The Dallas Express explains vetting deficiencies for Afghan nationals coming to the U.S. during Operation Allies Welcome after evacuating Afghanistan in 2021. Read the article here.
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An interview with the Brennan Center’s Margy O’Herron describes troubling issues with the current immigration system including the firing of 14% of the career immigration judges, the increased price to appeal an immigration case, SCOTUS allowing profiling, lack of due process and diverting cases to expedited removals.
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USAFacts provides this overview of how long it takes to become a US citizen based on different visa categories.
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Here’s a 15-minute video about immigration by Jeff Ballmer, ex-Microsoft executive.
It keys off 2022 data – so a bit dated – but conceptually accurate.
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During his keynote address at a recent gala to raise money for Immigration Law and Justice of New York, Austin Kocher (a professor at Syracuse University) cites these 7 key statistics which tell the story of US immigration currently:
- 325,000 – the number of pending immigration and asylum cases in NYC
- 15 – the number of times you’re more likely to stay in the country legally if you are represented by an attorney than if you are not represented by an attorney
- 100,000 – the number of immigrants with pending cases that do not have representation
- 80% – the current denial rate for asylum cases (at the start of 2025, the denial rate was 45-50%)
- 45% – the portion of ICE arrests in June that involved immigrants without any criminal history
- 36% – the percent of the people arrested by ICE that are now in ICE detention that have no criminal history. If we include people who are arrested at the border by Customs and Border Protection, 50% of all detainees being held in detention have no criminal history
- 7,500 – the target number of refugees the US will resettle during 2026 (down from a high in recent years of 100,000).
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Austin Kocher writes about a new report (by Human Rights Watch and Cristosal) which confirms torture of Venezuelans who were immigrants in the U.S. until they were sent to CECOT.
Read the full report here
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This article celebrates the various projects that Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante has achieved which facilitate support and inclusivity for immigrants there.
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This article describes a potential loophole in the Nlets database which allows data sharing with ICE. Source: NextGov.com
Here’s more information about Nlets (Int’l Justice and Public Safety Network) a nonprofit created for data sharing across local, state, and federal law enforcement and public safety agencies.
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The National Immigration Forum has provided this explainer for the new $100,000 fee for new applications for H1B visas. In general, the fee applies to applicants living outside of the US and does not apply to re-newals. This explainer provides clarification on Project Firewall from the U.S. Department of Labor which is meant to protect high-skilled American workers.
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National Immigration Forum provides this explainer for the H-!B proposed rule which replaces the lottery system with the weighted selection lottery. This would give a higher weight (and probability of selection) to jobs that pay more.
Immigration Insight 