Weekly Round-Up: Immigration Reform; New Jersey Sanctuary City Law : Immigration Law Blog

President, Democrats Current Immigration Reform Invoice

On Thursday, President Biden and Congressional Democrats launched a long-awaited, sweeping invoice to offer immigration reform in the USA. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez will introduce the invoice to the U.S. Senate.

The invoice will have an effect on tens of millions of people, each these at the moment in the USA and people trying to immigrate to the USA sooner or later. Key options embody the next:

• A two-tier pathway to Everlasting Residency
  • Instantly present authorized everlasting residency – a “inexperienced card” – to undocumented people who entered the USA as kids, holders of Momentary Protected Standing, and farmworkers; they might apply for citizenship three years after acquiring their inexperienced card
  • All different undocumented people in the USA previous to January 1, 2021, who go background checks; these people would obtain employment authorization and reduction from deportation, and they’d change into eligible for U.S. citizenship in eight years
• Spouses and youngsters of everlasting residents wouldn’t be topic to per-country visa caps, allowing quicker immigration to the USA
• A rise within the variety of visas out there per yr for victims of crime who help regulation enforcement from 10,000 to 30,000
• Elimination of the requirement to file for asylum inside one yr of arriving in the USA with a purpose to obtain refugee standing
• Institution of processing facilities in Central America to facilitate the refugee utility course of
• A rise within the variety of employment-based and variety inexperienced playing cards out there annually
• Establishment of higher border safety know-how
• An finish to the three- and ten-year bans on re-entry into the USA for people who left the nation after having been in the USA for greater than 6 months or one yr, respectively, with out authorization

If applied, this invoice would unquestionably create essentially the most basic modifications in immigration regulation in many years, however passage is certainly not assured. Resulting from Senate guidelines, the invoice would wish not solely the assist of all 50 Democratic senators but additionally of ten Republican senators, to go. We are going to proceed to watch this invoice because it strikes via Congress.

Legislation Enforcement Backs New Jersey Sanctuary Metropolis Legal guidelines

Over 70 former and present chiefs of police departments, district attorneys, and different regulation enforcement officers have entered their assist for the New Jersey “sanctuary metropolis” directive, which restricts native police departments’ cooperation with federal immigration officers and reporting of suspected immigration violations. The directive has been challenged in federal court docket by the counties of Cape Could and Ocean.

In a jointly-filed transient, these officers said that regulation enforcement efforts “are undermined when undocumented immigrants and their communities worry interacting with regulation enforcement and the justice system,” leaving “undocumented immigrants extra weak to crime and exploitation, and undocumented immigrant victims much less more likely to come ahead or cooperate with investigations and prosecutions.”

The U.S. Division of Justice beneath former President Trump supported efforts to scale back or remove sanctuary metropolis directives. President Biden has moved to scale back the general variety of deportations from the USA, though he has not indicated whether or not he’ll assist sanctuary legal guidelines throughout the nation, together with in New Jersey.

In case you have any questions on this weblog publish or some other immigration considerations, please be happy to contact me at wcmenard@norris-law.com or 282-544-0022.