The head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has directed agents to take several steps to protect the parental rights of immigrant detainees with underage or incapacitated children, according to an agency memo published Thursday.
The directive, issued by interim ICE Director Tae Johnson, created a new requirement for ICE deportation agents to ask immigrants whether they are the parents or legal guardians of children who are minors or incapacitated, and to record those cases in an agency database. When such cases are identified during immigration arrests, the memo said, ICE agents must determine whether the parents can make arrangements for someone else to care for their children while they remain in government custody. If parents are not able to make those arrangements, or if there are concerns of abuse surrounding the potential caretaker, ICE agents should ask a local child welfare or law enforcement agency to take custody of the children, Johnson said. ICE must remain with the arrested parents at the site of the arrest until the caretaker or local child welfare or law enforcement agency can pick up the children. The memo also bars ICE agents from taking custody of or transporting the children unless they make a decision to detain them for immigration violations. Johnson also instructed agents to generally avoid holding parents or legal guardians in these circumstances in detention centers that are far away from where their children reside. "In the limited circumstances in which detention is appropriate," Johnson wrote in his 15-page memo, ICE should detain parents "as close as practicable to" their children or the location of any family court or guardianship proceedings. Moreover, the memo said ICE should ensure detained parents can participate, either in person or remotely, in family court or child welfare proceedings that determine whether they can retain or regain custody of their children. Those parents, Johnson said, can also participate in programs required to keep custody of their children, and must have access to "regulator visitation" from their children. "It is the policy of ICE to ensure that the agency's civil immigration enforcement activities do not unnecessarily disrupt or infringe upon the parental or guardianship rights of noncitizen parents or legal guardians of minor children or incapacitated adults, consistent with all legal obligations and applicable court orders," Johnson wrote in his memo. Prior to deporting parents of minor or incapacitated children, ICE agents should allow them to make arrangements to have someone care for their children in the U.S. or to facilitate the return of their children to the country where they will be deported, the directive said. If parents set to be deported have not completed child custody proceedings, Johnson said ICE "must consider under the totality of the circumstances whether continuing with removal is appropriate." When deciding such cases, ICE agents were directed to consider the parent's criminal history and their chances of retaining custody of their children. Johnson's memo also created a mechanism for ICE to allow certain deported parents to return to the U.S. temporarily to attend proceedings over whether they will keep or regain legal custody of the children. Mayor Todd Gloria Tuesday announced the creation of the city's new Office of Immigrant Affairs, which began work on Friday as part of his Fiscal Year 2023 "Ready to Rebuild" budget.
Gloria appointed Rita Fernandez, his current director of global affairs, to serve as the office's first executive director. Additional staff members will be hired in the new fiscal year. "Immigrants are an important part of our community, but often feel disconnected or unsupported by their city government," Gloria said. "That's why I've created the Office of Immigrant Affairs, which strives to welcome immigrants to San Diego and make sure that their voice is heard by City Hall. "This office will help us promote inclusivity, ease the transition for immigrants and help them feel supported as part of our community," he said. I The new office will focus on "workforce development for the immigrant population, promoting inclusive resources to help foreign-born communities through the integration process, advocating for immigrant rights and developing a language access plan to provide translation and interpretation services for city programs and services," a city statement said. Fernandez, a Chula Vista native, graduate of the University of San Diego and the daughter of immigrants, said, "I am humbled by this opportunity to build out an Office of Immigrant Affairs that will support all of our diverse immigrant communities in San Diego, which represent more than 115 countries around the world." Fernandez was appointed as Immigrant Affairs Manager after the city first launched the Welcoming San Diego Strategic Plan and Initiative in 2019. Prior to working for the city, Fernandez worked in the Immigrant Affairs office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and served in the Washington D.C. office of Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego. Stepping into the role as the Gloria's director of global affairs is Javier Gomez, who brings five years experience, previously working in the California State Assembly and more recently as the mayor's senior advisor of policy and council affairs. The U.S. government has eased some of the stringent requirements Afghans have to navigate as they apply to resettle in the United States. Until now, Afghans who held civilian positions under the Taliban regime or paid it for public services such as getting a passport, have been ineligible for a U.S. visa on the basis that they have ties to a terrorist group. The Biden administration says that is no longer the case. "[T]he Secretary of Homeland Security and Secretary of State exercised their authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to allow the U.S. government on a case-by-case basis to grant an exemption for otherwise qualified applicants for visas and certain other immigration benefits who would otherwise not qualify due to the statute's broad inadmissibility grounds," a State Department spokesman told VOA. "This action will allow the U.S. government to meet the protection needs of qualifying Afghans who do not pose a national security or public safety risk and provide them with the ability to access a durable immigration status in the United States," the spokesperson said, adding that Afghans who worked as civil servants during the first Taliban reign in Afghanistan from September 1996 to December 2001, and after August 15, 2021, are eligible under the policy. Since 2006, the U.S. government, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, has applied this exemption authority more than 30 times to protect U.S. allies against inadvertent terrorism-related blockings. "Doctors, teachers, engineers, and other Afghans, including those who bravely and loyally supported U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan at great risk to their safety, should not be denied humanitarian protection and other immigration benefits due to their inescapable proximity to war or their work as civil servants," the State Department spokesperson said. Some Requirements UnclearAfghans who apply for admission to the U.S. through Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), a program enacted by Congress in 2009, must submit, among other documents, a recommendation letter from a supervisor of a U.S. project in Afghanistan.
For years, applicants were asked to have a U.S. citizen verify and sign the letter of recommendation or have a U.S. citizen as a co-signer if the supervisor was a foreign national, according to International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), a U.S.-based nongovernment organization. It remains unclear whether that requirement has been dropped. According to IRAP policy expert Adam Bates, although the State Department asks applicants for the signed letters, Congress never mandated that requirement. |