#u.s. immigration

[alwaysbewoke]

[kenyatta]

Harini, who is from the west Indian city of Pune, is one of roughly 600,000 workers hired in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, a “non-immigrant work visa” that allows people in certain professions to stay and work in the country. The visa is linked to their employer; if their employment ends, workers have only 60 days to find a new job to retain their visa status, or leave the country. Indians form the majority of H-1B visa recipients in the U.S. In the 2021 financial year, more than 300,000 Indians had an H-1B petition approved, either for new or continued employment, accounting for almost 75% of the total number of H-1B visas approved that year.

While finding a new tech job in the U.S. is often a scramble, it is particularly difficult now. Following a Silicon Valley hiring boom during the pandemic, a surge of layoffs in recent months has devastated the tech industry. That means many people are fighting for the same positions. According to Layoffs.fyi, a website that has been tracking reported layoffs since the early days of the pandemic, more than 180,000 tech workers have been laid off globally since November. That month, Elon Musk announced that he planned to cut Twitter’s 7,500-person workforce. Some days later, Meta announced 11,000 job cuts. In January, Microsoft said it planned to let go of 10,000 employees. Two days later, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, announced that it was laying off 12,000.

[...]

For Indians on H-1B visas, in particular, there is almost no alternative way to stay on in the U.S. Their estimated wait time for most employment-based green cards — which would allow them to stay in the country for longer — is about 90 years. That’s partly because the number of green cards available through employment — around 140,000 a year — is capped at 7% for each country. The number of Indians on H-1B visas is much higher than the number of employment-based green cards allotted for their nationality, creating a massive backlog. According to Grode, many laid-off H-1B visa holders from other countries may be able simply to transfer to a visitor status and wait for a green card, but that isn’t an option for most Indians.

Rest of World spoke to 10 people on H-1B visas — who had been laid off from companies including Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft, and smaller startups in the past few months — to follow their journeys as they raced against the 60-day countdown.

[firstoccupier]

The Expanding Landscape of Detention: A Look at the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center

In a marvelous twist of bureaucratic verbosity, a memorandum has emerged from the depths of policy-making obscurity, heralding the expansion of the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity. One can almost hear the distant echoes of “national sovereignty” and “border invasion” reverberating through the halls of power as the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary…

[minnesotafollower]

Immigrants Dominate U.S. Population Growth

For Fiscal 2024, ending June 30, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that  the U.S. population grew by about 1% to 340.1 million, which was  the fastest growth since 2001. This includes 2.7 million net arrivals of immigrants. This was fueled by a surge in legal and illegal arrivals, a falling birthrate and a death rate propped up by an aging population.”[1] This net arrival figure is after the…

[acquestadvisors]

In light of the changing U.S. immigration policy, many are concerned about the future of work visas, specifically the H-1B Visa program and L-1 Visa. Trump’s previous administration introduced significant changes to immigration policies aimed at protecting American jobs, which included stricter requirements and higher denial rates for H-1B and L-1 visas. The H-1B Visa Impact was substantial, affecting thousands of professionals, especially in the tech industry. For companies using the L-1 Visa to transfer employees to U.S. offices, the added scrutiny and tightened eligibility created numerous challenges.

As Trump’s potential return raises questions about the future of these programs, some individuals are exploring the EB-5 investor visa as an alternative route to U.S. residency. The EB-5 Visa program allows foreign nationals to gain permanent residency by investing in projects that generate U.S. jobs, aligning well with Trump’s focus on job creation and economic growth. With EB-5 currently authorized until 2027, it offers a stable pathway to residency amidst uncertain changes in H-1B and L-1 visa policies. For those able to invest, the EB-5 investor visa may be a viable alternative in an evolving U.S. immigration landscape.

[unicornbeck]

Headline: Biden extends legal protections to undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens

The story is not that the president granted protections to these people. The story is that they didn’t already have them, y’all.

[princessag-tv]

Simon Guobadia's Citizenship Journey: A Story of Identity Theft, Fraud, and the Search for the American Dream. Will this be a Storyline for Porsha Williams?

