Immigration

New data from the US Census Bureau: According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s national and state population estimates released today, forty-two states and the District of Columbia had fewer births in 2019 than 2018, while eight states saw a birth increase. With fewer births in recent years and the number of deaths increasing, natural increase (or births minus deaths) has …

The New York Times reports that Trump officials remain vague about fulfilling his oft-repeated promise to complete 450 miles of new wall by 2021: The administration has thus far built only 93 miles of the new wall, nearly all of it on federal land where dilapidated barriers existed or vehicle barriers once stood, according to Customs and Border Protection. The …

The Hill reports: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a top Democratic presidential candidate, criticized the Trump administration and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a Christmas day tweet over the “cruel treatment” of migrants. Warren referenced in her tweet the death of Felipe Gómez Alonzo, an 8-year-old migrant who died on Christmas Eve last year. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) …

USA Today reports: The use of private prisons to detain immigrants is not new, but the business has exploded under Trump. At least 24 immigration detention centers and more than 17,000 beds were added in the past three years to the sprawling detention system run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A USA TODAY Network investigation found that the …

The Bangor Daily News reports: Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) announced Tuesday that he will split his votes on the House’s articles of impeachment against President Trump, voting for the abuse of power article but against obstruction of Congress, according to the Bangor Daily News. Golden, who voted in favor of the impeachment inquiry, has been under fire from state Republicans …

CNN reports: In an interview with CNN’s John Berman on “New Day,” Schumer blasted McConnell for coordinating with the White House ahead of the trial. “For him to talk to the President is one thing. For him to say, ‘I’m going to do just what the President wants,’ is totally out of line,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat. “As …

The Washington Post reports: A federal judge in El Paso on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s plan to pay for border barrier construction with $3.6 billion in military funds, ruling that the administration does not have the authority to divert money appropriated by Congress for a different purpose. The Trump administration was planning to use those funds to build 175 …

ProPublica reports: Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant, was seriously ill when immigration agents put him in a small South Texas holding cell with another sick boy on the afternoon of May 19. A few hours earlier, a nurse practitioner at the Border Patrol’s dangerously overcrowded processing center in McAllen had diagnosed him with the flu and measured …

The Washington Post reports: As influenza spread through migrant detention facilities last winter, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that U.S. Customs and Border Protection vaccinate detained migrants against the virus, a push that CBP rejected, according to a newly released letter to Congress. The CDC recommendation was revealed in a letter from the agency to Rep. Rosa …

The New York Times reports: Kurt D. Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine, plans to tell lawmakers on Tuesday that he was out of the loop at key moments during President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine to turn up damaging information about Democrats, according to an account of his prepared testimony. As the House Intelligence Committee opens its second …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration on Friday proposed hiking a range of fees assessed on those pursuing legal immigration and citizenship, as well as for the first time charging those fleeing persecution for seeking protection in the United States. The rule, which will be published on Thursday and will have a monthlong comment period, would increase citizenship …

The New York Times reports: A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a policy that would require immigrants to prove they have insurance or the financial resources for medical costs in order to obtain a visa. The ruling, by Judge Michael Simon of the Federal District Court in Portland, Ore., was the latest in a string …

Politico reports: After years of touting the impenetrability of a border wall, President Donald Trump said Saturday that “you can cut through any wall” as reports surfaced of smugglers sawing through newly erected barriers with readily available power tools. “We have a very powerful wall. But no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything, in all fairness. But we …

The Hill reports: Senate Republicans are taking the House impeachment proceedings against President Trump more seriously as damaging revelations against the president mount and the possibility of a quick dismissal of the charges shrinks. Earlier this year, GOP senators pledged to quickly quash any articles of impeachment passed by the House. But as the Democrats compile more evidence that Trump …

NBC News reports: The White House is strongly considering Chad Wolf, the acting undersecretary for strategy at the Department of Homeland Security and former chief of staff to then-Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, to head DHS, according to four current and former department officials familiar with deliberations on the matter. Wolf is not considered as hard-line on immigration as two other names …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration is planning to collect DNA samples from asylum-seekers and other migrants detained by immigration officials and will add the information to a massive FBI database used by law enforcement hunting for criminals, a Justice Department official said. The Justice Department will publish an amended regulation Monday that would mandate DNA collection for almost …

CBS News reports: A federal judge on Friday blocked a sweeping regulation that would’ve made it easier for the Trump administration to reject green card and visa applications filed by low-income immigrants whom the government determines are or might become a burden on U.S. taxpayers. Judge George Daniels of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan issued a preliminary nationwide injunction …

From the climbing aficionado site Rock & Ice: Many in the climbing community were amused a couple weeks ago when our POTUS held a press conference at a section of his latest border wall design—a series of parallel square steel posts with a 5-foot-high plate at the top. “Impossible to climb,” he stated. He boasted that “the federal government tested …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is moving to begin collecting DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of people booked into federal immigration custody each year for entry into a national criminal database, an immense expansion of the use of technology to enforce the nation’s immigration laws. Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that …

CNBC reports: Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a filing to the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the company disagrees with President Trump’s decision to terminate DACA, the Obama-era program that shields some immigrants without documentation from being deported. ″We are distressed at the prospect of ripping our DACA colleagues from the fabric of our company,” Cook and HR head …