Wednesday, July 1, 2020

A Trump-appointed federal district judge in Washington, DC has issued an opinion striking down a Trump Administration rule requiring migrants seeking to enter the United States to first seek asylum in countries they travel through on their way.  Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued his order and its accompanying opinion late in the evening on Tuesday. June 30, 2020, concluding that the ban failed to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) governing how agencies should implement rules.  The Administration had issued the ban in July of 2019 in an effort to prevent Central American migrants fleeing violence in their countries from seeking asylum in the United States, 

Sunday, June 28, 2020

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) component of the Department of Homeland Security is seeking $1.2 BILLION in supplemental fiscal year 2020 funding, warning that unless it receives the funds by August of 2020, it will have to furlough two-thirds of its 20,000 employees, a number totaling 13,400 persons.  The agency asserts that it would "would repay these funds by adding a 10% surcharge to applications."   

​The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) formally informed Congress of the situation in a June 19, 2020, letter to Congress that was a follow-up to in-person briefings it had conducted a month earlier.

​Internal USCIS documents indicate that $571.2 MILLION of the request would support operations for the remainder of the fiscal year and $650 MILLION would be used to provide carryover funds to ensure that sufficient resources are available at the start of the next fiscal year.  Of the $571.2 million USCIS is requesting for the current fiscal year, $373.4 MILLION would be used for payroll and $197.8 million for other expenses including rent, FBI name checks and fingerprinting, and information technology contracts.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Citing the economic collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House has extended through the end of 2020 restrictions on immigration that it first imposed earlier this year, expanding them to also include foreign workers that often are hired by high technology companies and other employers. The announcement, implemented in a June 22, 2020, presidential proclamation, continues the suspension of most immigration to the United States that was first announced in an April 22, 2020 presidential proclamation.  However, it expands the previously announced suspension so that it also includes workers on H-1B visas, which are most often used for employing foreign nationals in the technology sector, but also in academia and health care. 

The restrictions contained in Monday's proclamation are the latest in a series of steps that the Administration has taken to halt most forms of immigration to the United States.  The Administration also has virtually stopped admitting refugees to he country, blocked the entry of unaccompanied alien children, and moved to make if much more difficult for person seeking asylum to apply for and receive that form of relief.

Trump Suggests He Will Try Again in the
​Coming Days to Rescind DACA

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Click the Play Button, above, to see excerpts from the June 19, 2020 White House press briefing, during which the White House press Secretary responds to questions about DACA.

President Donald J. Trump and members of his Administration on Friday suggested that, notwithstanding a  decision against him by the Supreme Court of the United States  (the Court), his Administration will soon make another attempt to rescind a popular program that has protected as many as 800,000 young persons who have lived in the United States most of their lives after being brought illegally to the country as children.  The President implied that he would soon act to bring the program to an end  the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) via a series of posts on Twitter, a widely used microblogging platform, and his suggestion was reinforced later in the day by the White House Press Secretary.

Thursday, June 18, 2020

President Signs Bill to Protect the
Human Rights of Uyghurs ​​

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

The President's action today occurred in connection with S. 3744, the "Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020", legislation championed by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ),  The House passed the bipartisan measure on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, by a vote of 413-1, clearing it for the President's consideration by a veto-proof majority.  ​The Senate had passed S. 3.744 on May 14, 2020, by unanimous consent.​ 

The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act was developed amid growing congressional frustration with what members on both sides of the aisle have perceived as President Trump’s unwillingness to make the human rights practices of foreign governments a priority, as well their perception that the President has been unwilling to challenge China, specifically, over its human rights abuses.

​As signed into law, the measure imposes sanctions on foreign individuals and entities responsible for human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region and require various reports on the topic..

Trump Boasts About Border Wall Construction Progress and Accuses Democrats of
Wanting Open Borders During
​Rose Garden Press Availability

Friday, June 5, 2020

Click on the Play Button to see video of immigration excerpt from press availability

President Trump today boasted about progress he says is being made constructing the border wall he has promised to build between the United States and Mexico and charged Democrats in Congress  with wanting open borders.  The President's remarks came during a June 5, 2020, press availability in the White House Rose Garden as he prepared to sign the "Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020" into law.