A Story of Identity Theft, Fraud, and the Search for the American Dream Immigration legislation is complicated, as demonstrated by Simon Guobadia’s attempt to get US citizenship through deception and adopting multiple identities. The difficulties of seeking atonement and a new life are highlighted by his recent rejection in court. In a plot twist that sounds like it could have been taken…

[yodasec-expose-news]

Large numbers from the Middle East, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, flying directly into Tijuana airports heading to America.

Large numbers from the Middle East, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, flying directly into Tijuana airports heading to America

While U.S. immigration authorities carried out 2.38 million migrant encounters (a term encompassing apprehensions and expulsions) at the southwest border in FY 2022, the statistic includes significant numbers of migrants who attempted to enter the United States multiple times without authorization[5]. This recidivism has been partially incentivized by the general lack of consequences that is the…

[thosemotivationalquotes]

List of cities in the U.S. that are suspected to have ICE raids in the next week

Chicago

Los Angeles

Denver

New York

Miami

Boston

Washington DC

San Antonio

Dallas

Phoenix

Seattle

Detroit

Newark

That being said, make sure to know and exercise your rights. This post outlines what is needed to detain someone, and what to do if you are detained by ICE.

Raids are suspected to continue in large metropolitan cities, with a focus on cities that are considered ‘sanctuary cities’, I will update the list if more places are suspected to be raided. Stay safe everyone

ACLU guide to immigrant rights

[biglisbonnews]

Where are Immigrant Founders of U.S. Unicorns From? The majority of billion-dollar startups in the U.S. have at least one immigrant founder. Here is where those founders are from. The post Where are Immigrant Founders of U.S. Unicorns From? appeared first on Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/immigrant-founders-us-billion-dollar-companies/

[fiercynn]

okay, if you have ever made or reblogged a “hold your nose and vote for biden” post, this is for you.

here’s the fucking thing about these kinds of posts. i've been seeing them since i first returned to tumblr in, I think, late 2022? they've certainly increased in frequency since october 7, but they were there before too, ready to counter any kind of opposition to biden that has cropped up. many of them are not just trying to educate people about what positive things biden has done, which, like, at least I can understand the motivation behind those ones? but so many of them are directly in response to people criticizing biden, and their only real point is “sure you’re upset at this thing biden did, but have you considered the election?” starting YEARS before the next presidential election, mind you.

and october 7 only made that clearer. i don’t think it had been a week before i saw these posts cropping up. can you not see how fucking ghoulish that is? to look at the rightful pain and anger of those whose relatives and communities are being slaughtered with active american support, to respond to one of the few pieces of agency most americans have in influencing what their governments do – their vote – by saying “yes but trump would be worse.” as if the primary people you’re lecturing – palestinians, muslims, arabs, black people, indigenous people, disabled people, other marginalized people – don’t remember exactly how bad it was under trump!

and even if you think not voting is an empty gesture – something i, who studied political science at a mainstream american lib college, who has worked as a field organizer on a previous democratic presidential campaign and for several policy campaigns, who currently works in public policy in america, used to believe, but have absolutely changed my mind on – what is in no way an empty gesture is saying publicly that you will not vote for someone. the arguments people usually have about why simply not voting is bad are that you can’t tell why someone is not voting, so it is as likely to be apathy or disenfranchisement as it is a political statement. but saying publicly that you will not vote for someone, and why you will not vote for them, absolutely is a political statement, and potentially a powerful one! but you choose to negate and/or ignore that by trotting out the “lesser of two evils” bullshit.

and then there’s the whole “yes but people will DIE under trump”. PEOPLE ARE DYING NOW. even if you’re fucking racist and have decided that palestinian lives don’t count, have you forgotten biden’s ongoing covid minimalism and dismantling of the CDC’s covid research and prevention infrastructure? have you forgotten his increase in spending for law enforcement scant years after the murder of george floyd and his administration's surveillance of protesters, including cop city protesters? have you forgotten his recent ramp-up in deportations of undocumented immigrants, including the active continuation of many trump-era policies?

