Take Care  //  4/9/17  //  Topic Update

A DHS spokesman said that federal immigration agents may arrest crime victims and witnesses at courthouses (WaPo), which the NYPD may help out with despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s contrary assurance (NY Daily News, Daily Mail).

• House Democrats have introduced a bill to ban ICE agents from conducting activity near “sensitive” locations like courthouses (WaPo).
• San Francisco courts are “anything but a safe harbor” for some immigrants (San Francisco Chronicle).
• The deportation system makes it difficult even for lawyers to find their clients (Slate).
• The rise in immigration arrests at state courthouses threatens public safety, writes Joanne Lin (ACLU).
• The New York Times documents how fear of an immigration raid gripped one Massachusetts city.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly chastised California’s Chief Justice for her claim that federal immigration agents were “stalking” local courthouses (NYT, Washington Post).

• Here is the officials’ letter to the chief judge.
• The Department of Justice is seeking a greater role in immigration enforcement (Washington Post).
• Perceived legal risk is preventing California’s sheriffs from fully complying with ICE requests, report Joel Rubin and Paloma Esquivel (LA Times).
• At Volokh Conspiracy, David Post responds to readers’ arguments in an update to a post in which he had proposed rebranding “sanctuary cities” as “constitutional cities.”

A Senate bill introduced this week requiring Customs and Border Patrol to obtain a warrant before searching the digital devices of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents would beneficially constrain CBP, notes Sophia Cope (Electronic Frontier Foundation).s

Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly says it is doubtful that a wall along the full border with Mexico will ever be built (NYT).

• On Just Security, Matthew Wein suggests that empowering DHS and Customs and Border Protection to enter into more trusted traveler and trade agreements would help secure the borders.
• Sarah Wildman profiles a United States Senator who wanted to “build a wall” before President Trump (Vox).
• A likely future of reduced immigration from Mexico makes the current debate about building a border wall “at least a decade out of date,” argues John Cassidy (New Yorker).

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents will make unannounced visits to companies with a high ratio of workers on H-1B visas (WaPo).

• As the application period for this year’s H-1B lottery begins, changes to the program so far are only cosmetic (NYT).
• DOJ has issued a warning to employers that they should not use H-1B visas to discriminate against U.S.-based workers (Ars Technica). Here is DOJ's press release.
• H-1B visa applications are surging as the future of immigration policy remains unclear (NYT, WSJ).
• Despite promises to the contrary, President Trump has done nothing to reform the H-1B visa program, notes Issie Lapowsky (Wired).

House Democrats have sent a letter asking the Trump Administration to remind schools that they have a legal obligation to educate undocumented children (WaPo).

• Here is the letter.

The fate of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration program is uncertain, explains Leah Litman on Take Care.

• A DACA designee arrested in an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid last week tells his story (ACLU).

Offering driver licenses to undocumented immigrants may makes roads safer, contrary to President Trump’s claims that accommodating such individuals threatens public safety (NPR).

California Democrats are debating over whether the fight President Trump’s immigration policies through forceful opposition or through measured diplomacy (NYT).

Following Trump Administration policies and reports, funds that provide lawyers to indigent deportation defendants are debating whether to assist undocumented migrants with violent criminal pasts  (The Intercept).

According to a new report, a dearth of government-funded legal assistance is making it difficult for otherwise-eligible immigrants to remain in the United States (Washington Post).

Scholars argue that immigration reform legislation passed in 1996 “paved the way” for President Trump’s deportation policy (Salon).

Fear is causing immigrants near the U.S. border to spread unsubstantiated warnings about immigration enforcement, according to Domingo Martinez (NYT).

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