Tag: policy

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UW law professor goes to music school, launches interdisciplinary Music Law & Policy class

UW law professor goes to music school, launches interdisciplinary Music Law & Policy class

Arts and entertainment  |  UW Notebook  |  Video

March 7, 2023

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SECNAV Del Toro Says Changes to Immigration Law, Policy Could Help with Shipyard Workforce Shortage

SECNAV Del Toro Says Changes to Immigration Law, Policy Could Help with Shipyard Workforce Shortage

Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro interacts with a sailor aboard the Ticonderoga-course guided-missile cruiser USS Cowpens (CG-63) through a pay a visit to on Feb. 15, 2023. US Navy Image

ARLINGTON, Va. – Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro suggested adjustments in immigration rules and policies for visas could open a new avenue to develop up the workforce in the nation’s public and non-public shipyards.

“We want to do a great deal additional to get the variety of employees we need in our shipyards,” he advised attendees at a National Defense Industrial Affiliation Expeditionary Warfare convention past week.

Del Toro, using his very own family members as an case in point of coming to the United States in 1962 from Cuba, explained that the open-doorway coverage for refugees led him to sign up for the Navy out of a sense of gratitude. He graduated from the Naval Academy and served 22 a long time ahead of retiring. He added other initially-technology and next-era immigrants to The us feel the same way and could be captivated to professions in community support in uniform or in the protection industrial base.

The U.S. requirements far more blue-collar employees, Del Toro reported. New arrivals with these ability sets could fill the gap, he reported, mentioning changes in immigration plan concerning Venezuelans.

The Department of Homeland Stability declared the alter in mid-Oct which included expanding and expediting the immigration course of action. Requirements contain obtaining a sponsor organized to deal with economic prices, passing many protection assessments and evidence of vaccination. The administration may possibly broaden the Venezuelan initiative to migrants from other nations.

At some conference on expeditionary warfare, Vice Adm. Monthly bill Galinis, who prospects Naval Sea Units Command, praised Southern New England’s Workforce Subs system to entice and keep far more gentlemen and females to the expert trades.

He famous the amplified shipbuilding demand at Common Dynamics Electrical Boat in an accelerated Virginia-class construction application and continuing perform to keep the initially Columbia-course ballistic missile submarine on schedule.

“Fourteen hundred have been skilled in the shipbuilding trade,” Galinis said. He extra this method led by Electric Boat is also paying dividends at the Navy’s Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and also at Tub Iron Performs, builder of guided-missile destroyers.

“More get the job done needs to be completed on the area facet,” he claimed, citing production-education pipelines in Philadelphia and Hampton Streets as illustrations of what can be carried out.

Featuring extra guarantee in meeting this demand lies in the Pentagon’s and Navy’s Accelerated Training in Protection Production in Danville, Va., Galinis claimed.

“The target is principally on the trades we have to have … substantial-stop trades” like welding, he stated.

So significantly the 16-week method has manufactured 100 certified personnel in abilities like additive production, CNC machining [controlling tools in milling and other precise work] and high-quality handle inspection, in addition to welding. The target is to develop 800 to 1,000 on a yearly basis, setting up in 2024, Galinis mentioned. The method is aimed at attracting workers from other work opportunities and can give applicants room and board through the schooling.

“This is an ‘All Fingers on Deck’ endeavor, and guaranteeing we have a ready and able workforce is at the prime of the checklist in factors we must get correct,” Galinis explained at the opening of the Additive Manufacturing Heart of Excellence in Danville in October.

Brig. Gen. David Walsh, who heads the Marine Corps Programs Command, agreed with the other individuals that “our blue-collar workforce is our amount one particular priority.” But he extra the Marines are also involved about renewing its specialized, engineering and contracting workforces as retirements get keep.

“They don’t get paid out the most” when in comparison to personal field, Walsh explained, but there are other components like perception of mission and accomplishment that occur into enjoy when trying to get new employees and keeping those people with unique teaching and skills.

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Lawsuit on behalf of SNAP ‘skimming’ victims alleges USDA policy violates federal law

Lawsuit on behalf of SNAP ‘skimming’ victims alleges USDA policy violates federal law

A lawsuit on behalf of New York state inhabitants who were electronically robbed of the cash they use for groceries seeks to have the victims reimbursed by the U.S. Agriculture Office, alleging that failure to do so violates federal regulation.

