Immigration news

Amid fierce criticism, US Vice President Kamala Harris recently visited the US-Mexico border to see for herself the growing US immigration crisis. Harris visited a border patrol facility and called for a focus on children and practical solutions to migration. The visit was reportedly an effort to ‘blunt Republican criticism of the Biden administration’s US immigration policy’.

 

The number of immigrants arriving from the EU between 2012 and 2020 has been underestimated by 1.6 million, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS recently revised its methodology for calculating UK immigration numbers to produce new data that far exceeds previous estimates.

 

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has moved to close a legal loophole that allowed US-based blood plasma companies to harvest plasma from thousands of Mexicans a day. Those crossing into the US, on temporary US visas, were lured by the promise of bonus payments and cash rewards, as first reported by a German TV station in 2019 following an investigation.

 

A US federal judge has quashed a set of Trump-era rules that required immigrants, seeking green cards via a federal investor visa program, to invest more to be eligible. The rules, issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), increased the minimum investment amount to qualify for EB5 visas from $500,000 to $900,000.

 

The UK high court has reversed a previous tribunal decision that stopped the Home Office from evicting refused asylum seekers from their accommodation. An initial ruling said that refused asylum seekers who are destitute must be given accommodation during the coronavirus pandemic and until all COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.   

However, this ruling has been quashed by a high court judge who has now sent the case back to the UK immigration tribunal to be reconsidered.

US President Joe Biden’s pick to lead United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is seemingly in support of birth tourism, according to a report published by the Center for Immigration Studies, which claims to be pro-immigrant, but supports lower immigration to the US.