maybe you have forgotten all those things and do purport to care about palestinians, but you just think that biden is doing his best to influence netanyahu and is getting nowhere! but then you must have forgotten all of the things that biden and his administration themselves have done to further this fucking genocide, including:

continuing to send arms to israel

putting together a military task force within days of yemen’s red sea blockade and attacking yemeni ships

bombing yemen

bombing syria

bombing iraq

vetoing three ceasefire resolutions at the united nations

testifying to defend israel and its genocide and occupation at the international court of justice

refusing to rescue palestinian-americans stuck in gaza

halting funding to the united nations relief and works agency for palestinian refugees (UNRWA) based on israeli claims that 12 of UNRWA’s over 30,000 staff were hamas agents, even though u.s. intelligence has not been able to independently verify this

lying that he’s personally seen photos of babies beheaded by hamas when he hadn’t because they didn’t exist (and even when his own staff cautioned him that reports of beheaded babies may not be credible)

questioning the number of palestinian deaths reported by the gaza ministry of health (when even israel has not questioned them, since they are in fact proud of those numbers)

perpetuating lies about hamas having committed the attack on al-aqsa hospital

questioning united nations reports of adults and children raped by israeli soldiers while claiming to have proof (that no one else has seen) of hamas doing the same

honestly so many more things that i can’t remember them all but others feel free to add

or maybe you haven’t forgotten any of that, and think that you’re still justified in lecturing people about why they should vote for biden, because you genuinely believe trump would still be worse. if that is the case, you have still failed to see that by saying you will vote for biden no matter what, you are part of the problem of biden continuing to act like this. because biden is counting on fear of trump to win him this next election no matter what else he does. despite his appalling polling numbers, despite the knowledge that he is losing the palestinian-american vote, the arab-american vote, the muslim-american vote, the black american vote, the youth vote – despite all of that, he is secure in the idea that he will still win because he is better than trump. can you not see how that allows him to act without impunity? how it becomes increasingly impossible for his base to influence what he’s doing if he thinks that they will be with him no matter what? this is how you make yourself complicit to biden’s actions, by not affording anyone even the slightest power to hold him accountable for anything.

and in most cases, the “hold your nose and vote for biden” thing is the response of people who aren’t even being instructed by others not to vote for biden. it is their response to people saying they themselves are choosing not to vote for biden. fucking ghoulish.

[milk-lover]

Dying at this typo on an immigration form my sister is filling out

[princesssarcastia]

this is actually the issue i'm most preoccupied with vis a vis trump's despotism. these are all great questions—i don't have the answers to all of them (some of these are like, investigative journalism questions, someone get propublica on the line) but some of them i can answer.

"how the actual fuck did they get to the point where they were ON A PLANE" well, as it turns out, ICE owns and operates its own planes to carry out the second-to-last and last stages of deportation from the u.s. so theoretically, it's within their physical power to put someone on a plane and ship them out of the country, regardless of the legality of that action.

"what judges are signing these warrants" immigration courts and judges are separate from other criminal and civil courts and judges. an immigration judge is different from a regular judge, at least by virtue of existing within a separate system. SOMETIMES they do have a real boy criminal warrant signed by an actual judge. but...

"if they were ever even given a warrant at all" / "what is listed ON the warrants" oftentimes, ICE agents don't have a judicial warrant, the kind you think of when someone's making an arrest in a police or legal procedural, signed by a judge that I as a white u.s. citizen would be subject to. instead, what they typically have is an administrative warrant, which are ICE or DHS writing itself a hall pass to go kidnap this person they claim is in the u.s. illegally. they ARE legally allowed to write themselves administrative warrants. BUT. those warrants typically don't give ICE the power to search someone's home. they're categorized as civil documents, not criminal ones.

of course, ICE is the fucking worst, so they use treachery and take advantage of:

being armed

looking like regular cops

your automatic desire to follow social scripts like answering to your name, letting people who want to talk to you inside your home

your lack of understanding of your legal rights

to get inside places they have no fucking business being. they will apparently literally pretend to be local cops on a separate investigation sometimes to get you to invite them in. like fucking vampires. it seems like once they have you in their literal sights and have confirmed your identity (asked you if you're so-and-so) they are legally allowed to just kidnap you, but there's technically a ton of legal barriers before they can lay eyes on you that they like to ignore or otherwise shadily circumvent.