The federal lawsuit from the Agriculture Division was filed Wednesday early morning by the Authorized Aid Modern society, a New York-based nonprofit authorized services company, and the regulation company Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. The fit, which seeks class-action position, represents six plaintiffs and intends to symbolize thousands of other New York point out residents who take part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and whose rewards ended up also skimmed.

The criticism promises the constrained situations less than which the Agriculture Division authorizes states to use federal dollars to reinstate SNAP positive aspects do not comply with a congressional mandate, which says grocery money stolen in advance of the receiver gets them have to be changed. Skimming is not a person of these situations.

Studies of SNAP skimming have risen nationwide. The theft is accomplished by inserting concealed gadgets on card readers’ keypads to electronically steal account facts, usually without the need of the victim or store homeowners recognizing. 

In New York condition by yourself, there have been far more than 10,600 incidents of SNAP skimming considering that January 2022, with victims robbed of more than $4.6 million worthy of of rewards in full, in accordance to modern information from the state’s Business office of Non permanent and Disability Help.

Nonetheless due to the fact the federal government does not address the cost of replacement money, number of states have reimbursed the victims. 

The omnibus invoice handed in December furnished some support. It involved a provision for changing stolen SNAP funds with federal dollars that lets up to two months’ really worth of skimmed added benefits to be reinstated, but it applies only to victims skimmed from October 2022 by means of September 2024.

“It’s unconscionable that very low-earnings homes currently struggling to make ends meet are compelled to bear the value of skimmed food positive aspects.”

— Alex MacDougall, team attorney at the Lawful Assist Culture

Wednesday’s complaint, which argues that the steps do not go much more than enough, seeks total restoration of just about every state resident’s stolen SNAP added benefits dating to January 2022, regardless of how a lot was stolen.

“It’s unconscionable that small-money homes now having difficulties to make finishes meet are pressured to bear the charge of skimmed food positive aspects,” Alex MacDougall, a staff members lawyer at the Lawful Support Society, explained in an interview. “It very literally normally takes absent the skill of parents to feed their small children.”

Couple protections, minor recourse

Typically, thieves area skimming devices on the card-swiping devices by income registers. The equipment are plastic keypad overlays that glance just about equivalent to the card reader terminals them selves. (See a photograph of the skimming overlays listed here.) 

“Oftentimes men and women really don’t realize they’ve been stolen from right up until they are at the dollars sign up with a cart complete of groceries,” claimed Ashley Burnside, a senior plan analyst at the Middle for Regulation and Social Policy, who is not included in the federal lawsuit. “It’s devastating for people to then comprehend, soon after they go via the hoops of contacting their SNAP company reporting the criminal offense, that they do not have any possibilities for reimbursement.”

SNAP advantages, previously regarded as foodstuff stamps, are issued every month onto electronic added benefits transfer, or EBT, playing cards. Even though skimming is not special to EBT playing cards, stability measures this sort of as contactless payments and embedded microchips have combated it in the credit card marketplace. No SNAP condition company employs cards with chips, in accordance to the Agriculture Department.

Right before switching to an digital process, food items stamps ended up issued in paper type, and the Agriculture Section would switch them if they received stolen in the mail ahead of members been given them. 

Recent polices based mostly on a 2010 plan limit states’ potential to substitute electronic advantages making use of federal money principally to situations of “household misfortune” — when food obtained with EBT money is destroyed in a fire, for example, or right after the actual physical card alone was described stolen from a participant.

Wednesday morning’s lawsuit alleges that for the reason that a 1996 mandate declared that stolen electronic transfer SNAP gains need to get replaced in the similar fashion as stolen paper discount codes were being, it is unlawful for the Agriculture Division not to substitute skimmed rewards.

In a statement, the Agriculture Office claimed it does not comment on ongoing litigation. It pointed to recent direction to states about alternative of skimmed positive aspects that the company issued immediately after the omnibus monthly bill handed.

The theft of positive aspects can be disastrous for people who are already fiscally stretched. A mom who life in New York public housing and asked not to be discovered for the reason that she was talking about her personalized finances said that considering the fact that she was skimmed out of a lot more than $2,000 a number of months back, she has put hire revenue toward food, as an alternative — and is now powering on rent payments.

She was stunned the day she uncovered she experienced been skimmed.

“I just broke down. I was crying. My young children had been making an attempt to pat me, and I’m like: ‘Oh my goodness, oh my gosh. All of our dollars is absent,’” she stated.

