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Top Ten Immigration News Stories of 2022

By immigrationprof

2022 has been an exciting year in immigration law and enforcement.  It probably will be most remembered for

(1) the efforts of (and courts’ resistance to) the Biden administration to roll back the Trump administration’s immigration measures; and

(2) the publicity stunts of the governors of Texas and Florida to show that the Biden administration was not effectively enforcing the immigration laws. 

Here is the ImmigrationProf top 10 news stories for 2022.  By way of comparison, here are the top 10 news stories from 2021.

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Official White House Photo

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Official White House Photo

1.  The Biden Administration Faced Fierce Resistance to Rolling Back Trump Immigration Enforcement Measures.

As a public health measure, President Trump had invoked a public health law, Title 42, to expel migrants seeking to enter the country at the U.S./Mexico border.  The Biden administration sought to lift the Title 42 order.  Some courts and political leaders fiercely resisted the efforts.  The Supreme Court earlier this week stayed an injunction requiring an end of the Title 42 order. 

It was not only conservatives who questioned the lifting of the Title 42 order.  Its termination generated concern among some Democratic Senators.  With the Title 42 order slated to end, some Democrats became nervous.  As Law360 reported, four Democratic senators pressed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to answer questions about managing the expected increase in migrants crossing the southern border, with a lifting of the Title 42 order.

The intensity of the worries grew after U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan invalidated the Title 42 order as “arbitrary and capricious.”   Maria Sacchetti and Spencer S. Hsu for the Washington Post reported on the ruling.  The court order and the Biden administration’s attempted announcement the the title 42 order would be lifted, sparked controversy. 

Days before the scheduled lifting of the Title 42 order, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stayed the court order ordering the end of the Title 42 order.  The bottom line:  the Trump administration’s Title 42 expulsion order remains in effect.

DHS Announces the End (Finally) to Remain in Mexico Policy,  A Court Says No Way

Title 42 was not the only area in which the Biden administration’s immigration initiatives — and roll backs on Trump policies — experienced resistance.  Despite the Supreme Court ruling allowing the Biden administration to dismantle the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which allows the return of asylum-seekers to Mexico while their asylum claims are being decided, the policy remained in place.  The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would phase out the Trump era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program reported Adolfo Flores for BuzzFeed News.  MPP forced thousands of migrants to spend lengthy periods in dangerous conditions in Mexico.  It “has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” noted DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. 

The legal roller coaster over President Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy continues.  A trip to the Supreme Court did not end the controversy.  Just last week, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, suspended the Biden administration’s termination of MPP.

There have been many other challenges to the Biden administration’s immigration policies.  The Title 42 and Remain in Mexico battles offer an idea of the magnitude of the resistance and the administration’s inability to reverse signature Trumpian immigration measures.

    

 

2.  State Governors Protest the Alleged Lack of Federal Immigration Enforcement by Transporting Migrants North

Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Gover Ron DeSantis in 2022 repeatedly engaged in publicity stunts that showed utter disregard for the plight and humanity of migrants who have come to the United States.   That included the extraordinary step of busing migrants to New York City, Washington D.C., and Chicago.

Governor DeSantis’s transportation of a group of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, a tourist destination of the rich and famous, attracted the most attention.  See Class Action: Migrants Say Florida Governor DeSantis “Stranded” Them on Martha’s Vineyard.  A lawsuit followed Governor DeSantis’s Massachusetts adventure.  Law360 reported on the suit by asylum-seekers alleging that they were tricked into boarding flights to Martha’s Vineyard — and left them stranded there — in violation of their constitutional rights.

Other reports on the Martha’s Vineyard spectacle:

Immigrants land on Martha’s Vineyard;  Florida Governor takes credit

In line with the Governor DeSantis playbook, Texas Governor Greg Abbott made federal immigration enforcement a re-election campaign issue.  See Texas Governor Now Busing Migrants to Chicago as well as DC and NYC.  He sent migrants by bus from Texas to Washington, D.C. , New York City, and Chicago.  See Texas Governor Busing of Migrants to NYC and DC Keeps Him in the News.   NPR reported that “New York City Mayor Eric Adams . . . criticiz[ed] Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending busloads of migrants to the city, saying that Abbott `used innocent people as political pawns to manufacture a crisis.'” (bold added).

 

3.  The Supreme Court and Immigration

 

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Photo of the Justices of the 2021 Term from the U.S. Supreme Court website
 
“Immigration in the Supreme Court, 2021 Term” reviews the Court’s immigration decisions of the 2021 Term.  See last year’s recap of the 2020 Term. 
 
The 2021 Term did not include any blockbuster immigration decisions.  Biden v. Texas probably received the most attention.  The decision cleared the way for the Biden administration to dismantle a signature Trump administration immigration enforcement policy, the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which requires asylum seekers to be returned to Mexico while their claims are being decided.  Breaking News: Supreme Court Decides Remain in Mexico Case.    
 