In his remarks, the President boasted that the wall he promised to build is now "up to 210 miles long" and predicted that "we'll have it up to almost 500 miles very early next year."  Continuing, he said that "by the end of this year we'll be over 400 miles."

Calling the wall "serious" and "very, very powerful," the President asserted that "people are not penetrating it" and that "it will be up there a very long time."

The President accused Democrats of engaging him in a "warlike posture." but mused that, nonetheless, "maybe we can get along." 

President Trump asserted during his remarks that getting the money necessary to build the wall was "one of the hardest things I have ever had to do," criticizing Democrats as being "totally opposed to it."

Trump Threatens the Use of the U.S. Military, along with ICE, CBP, and  Other Federal Personnel to Help Quell Civil Unrest ​in Interior of the U.S.

Monday, June 1, 2020

​Video of the Trump June 1, 2020, Announcement on Use of Military and Other personnel

In an extraordinary scene, President Donald J. Trump  declared from the White House Rose Garden on June 1, 2020, that he will use the U.S. military in the interior of the United States to engage in actions against U.S. citizens. According to the President, he is acting in an effort to quell widespread civil unrest that has broken out throughout the country in reaction to the killing by a Minneapolis, Minnesota police officer of an unarmed black man during an attempt to arrest him.

The President also announced he will use "all available federal resources, civilian and military to stop the rioting and looting, to end the destruction and arson, and to protect the rights of law-abiding Americans, including your second amendment rights." 

While he did no specify any particular civilian resources he would mobilize in the effort, the Department of Homeland Security earlier in the day indicated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were going to be deployed in an effort to help quell civil disorder around the country..

Trump Suspends Entry of Some Chinese Students and Researchers into the United States

Friday, May 29, 2020

​Video of the Trump May 29, 2020, Announcement on China

President Trump has suspended the entry of certain groups of Chinese students and researchers into the United States.  The President announced the suspension in a Friday, May 29, 2020, statement made on the White House lawn while surrounded by he Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and others.  He implemented the announcement in a presidential proclamation that he signed on that same day.   

The suspension is part of a larger set of actions against the People's Republic of China (PRC) that the President announced on Friday. It comes in the midst of an escalating confrontation between the US and China over trade, the origins of the novel coronavirus pandemic, China's security crackdown in Hong Kong, and China's military moves in the disputed South China Sea.  Other actions he announced on Friday include imposing yet-to-be-specified sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials “directly or indirectly involved” in eroding Hong Kong’s autonomy; and ending to U.S. participation in the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO); beginning a process of stripping some of Hong Kong’s privileged trade status.

Trump Boasts About Border Wall Construction and His Brazil Travel Ban During Oval Office Press Availability

Friday, May 29, 2020

Click on the Play Button to see video of immigration excerpts from press availability

President Trump yesterday boasted about the progress and effectiveness of the border wall he is building between the U.S. and Mexico, praised the government of Mexico for deploying troops along its border to control illegal immigration, praised the effectiveness of his efforts to close the border between U.S. and Mexico, and extolled the virtues of his travel ban with Brazil.  The President's remarks came during a May 28, 2020, press availability following an Oval Office briefing he and the First Lady received on 2020 hurricane preparations.

In his remarks, the President boasted that "almost 200 miles" of "brand new" wall between the U.S. and Mexico has been built, that "close to 400 miles" will be built by the end of the year, and that there will be "close to 500 miles" built by early next year.  He declared that no illegal crossings were occurring where the wall has been built, saying "wherever we have the wall, the issue of illegal border crossings  "virtually ceases as a problem."

Trump asserted that "record low numbers" of people are entering the United States along the country's southwest border and that in the cases where people do come in, "we take them immediately out" under emergency powers his administration is using. 

The President also praised the Mexican government for deploying 26,000 of its troops on its border and boasted about the "very strong" ban that his Administration has imposed on travel from Brazil, noting that United States citizens are allowed to come back in "under a very strict process."