"are they shoving them onto planes without trials" our immigration courts and system are famously, notoriously backlogged, because theoretically a lot of people who are detained are supposed to go before an immigration judge or asylum officer—that technically includes everyone detained who has been in the u.s. for longer than two years.

under specific but unfortunately ever-expanding circumstances, immigrants to the u.s. can be subject to something called expedited removal. this is where you're probably getting literal actual u.s. citizens deported. because an immigration official can, crazily, apparently, decide a person falls under expedited removal, order them detained, and order them deported, and then literally have them deported, all without going before even an immigration judge.

it's actually fucking crazy how this works (same source as above paragraph):

"Once an immigration officer determines that a noncitizen is subject to expedited removal, they are ordered removed. Unlike other removal orders, an expedited removal order cannot normally be appealed, and carries a five-year bar to reentry in most circumstances."

more insanity:

"There are few checks on the authority of immigration officers to place noncitizens in expedited removal proceedings. In essence, the law permits the immigration officer to serve both as prosecutor (charged with enforcing the law) and judge (rendering a final decision on the case). Generally, the entire process consists of an interview with the inspecting officer, so there is little or no opportunity to consult with an attorney or to gather any evidence that might prevent deportation."

It's unclear to me if this is still in effect, but for a couple years under Biden, people subject to expedited removal included everyone who's been in the country for less than two years. Aside from that mightily broad application, the previous criteria for falling under expedited removal were:

People who get to a port of entry without entry documents

People who try to get through a port of entry through fraud or misrepresentation

People who come by the sea without inspection and have been in the u.s. for fewer than two years

People who cross the land border without insepction, AND are arrested within two weeks of crossing AND within 100 miles of the u.s. border.

But also...the appeal process for, "i've been put under expedites removal and I shouldn't have been!" seems very opaque and very fast, i.e. blink and you miss it.

"why are people being deported without verification" this one, I can't answer. but i can sure as hell guess.

tl;dr ICE sucks so fucking bad and they have so much leeway to just kidnap people and ship them somewhere else. and they're willing to lie and break the law to do it. and we let them.

so. I've been thinking. according to the Government Accountability Office, an actual government agency, ICE continually detained, arrested, and even deported actual US citizens. this report was published in 2021 (you can look it up, formatting a hyperlink on mobile is a bitch), and from recent reports, they are still continuing to do so, and their record keeping was so poor in 2021 when the report was initially published, the GAO had no way of verifying actual numbers.

I've been seeing reports going around that they have been arresting citizens again, but none of those reports I've seen are asking the questions. what are their "investigation" methods. why do they keep arresting US citizens. what evidence do they provide to judges for their warrants. which judges are signing these warrants. what is listed ON the warrants. why are people being deported without basic verification. are they shoving them on planes without trials. as far as the report in 2021 says, they successfully deported 70 "potential" citizens we know of. how the fuck did they manage to do that. even if they weren't an actual citizen, if they were even a potential one, as in there was a possibility they were a fully naturalized or even birthright citizen, not someone that could potentially become naturalized, how the actual fuck did they get to the point where they were ON A PLANE without that suspicion cleared.

like. there were numerous steps here. and I would like to know how we got there. starting with the warrants being issued and what evidence they were providing that backed up said warrants. or if they were ever even given a warrant at all.

[minnesotafollower]

Analysis of Recent U.S.Immigration Surge        

A New York Times columnist, David Leonhardt, has provided an analysis of the recent surge in U.S. immigration. Here are the seven highlights of that analysis.[1] “1. The immigration surge since 2021 has been the largest in U.S. history, surpassing even the levels of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Total net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — will…

[rewwwwww]

useful map of ICE sightings and raids

mapa útil de avistamientos y incursiónes de la migra

https://juntosseguros.com/

[saywhat-politics]

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US would sell a “gold card” to wealthy foreigners, giving them the right to live and work in the US and offering a path to citizenship in exchange for a $5 million fee.

“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “You have a green card. This is a gold card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card.”

Trump said the sale of the cards will begin in about two weeks and suggested millions of such cards could be sold.

Asked whether he would consider selling the cards to Russian oligarchs, Trump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, standing alongside Trump, said the card will replace the government’s EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors to pump money into US projects that create jobs and then apply for visas to immigrate to the US.

“They’ll have to go through vetting, of course,” Lutnick said, “to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens.”

Created by Congress in 1992, the EB-5 program can grant green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of least $1,050,000, or $800,000 in economically distressed zones called targeted employment areas, to create jobs for American workers, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services website.