Immigration, Trump, and COVID-19

Today at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) national virtual conference, I had the opportunity to attend a terrific panel titled “Year Four of the Trump Administration: What’s Happened, What’s to Come, and How COVID-19 Has Impacted Immigration Policy in the U.S.” This timely panel covered much ground in collecting and analyzing the huge number of immigration policy changes that have taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Royce Bernstein Murray of the American Immigration Council (AIC) moderated the panel and here are some of the interesting highlights from the panelists:

• Jorge Loweree, Policy Director at AIC, discussed how the administration has pursued sweeping immigration policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic, at times using the pandemic to justify these changes, such as with Presidential Proclamation 10014 suspending the entry of certain nonimmigrants.

• Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Counsel, at AIC focused his remarks on the impact of COVID-19 on U.S. immigration courts, including the widespread health concerns raised by the opening of detained immigration courts during the pandemic.

• Kathryn Shepherd, National Advocacy Counsel at AIC, called attention to the dangerous conditions inside immigrant detention centers during the pandemic and a recent oversight complaint filed by AIC and other groups that brings to light the challenges that people are facing in ICE detention in the pandemic.

IE