The assault on immigrant rights has begun. On January 20, President Trump signed an executive order suspending refugee resettlement in the United States. He declared migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border to be a national emergency, issued an order barring asylum for people newly arriving at the Southern border and ended a Biden administration program to deter illegal crossings and direct people toward new pathways, such as securing an appointment with an immigration officer using an app called CBP One.
He also directed the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to make sure sanctuary jurisdictions are not given federal funds. The order also directs his leaders to encourage undocumented immigrants to leave the country and directs the Homeland Security Department to increase partnerships with local law enforcement on immigration enforcement. In addition, he issued an order directing a 60-day study to “identify(ing) countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.” (Adapted from The New York Times)
The Peace Corps Community for Refugees (PCC4Refugees) urges RPCVs to become educated on the legal rights new immigrants and to learn about ways in which they can help new immigrants navigate the new policy environment and advocate on their behalf.
- View the recording of the January 28 webinar “Know Your Rights.” The speakers – Oscar Sarabia, a staff attorney at the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project and Robert A. Remes, a Washington DC-based immigration and nationality lawyer – offered a primer on the legal rights of immigrants, suggested ways you can help immigrants in your communities, and answered questions.
- Register for our February 12 webinar on “Advocating at the State and Local Levels,” which will include an overview of state and local policies affecting new immigrants and feature strategies that work in building support for the desired policies. See Global Refuge’s State and Local Advocacy Toolkit.
- Read the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) information and materials on immigrant rights and share these material with affected immigrants in your community. The information provided is applicable nation-wide except some states do or do not require individuals to identify themselves. There is a chart on these differences in the ACLU materials. Materials are provided in many languages.
- Also see immigrant rights-related information provided by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Immigration Law Center , and the US Department of State. The National Education Association has information for schools and educators and an FAQ on student discrimination.
National policies
Global Refuge produced a list of timely backgrounders and resources.
The Immigration Policy Tracking Project (IPTP) recently announced their tracker for the new administration’s immigration policies. IPTP is a collaborative project between Stanford and Yale Universities headed by Lucas Guttentag, founder of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights project. ACLU’s challenges to policies will be posted on their website. Other organizations have similar litigation trackers for policies that they will challenge (e.g., JAC litigation tracker).
State policies
The term sanctuary city can mean several things. Protections in a given jurisdiction depend on, among other things, state laws offering added protections and agreements with local law enforcement to act as immigration enforcement agents (see also ICE website). These websites will be updated during the new administration, but volunteers can also contact their local ACLU affiliate for more information about their specific jurisdiction.
The new administration is likely to rescind the “Sensitive Locations” memo. This memo, however, never had any binding legal authority and was created/renewed at the discretion of the previous administrations. The ACLU created a FAQ on sanctuary congregations that does not rely on the Sensitive Locations memo. Here is one from FIRM on schools.
Individual representation
There are several databases for finding immigrant organizations and lawyers: AILA, CLINIC, IDN, and DOJ. The costs (whether free or not) will depend on the organization/lawyer (e.g., some charge depending on income level).
As to various immigration statuses, The Washington Post (note: subscription required) provides a good overview of different immigration statuses at the end of the Biden administration, but some of this information is likely to change and be contested in court.
Volunteer involvement
Volunteers should role play with immigrants so that both groups become familiar with the language and the situations. If there are mass raids, volunteers should connect with ACLU affiliates and other local immigrants’ rights organizations preparing for responses. Here are some good toolkits that provide an overview of raid responses and how non-attorneys can plug in: NILC, CLINIC, ILRC.