The complaint is thought to be the initially federal lawsuit about SNAP skimming, according to the lawyers. In November, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts in opposition to the state company that administers SNAP advantages on behalf of skimming victims in the condition.

Although the federal lawsuit seeks restoration of positive aspects for New York state skimming victims, it could have implications for the relaxation of the country, MacDougall said.

“Any improve in SNAP plan or regulation will of course affect all SNAP recipients nationwide,” she reported. “If we prevail in the situation, it’ll set a precedent for likewise situated folks.”

The lawsuit comes amid escalating calls to improve the protection of SNAP EBT cards to avoid other people from becoming victimized in the foreseeable future. Anything as very simple as text alerts sent to recipients when their card has been employed out of state would be a beneficial get started, Burnside mentioned.

“The card is susceptible to theft for the reason that it has not been held up to market protections and recipients are then left susceptible, but also still left with no recourse at the time their resources are eventually stolen,” she stated. “It is unquestionably heartbreaking.”

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Green Card Seekers’ Kids Get Protections in New Biden Policy

Green Card Seekers’ Kids Get Protections in New Biden Policy

A policy update by US Citizenship and Immigration Services will add protections for children of temporary visa holders from losing their legal status while their parents’ green card applications are pending.

The update will allow children and young adults with a dependent visa to lock in their age earlier in the application process for a green card. There are more than 200,000 so-called “documented dreamers” in the US at risk of aging out of legal status at age 21 while waiting for permanent residency based on their parents’ employment-based green card application.

Most of those young people are nationals of India and China, who face especially long wait times because of green card backlogs. Foreign workers from those countries, which are the biggest sources of employees on high-skill visas, can spend decades on temporary status because of annual caps on the number of green cards that can be issued to nationals of a given country.

Congress passed the Child Status Protection Act in 2002 to protect the legal status of children with dependent visas, allowing them to “freeze” their age while a parent’s green card application is pending based on when a green card is deemed available. USCIS previously calculated a young person’s age under the law based on the “final action date” of a visa bulletin, when green card numbers become available for a specific visa category and country. The policy change will base age calculations on the earlier filing date when applicants are allowed to submit green card applications.

Groups that included the American Immigration Lawyers Association had argued the previous policy still left many documented dreamers vulnerable to aging out.

Some children and young people with pending green card applications will now have ages lower than 21 under the Child Status Protection Act. A USCIS spokesman said the agency doesn’t have readily available data on the number of children who could benefit from the policy change.

The update is a “narrow, commonsense policy change,” said Dip Patel, founder of Improve the Dream, which advocates for documented dreamers. But many children will continue to age out while they wait for approved filing dates.

“This is an important step forward that will protect many individuals who contribute to our country and economy every single day, but we cannot stop here,” Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) said in a statement Tuesday.

Ross said Congress must pass bipartisan legislation offering a pathway to citizenship for documented dreamers.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments this month in a case challenging visa rules that plaintiffs said violated the equal protection rights of children of Indian nationals by placing them at risk of aging out.

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Texas leads lawsuit against Biden administration’s new immigration policy

Texas leads lawsuit against Biden administration’s new immigration policy

Indication up for The Quick, The Texas Tribune’s every day publication that retains visitors up to speed on the most necessary Texas information.

Texas Lawyer Normal Ken Paxton submitted a lawsuit on Tuesday in opposition to the Biden administration, claiming a new immigration program the president announced past thirty day period that would let 360,000 folks a year from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the place is illegal.

Texas, which is main a coalition of 20 states, submitted the lawsuit in a federal district court docket in Victoria.

Past thirty day period, Biden and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas introduced a parole software that would permit 30,000 men and women for each month to legally enter the U.S. from the four nations if they apply from their dwelling international locations, move a history check and confirm they have a money supporter in the U.S.

If they are permitted, they can stay in the nation for up to two many years and get a operate allow. The moment in the country, they would be ready to ask for asylum.

As part of the program, the Biden administration also commenced to use the crisis wellbeing order acknowledged as Title 42 to expel the exact same amount of migrants from individuals four nations around the world to Mexico if they endeavor to enter the U.S. illegally. In accordance to the Office of Homeland Stability, Mexico agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from those international locations underneath Title 42.

The lawsuit claims the parole plan was modeled soon after the exact plan that authorized Ukrainians to enter the U.S. right after the Russian invasion in February 2022. But the most current parole system does not satisfy the standards for it to be authorized, the lawsuit statements.

