(Im)migration and Refugee History, Rights & Countering Xenophobia

Arizona voted to grant state and local police the authority to make immigration arrests, going against Supreme Court precedent.

People of various political backgrounds in the US state say they are increasingly feeling like pawns in a political game

The Biden administration plans to immediately invoke an authority to shut off access to asylum for migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, senior officials said Tuesday, a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to address head on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.

President Biden has issued one of the most restrictive immigration policies ever declared under a recent Democratic administration. It will temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, deny asylum to most migrants who do not cross into the U.S. via ports of entry, and limit total asylum requests at the southern border to no more than 2,500 per day. The ACLU has threatened to sue the Biden administration over what reporter John Washington, who covers immigration in Arizona, calls an “excruciating and likely deadly” decision. “An illegal asylum seeker is a contradiction in terms,” Washington continues. “People have the right, according to U.S. law, to ask for asylum irrespective of how they crossed the border or where they are or what their status is. And this rule really flies in the face of that.”

"A powerful argument for separating immigration enforcement from the criminal legal system, by one of the nation's foremost "crimmigration" experts"--

This webinar offers up-to-date information on enforcement mechanisms at the southwest border including the implementation of the new, abbreviated removal process dubbed Circumvention of Lawful Pathways.