Nation of Immigrants

John Oliver's recent segment on the restrictions surrounding legal immigration to the United States touches on a lot of the topics we've been covering here at Nation of Immigrants. Today I review what the Last Week Tonight episode got right, and discuss current immigration law and policy.

Yesterday the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing a Trump Administration policy to take effect which would limit the ability of Central American immigrants to apply for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. Today we talk about what the policy is and what impact it might have on our nation's immigration laws.

What is a safe third country under our asylum laws? And do Mexico and Guatemala qualify as safe third countries? Today in Nation of Immigrants, we talk about the impact of the Trump administration's negotiations for safe third country agreements with Mexico and other Central American governments.

Today we continue our discussion on why Central American immigrants are coming to the U.S.-Mexico border in such great numbers. We talk about conditions in the Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala), and how that contributes to a populous fleeing to the U.S.

Why are record numbers of Central American immigrants applying for asylum in the U.S.? Are they really savvy to our immigration court backlog and taking advantage of our laws and procedures? Or are they fleeing for their lives and hoping to live out the American Dream? In this episode we can only scratch surface of the many reasons immigrants apply for asylum.

Asylum is a hot topic and one of the primary reasons people are coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. Administrative shuffling hasn't helped in the immigration courts, and it won't work in the asylum office. Today we start our discussion of U.S. asylum law.

Did you know the U.S. has a list of 10 reasons to deny entry to immigrants? In this episode of Nation of Immigrants, Jacob discusses grounds of inadmissibility like public charge, previous immigration violations, and more.

Today I talk about what's really happening with citizenship for children born overseas to members of the U.S. military, and why even a technical change to words like "residence" and "physical presence" can be far reaching. I also give a brief update about USCIS's recent deferred action policy change.

Matter of Castro-Tum was an Attorney General opinion that ended the decades-old practice of administrative closure in our nation's immigration courts. Now, in Zuniga Romero v. Barr, the 4th Circuit rules that immigration courts can continue to administratively close cases.

Today on Nation of Immigrants, I discuss the myth of the immigration line and why its unreasonable to expect immigrants to wait in "line" for entry to the country.

In our first episode we talked about the new public charge policies of the Trump administration. Today we address how the impact of the principles underlying hardline public charge policies impact immigrants who are sick and protected under deferred action.

The U Visa was designed to give protection against deportation to immigrants who have been the victim of a crime and who help law enforcement. Unfortunately, it's not working out that way for many U Visa applicants.

What is prosecutorial discretion? Who exercises this discretion, and what are its impacts in our immigration system?

Today we're going to talk about the Flores Settlement Agreement, family separation, and the detention of immigrant families.

With our inaugural episode, Nation of Immigrants talks about public charge grounds of inadmissibility and its impact on immigrants in the U.S.