Immigration news

Hundreds of demonstrators descended on Washington D.C. on May 1 to mark International Workers’ Day and to call for US immigration reform. Many families and small children were among the demonstrators, most of whom were Latin American who had travelled from states such as Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

 

The US Department of State (DoS) has issued an update on US visa services at embassies and consulates around the world. The coronavirus pandemic forced many embassies and consulates around the world to close. However, with lockdown restrictions easing in some regions services are starting to resume.

 

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has urged the UK Home Office to simplify ‘complicated and expensive legal routes to UK immigration’ in a new report. The call comes as Home Secretary, Priti Patel, presses ahead with her ‘New Plan on Immigration’, which seeks to restrict more existing routes to settlement in Britain.

 

Sanwar Ali: additional reporting and comments US President Joe Biden has nominated Texas sheriff, and Trump US immigration policy critic, Ed Gonzalez to lead the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

A strategic advisor who formerly worked on Brexit negotiations claims that the launch of an exclusive UK visa for Hong Kong nationals could be ‘the making of post-Brexit Britain’. Johnny Luk told Al Jazeera that the UK has a ‘unique opportunity to demonstrate how it can lead on immigration policy’.   

Since the turn of the year, UK immigration has fundamentally shifted. For some it has changed in way that not many people would have predicted.

In a meeting scheduled for June 2021, the UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee is set to question Cabinet Office Minister Lord Frost over the UK government’s failure to secure visa-free travel and Europe-wide work permits for UK musicians and their touring crew post-Brexit, according to an NME report.

 

In recent months, the government has come under heavy fire from high-profile artists and prominent producers across the music industry.