDs, such as in cases where the officer determines the evidence already submitted establishes eligibility or ineligibility for the benefit sought.
In fairness, Obama deported plenty veterans trying to kowtow to calls for enforcement by the repugs: Biden administration formally launches effort to return deported veterans to U.S. https://www.washingtonpost.com/immi...57285e-db63-11eb-9bbb-37c30dcf9363_story.html The Biden administration unveiled plans Friday to bring hundreds, possibly thousands, of deported veterans and their immediate family members back to the United States, saying their removal “failed to live up to our highest values.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas ordered his department’s immigration agencies to “immediately” take steps to ensure that military families may return to the United States. He said the department would also halt pending deportation proceedings against veterans or their immediate relatives who are in the United States, and clear the way for those who are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. “The Department of Homeland Security recognizes the profound commitment and sacrifice that service members and their families have made to the United States of America,” Mayorkas said in a statement Friday. “We are committed to bringing back military service members, veterans, and their immediate family members who were unjustly removed and ensuring they receive the benefits to which they may be entitled.” President Biden had promised on the campaign trail to direct DHS during his first 100 days in office to stop targeting veterans and their families for deportation and to create a process for veterans deported by the Trump administration to return to the United States. Veterans advocates have expressed concern in recent weeks that few veterans or their relatives have returned, while others remained in deportation proceedings. Many deported veterans also say they have been unable to access benefits such as health care from overseas. In a memo Friday, the heads of DHS’s immigration agencies said they will review policies to ensure that military veterans and their relatives are “welcome to remain in or return to the United States.” Officials said they would also work with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department to ensure that veterans can access their health benefits, including coronavirus vaccinations, and that recruits can take the oath of citizenship, including while at basic training. DHS will establish a “Military Resource Center” online with a toll-free number and email address to help families with their immigration applications. “It’s our responsibility to serve all veterans as well as they have served us — no matter who they are, where they are from, or the status of their citizenship,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “Keeping that promise means ensuring that noncitizen service members, veterans, and their families are guaranteed a place in the country they swore an oath — and in many cases fought — to defend.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported veterans for decades, including when Biden was vice president. The precise number of deportees is unclear because the government failed to screen veterans before deporting them, a 2019 Government Accountability Office report found. Advocacy organizations estimate the government deported hundreds of veterans and thousands of their relatives. Typically veterans were deported because they were convicted of crimes. Veterans advocates have said that many fell into trouble because of post-traumatic stress disorder related to their military service. But many of their relatives had no criminal records, such as the mother of an Air Force staff sergeant who returned last month.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...n-andrew-saul-fired-white-house-b1881912.html Biden fires Trump-appointed Social Security chief whose benefits and union policies infuriated Democrats Andrew Saul challenges legality of his removal as advocacy groups praise his dismissal after ‘despicable mission’ under ex-president Joe Biden has fired the Donald Trump-appointed chief of the Social Security Administration, an independent agency where his role was set to expire through January 2025. The president has named Kilolo Kijakazi, the current deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy, to serve as acting commissioner, to replace Andrew Saul. However, in an interview with The Washington Post, Mr Saul challenged the legality of administration’s move to oust him from the agency. Although the position was a holdover from the Trump administration carrying a six-year term, Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups for disabled and elderly people have urged the president to fire Mr Saul for his anti-union position and after accusations that he delayed coronavirus stimulus cheques and sought to delay disability benefits. A White House official told Politico that Mr Saul “has undermined and politicised Social Security disability benefits, terminated the agency’s telework policy that was utilised by up to 25 per cent of the agency’s workforce” and has not repaired the agency’s “relationships with relevant federal employee unions including in the context of Covid-19 workplace safety planning”. He also “reduced due process protections for benefits appeals hearings, and taken other actions that run contrary to the mission of the agency and the president’s policy agenda”, according to the administration official speaking to Politico. “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” said Democratic US Rep Bill Pascrell, who joined lawmakers pressing the president for Mr Saul’s removal. In a letter to the White House in March, Rep Pascrell – who also chairs the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight and is a member of the Subcommittee on Social Security – accused Mr Saul and deputy commissioner David Black of a “stunning streak of disregard, callousness, and destruction of the agency”. The White House has pointed to a recent ruling at the US Supreme Court and guidance from the US Department of Justice that authorises Mr Saul’s removal. Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, which advocates for the programme and other federal safety nets for at-risk Americans, praised the president’s move to boot Mr Saul, who helped carry out a “despicable mission” under Mr Trump that “includes waging a war on people with disabilities, demoralising the agency’s workforce, and delaying President Biden’s stimulus cheques”.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litig...-power-postpone-deportation-cases-2021-07-15/ AG revives immigration judges' power to postpone deportation cases Postponing is an appropriate way to manage dockets - AG Ruling overturns a 2018 opinion rejected by appeals courts (Reuters) - Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a ruling on Thursday restoring the ability of immigration judges to postpone deportation cases while awaiting rulings in related proceedings, which had been eliminated by Trump-era AG Jeff Sessions. Garland in a four-page opinion said Sessions' 2018 ruling in Matter of Castro-Tum, which has been rejected by three federal appeals courts, improperly parted from decades of practice by concluding that no federal law or regulation authorized so-called "administrative closure." Garland said that because administrative closure does not terminate or dismiss deportation cases, it is an appropriate tool for immigration judges to manage their busy dockets. "It also has served to facilitate the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, allowing government counsel to request that certain low-priority cases be removed from immigration judges’ active calendars ... thereby allowing adjudicators to focus on higher-priority cases," Garland wrote. The decision came in the case of a Mexican national whose 2018 motion to administratively close his deportation case so he could seek an unlawful presence waiver was denied in light of Castro-Tum. Garland reversed that decision and remanded the case for further proceedings. The Immigration and Nationality Act permits judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals to "take any action ... that is appropriate and necessary for the disposition of (deportation) cases." Immigration judges have relied on that authority to administratively close cases since at least the 1980s. It is used, for example, when a respondent in a deportation case has a pending visa petition, or non-citizens facing deportation on criminal grounds are pursuing appeals of their convictions. In December, the U.S. Department of Justice finalized a rule designed to codify Castro-Tum by explicitly prohibiting administrative closure. A San Francisco federal judge in March issued a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the rule, saying DOJ had not followed the proper administrative procedures in adopting it. In Thursday's decision, Garland said the injunction provided further grounds to overturn Castro-Tum pending DOJ's reconsideration of the December rule. Moving forward, Garland wrote, immigration judges and the BIA should use the standard adopted in the 2012 case Matter of Avetisyan to decide whether administrative closure is appropriate. That Obama-era decision requires judges to consider the likelihood that a respondent will succeed in immigration proceedings and the anticipated duration of the closure, among other factors.