The Court decided five immigration cases in the 2021 Term, an average number for the Court in recent years.  What is different this Term is that the pro-immigrant position failed in four of the five immigration cases, showing the tilt of the Supreme Court’s conservative super-majority.  The Court’s immigration decisions include ones requiring careful, but rather routine (if not ponderous), interpretation of the immigration statute as well as more general legal principles.
 
For reasons having nothing to do with immigration, few will soon forget the 2021 Term in U.S. Supreme Court history.  For weeks, news was dominated by a leaked draft opinion in a blockbuster abortion case, which foreshadowed the overruling of Roe v. Wade (1973) in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.  In addition, controversy surrounded conservative Justice Clarence Thomas’s ethical obligations in connection with the Court’s consideration of cases in which his wife’s political activities were implicated. 
 
This blog post looked at “The Overruling of Roe v. Wade and Immigrants.”  The demise of Roe v. Wade undoubtedly will affect immigrant women — especially poor ones (and here) — in the United States   It will take some time to see the full impacts of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.  Many questions will arise about the scope and breadth of the decision.  Will, for example, the federal government continue to provide access to abortions for immigrant women in detention?  Access to an abortion by a detained immigrant teen was the subject of litigation a few years back.  Some women may feel it necessary to travel to Mexico for an abortion.  Can a state bar travel outside the state to do so?  
 
 

On the last day of the 2021 Term, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer retired and the first African American woman Justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was sworn in to replace him.  During her confirmation hearings, Judge Jackson was quizzed on expedited removal ruling.  Here is a review of the Immigration Record of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s Supreme Court Nominee.

With the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, the Court lost the author of a memorable majority opinion in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), which reasoned that the prospect of indefinite detention of a noncitizen would raise “serious” constitutional questions.  He wrote “[b]ased on our conclusion that indefinite detention of aliens . . . . would raise serious constitutional concerns, we construe the statute to contain an implicit `reasonable time’ limitation, the application of which is subject to federal-court review.”  Contrary to the teachings of the plenary power doctrine, which directs the courts to defer to the immigration judgments of the President and Congress, Justice Breyer did not show special deference to the U.S. government’s immigration decision in that instance.  Zadvydas v. Davis has undermined the decision in recent years.

 

3.  Tragedy in San Antonio. Deaths on the Border Continue

A tragic mass death of migrants being trafficked in a truck/trailer into the United States in San Antonio shocked the nation, reminding us of the deadly consequences of contemporary migration flows.  See Death on the Border Chapter 101:   46 Migrants Reported Dead in Truck/Trailer in San Antonio, Texas.  In a statement on the tragedy, President Biden acknowledged that the event may be “the deadliest people smuggling tragedy in recent U.S. history.”

The San Antonio deaths are the tip of the iceberg.  Border deaths are a regular part of U.S./Mexico border life and are an international phenomenon as well.  See IOM Report: More Than 50,000 Migrant DeathsCNN: A record number of migrants have died crossing the US-Mexico border.

Photo of Mexico–United States barrier near Tijuana, Mexico. The crosses represent migrants who have died in attempts to cross the border.  Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Deaths of migrants along the U.S./Mexico border have made the news for years.  See, for a few examples, here, here, here.  The death toll continues to mount.  Earlier this year, CNN reported that nearly 750 migrants have died at the U.S./Mexico border this fiscal year, a new record, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.  Migrants often face treacherous terrain when crossing the border – including oppressive desert heat, dangerous waters, and falling from the border wall.

4.  President Trump Announces 2024 Run for President

 

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Official White House Photo

Can you believe it?  Donald Trump announced his 2024 run for President.  On the same day that a federal court found that his administration’s extraordinary Title 42 order was arbitrary and capricious, Donald Trump announced that he would again run for President.  He made it clear that immigration enforcement would be a major plank in his platform.  President Trump, of course, took the most aggressive enforcement measures of any modern U.S. President.

 

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Flag of Ukraine from Wikimedia Commons

5.  The World Welcomes Ukrainian Refugees Flee the Russian Invasion

The Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a mass migration of refugees.  European nations embraced them with open arms.  A number of posts on the ImmigrationProf blog (and here) have highlighted the differential treatment of Ukrainian refugees and those from Syria, Afghanistan, and Central America.  Voice of America released a report entitled “Immigration Experts Contrast US Support for Ukrainian, Afghan Refugees.”  Here are a few more stories on the treatment of Ukrainian refugees:

Ukrainian refugee crisis already ranks among the world’s worst in recent history

Refugee Double Standard: What the Global Response to Ukrainian Refugees Teaches

Welcome for Ukrainians reveals ‘hypocrisy’ of Irish immigration system?

“Fortress Europe” opens for Ukrainian refugees but keeps others out

Ukrainian Refugees and Racism

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