“The parole system established by the Office fails each of the law’s a few restricting variables. It is not circumstance-by-situation, is not for urgent humanitarian causes, and developments no important public profit,” the lawsuit says.

Many persons leaving Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela are fleeing political instability and violence from community gangs. The U.S. has imposed financial sanctions on the international locations and some of their political leaders, accusing its governments of human legal rights abuses and political corruption.

Texas has submitted a lot more than 20 lawsuits in federal courtroom from the Biden administration, many of them focusing on the president’s immigration policies. A greater part of the lawsuits have been filed in courtrooms overseen by Trump-appointed judges.

Paxton’s place of work has been profitable in temporarily halting some of the Biden administration’s immigration procedures. Most lately, Texas joined an Arizona-led lawsuit that has pressured the administration to keep on imposing Title 42, which the Trump administration invoked in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic commenced to expel migrants to Mexico with out letting them to assert asylum.

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Biden’s border policy to curb illegal immigration, end asylum

Biden’s border policy to curb illegal immigration, end asylum

Border officials tracked 2.3 million people crossing the southwest border in 2022 just as millions of migrants have before them, compelled by economic hardship, rising violence and oppression in their homelands.

The Biden administration responded with an unpopular plan to manage this historic influx, promoting a pandemic-era policy that leans heavily on the speedy removal of border crossers as well as a sponsorship program with new legal immigration pathways. The scheme comes amid fervent partisan squabbling, raging humanitarian crises abroad, a rise in domestic nativism and smuggling networks that are increasingly tech-savvy and well-organized. The need for the country’s leaders to find a long range solution and their inability to compromise are at a deadlock.

TIMELINE: 40 years of U.S. border policy, from Reagan and Bush to Biden

Biden’s solution to this complex conundrum follows decades of White House efforts to manage the ebb and flow of migrants along the 2,000-mile southwest border.

Like his predecessors, Biden has tried to balance humanitarian, security and economic needs with logistical realities. This review of how previous presidents tackled these same questions offers context for today’s crisis.

Undocumented Mexican commuters dash to their jobs on the U.S. side of the border, from Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso in February 1987. 

Undocumented Mexican commuters dash to their jobs on the U.S. side of the border, from Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso in February 1987. 

Carlos Antonio Rios/Houston Chronicle

Reagan

During his tenure, President Ronald Reagan ushered in one of the most significant immigration reforms in modern history – the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

The bill created a path to citizenship for law-abiding undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., a process commonly known as “amnesty.” It also mandated penalties for employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants, during a period where many people crossing the border without authorization were Mexicans looking for work.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Haitian Odyssey: 10,000 miles in search of home

Reagan’s amnesty was successful in bringing millions of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, however it failed to curb future illegal immigration, as it left in loopholes that gave employers the opportunity to hire people with fake documents.

Towards the end of Reagan’s run, civil war in El Salvador and governmental repression in China triggered a spike in asylum seekers from those countries. By the time George H.W. Bush took office, Congress had created Temporary Protected Status to offer some of these migrants time-limited work permits so they could stay and work in the country legally, though it did not offer a permanent visa.

President Ronald Reagan, in the Roosevelt Room, signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

President Ronald Reagan, in the Roosevelt Room, signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

National Archives

Clinton

During the 1980s, southwest border officials went from processing relatively few asylum seekers to hundreds of thousands by the 1990s, according to Muzaffar Chishti, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. 

“Numbers explain everything,” said Chishti. He attributes stricter asylum policies to that uptick in Central American asylum seekers at the border.

That increase, along with a newly Republican majority Congress in 1994, set a more authoritative tone towards migrants during the Clinton administration. The president deployed 400 border agents and fleets of new vehicles to patrol the border near El Paso. 

El Paso Border Patrol Agent Alfonso Trujillo does his best to police the 1,952 miles that separate the US from Mexico in February 1987. 

El Paso Border Patrol Agent Alfonso Trujillo does his best to police the 1,952 miles that separate the US from Mexico in February 1987. 

Carlos Antonio Rios/Houston Chronicle

Additionally, the Republican-led Congress drafted a major immigration bill to hasten deportation for people crossing the border illegally, a process called “expedited removal.” Exemptions were made for people who passed a credible fear interview: If they told border agents they feared persecution at home, they would be allowed to enter and make their case before an immigration judge. 

