Nolo

Tucked within the 2019 State of the Union address, amidst Trump’s calls for a wall and pronouncements of a southern border crisis, was the following phrase: “I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.”  That’s news to anyone who follows the (real) news. Contraction of legal immigration has been the administration’s stated priority from the start. In 2017, Trump announced plans to cut legal immigration by half. In…

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Consumers of social and other media have read a great deal this year about the plight of Maria Mendoza-Sanchez, a Mexico-born nurse who worked in Oakland, California treating cancer patients. Though she had tried to obtain a work-based U.S. visa, her past unlawful entry made that all but impossible. The only reason she was able to work and live in the U.S. was that she received temporary relief from removal (as a low enforcement priority) under the Obama administration. After…

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Approximately three quarters of a million people who were eligible for U.S. citizenship long, long before this election—who had, per the eligibility requirements, held a U.S. green card for at least five years (in most cases), lived in the U.S. continuously with that green card, and studied up on their English and civics—are still waiting to become citizens. The bureaucratic backlog for naturalization is at historic, some say shocking levels, according to a report from the National Partnership for New…

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Long before Trump became president, conservative commentators began pressing for an end to what’s widely called “birthright citizenship.” That means the right, under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, of: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, [to be] citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” For well over a century, this amendment has been interpreted by courts and legal scholars to mean that anyone born…

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If you saw the recent Frontline show about child separations at the U.S. border,  you caught at least a glimpse of the so-called “South Texas Family Residential Center” in Dilley, Texas. Regular Nolo writer Kyle Knapp got a closer look at this facility recently. He spent a week volunteering there, along with other attorneys, all helping women and children (the center’s sole occupants) prepare to present their asylum cases to U.S. government officials. I (Ilona Bray, Nolo author) spoke with…

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