Updates | The Week of July 31, 2017
Eve Levin // 8/6/17 //
In a phone call in January with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, President Trump asked Peña Nieto to stop refuting claims that Mexico would pay for the wall, explaining that while the wall was not an important economic issue it did matter “psychologically” (WaPo, NYT, LA Times, CNN).
- The full transcript of the call (and another call with the Prime Minister of Australia) can be found here.
- Violating norms of confidentiality could have lasting repercussions on American democracy, warns David Frum at the Atlantic.
- Paul Rosenzweig also condemns the leaks at Lawfare.
- President Trump also pressued Australian Prime Minister Turnbull about refugees Australia turned away (NYT).
President Trump announced his support for the RAISE Act, which would reduce the number of legal immigrants admitted to the United States each year and base admission preferences on skills and employability (NYT, WaPo, LA Times).
- Stephen Miller, a political advisor to President Trump, struggled with reporters during a press briefing on the legislation (NYT, Politico Magazine).
- Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute has little faith in the plan, and asserts that Stephen Miller’s defense of it relies on faulty economics.
- David Bier at the Cato Institute casts doubt on the claim that the RAISE Act would “restore legal immigration levels to their historical norms,” and highlights several of the bill’s “bizarre details.”
The immigration courts are increasingly backlogged due to the Trump administration’s decision to end prosecutorial discretion, argues Kevin R. Johnson at ImmigrationProf Blog.
Controversial ex-Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio has been convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to stop detaining people he suspected were undocumented (WaPo).
Prosecutors face subjecting undocumented people they charge with minor crimes to near-certain deportation (NYT).
ICE has moved from targeted arrests to a scattershot, arrest-any-suspect approach (San Jose Mercury News).
The Second Circuit dismissed the claims of a U.S. citizen wrongfully detained by ICE for over three years (NPR, ImmigrationProf Blog).
President Trump’s immigration policy led ICE to detain juveniles merely suspected of gang affiliation, writes Philip Desgranges for the ACLU.
President Trump’s strict border policy is not the answer to San Antonio’s smuggling tragedy, urges Jay Shooster on Just Security.
Immigration detention, as shown by visitation patterns, may perpetuate inequality in immigrant communities, shows a new study by Caitlin Patler and Nicholas Branic published in the Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.