By 1997, a total of 6,300 border agents were policing the southwest border, roughly twice the number the feds had employed in 1987, according to the Cato Institute. 

Bush

President George W. Bush campaigned on comprehensive immigration reform. Any hope of legislative change was dashed within the first year of his administration, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks reframed border and immigration policy with a new laser focus on homeland security. 

Early in the Bush administration, Congress created a Department of Homeland Security and within the new agency, Customs and Border Protection. The move consolidated the border, customs, safety and security arms of the U.S. government under one roof. 

In 2006, Congress authorized 850 miles of border fence and additional Border Patrol staff. But the influx of migrants only grew and, by 2007, the undocumented immigrant population reached a peak of 12.2 million people.

Obama

Facing pressure over this record-breaking undocumented population, President Barack Obama focused, especially during his first term, on removing undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., earning him the moniker “deporter-in-chief.” 

His administration also saw an uptick of migrants arriving for humanitarian reasons. When Obama took office, just 1{c024931d10daf6b71b41321fa9ba9cd89123fb34a4039ac9f079a256e3c1e6e8} of border crossers were either asylum seekers or migrant children traveling alone. By 2018, that share ballooned to roughly 33{c024931d10daf6b71b41321fa9ba9cd89123fb34a4039ac9f079a256e3c1e6e8}, according to analysis by the Migration Policy Institute. 

In response, in 2012, Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children to obtain work authorization and remain in the U.S. with temporary protection from deportation. 

DACA IMPACT: In 10 years of DACA, ‘Dreamers’ have worked to save lives in Houston, from Harvey to the pandemic

By the end of his tenure, Obama had deported more than 1.2 million people, more than any other president, the undocumented population had declined to 10.7 million and Border Patrol had 17,000 agents patrolling as roughly 650 miles of fencing blocked entries along the southwest border, according to the Cato Institute. 

Trump

After campaigning on a strong anti-immigrant, nativist platform, President Donald Trump made historic moves to limit the legal avenues for asylum seekers seeking humanitarian relief in the U.S. and curb the number of unauthorized border crossers. 

In 2018, Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy prompted the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents in an effort to deter migrants from arriving at the border. 

TRUMP’S BORDER CRACKDOWN: New ‘zero tolerance’ policy overwhelms South Texas courts

The Trump administration implemented three additional policies which effectively barred certain migrants from getting asylum: the transit ban, Remain in Mexico and Title 42. Efrén Olivares, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other attorneys, have said these policies violate international treaties, international human rights laws, and domestic laws.

By the end of Trump’s term, with COVID-19 raging, border officials were denying immigrants access to asylum by quickly removing them from the country through Title 42, under a provision of the U.S. health code. 

Biden

After a dip in border crossings in 2020, during the first year of pandemic-era restrictions, the number of crossings spiked and reached record numbers when President Joe Biden took office – even though Title 42 remained intact. 

Political and economic turmoil in Latin America and the Caribbean during the pandemic spurred historic numbers along with the migrant misperceptions that Biden had more welcoming border policies. 

“Biden’s immigration rhetoric during his campaign may have been the biggest pull factor for people coming to the border,” said Chishti, the migration policy analyst.

People, mostly recently arriving Cubans, line up to sign up for federal benefits at YMCA International Services on Aug. 15, 2022, in Houston. Hundreds of Cubans are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and coming to Houston-area refugee resettlement agencies for help starting new lives in this region. Houston historically has not been a destination for Cuban immigrants.

People, mostly recently arriving Cubans, line up to sign up for federal benefits at YMCA International Services on Aug. 15, 2022, in Houston. Hundreds of Cubans are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and coming to Houston-area refugee resettlement agencies for help starting new lives in this region. Houston historically has not been a destination for Cuban immigrants.

Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographer

Savvy smugglers would misrepresent Biden’s policies to migrants, giving the false impression the border was open — misinformation that was amplified by social media. 

Now, Biden’s new proposal expands the use of Trump-era Title 42 expulsions, allowing border officials to quickly send away migrants at the border and stop them from seeking asylum, while also providing safe, legal opportunities for Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans to enter the country. 

Houston immigration attorney Ruby Powers said after years of inconsistencies of how asylum seekers are treated at the border, she sees the new plan as a step in the right direction. 

“I think we’re turning a corner and trying to be more humane and understanding,” said Powers, “It’s not perfect, but I think I’m seeing some improvement.”