Advertisements
Tag: immigration issues
Advertisements
By: Daniel Waldron and Sanwar Ali Edited by: Sanwar Ali
The US House Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to proceed with a bill that would if enacted repeal Donald Trump’s travel ban on several Muslim majority countries. It would also prevent future bans based on religion.
Continue reading “Donald Trump US visa travel ban repeal bill advances”
Advertisements
President Trump’s recent decision to add Nigeria to the restricted travel list not only surprised the Nigerian government, but also many Houston businesses that provide services for the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
Continue reading “The Nigerian Immigration Ban And Its Potential Impact On Houston Employers”
Advertisements
Green cards allow immigrants to live and work in the United States, legally and permanently, before they can seek American citizenship through naturalization.
To apply for permanent lawful U.S. residence, non-citizens must qualify under one of eight categories. Each category has different eligibility requirements that applicants must meet when they submit their petitions.
Continue reading “Green cards are only available to immigrants who fall under one of these categories”
Advertisements
Nigerians were the fourth most represented nationality among new permanent residents in 2019 in Canada
Continue reading “While the U.S. blocks immigration visas, Canada is building strong a strong Nigerian community”
Advertisements
Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
As part of new visa restrictions by the Trump administration, the US will no longer issue immigrant visas to Nigerian applicants.
While Nigeria is not the only country affected by the “ban” (Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar will also face similar restrictions while Tanzania and Sudan have been excluded from the United States’ popular visa lottery scheme), it is, by far, the most high profile country affected by what the Trump administration describes as a penalty for unsatisfactory security and information sharing standards.
Advertisements
By Ishaan Tharoor The Washington Post
It says a lot about this fraught moment in U.S. politics that President Trump’s move to slap immigration restrictions on almost a quarter of Africa’s population transpired with little more than a murmur in Washington. But amid the final throes of the Senate impeachment trial and the chaos of the Democratic caucuses in Iowa, the White House reinforced its virtual border wall Friday when it added six countries to the administration’s list of nations subject to either sweeping travel bans or strict immigration limits.
Continue reading “Trump scapegoats almost a quarter of Africa’s population”
Advertisements
Adding Nigeria to the expanded list of excluded countries just makes it more obvious.
By Jamelle Bouie. Opinion Columnist New York Times
Continue reading “The Racism at the Heart of Trump’s ‘Travel Ban’”
Advertisements
By Lara Jakes
WASHINGTON — Nigeria’s top diplomat said on Tuesday that he was “somewhat blindsided” by the Trump administration’s ban on Nigerian immigrants but that he had been assured by American officials that visa restrictions could soon be lifted.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s foreign minister, said that his government was already working to address security concerns that Trump administration officials said had prompted the decision, announced last week, to reject visas for Nigerians seeking to immigrate to the United States.
Continue reading “Nigeria ‘Blindsided’ by Trump Travel Ban, Its Top Diplomat Says”
Advertisements
A new ban from the White House hits one of the most successfully integrated groups in the country.
By Justin Fox Bloomberg
(Bloomberg Opinion) — This column will not render a verdict on whether the White House decision last week to suspend immigration from Nigeria — the world’s seventh most-populous nation — and five other countries was mainly an expression of bigotry from an administration led by a man who once likened African nations to latrines, or if it was a legitimate reaction to security concerns. It will, however, tell you some things you might not know about Nigerian immigrants in the U.S.
Continue reading “U.S. Could Actually Use More Nigerian Immigrants”
Advertisements
President Trump announced an extension of the controversial “travel ban” to six additional countries, including Nigeria. It isn’t really a ban on travel but rather a tightening of admissions for immigrants. The stated rationale is national security. It’s a flimsy excuse and a dumb idea.
There’s scant evidence Nigeria poses a security risk to the U.S. “This is a big mistake. Why would Nigeria be on the list? It doesn’t have a history of terrorism against the U.S.
Continue reading “TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN ON NIGERIA IS A CHEAP AND CYNICAL PLOY THAT WILL HURT BOTH COUNTRIES”
Advertisements
President Donald Trump has added Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, to a list of countries whose residents face restrictions on travel into the United States. With the new policy set to take effect on Feb. 22, here are some fast facts about Nigeria and its immigrants in the U.S., based on previously published Pew Research Center studies.
Continue reading “Fast facts about Nigeria and its immigrants as U.S. travel ban expands”
Advertisements
In northern New England, an aging population has hamstrung growth, but immigration could provide heft for the workforce.
By Alfonso Serrano
Born in Somalia, Abdullahi Ali grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in Maine in the United States on a brisk day 10 years ago this month.
Continue reading “As economic growth languishes, state of Maine banks on immigrants”
Advertisements
By Brad Petrishen
The former top lawyer for the city of Philadelphia, with more than 70 Liberians sitting behind him Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Worcester, argued that racial animus was behind President Donald J. Trump’s decision to not extend a program that has allowed Liberian refugees to stay in America for decades.
Continue reading “Liberians allege racial animus behind Trump’s decision not to extend protection from deportation”
Advertisements
“Africa weeps. Free us.”
That’s the message handwritten in French and Spanish on a protest bannerat a tent city here in the southernmost tip of Mexico.
The tents belong to some 250 African nationals who crossed jungles, forded rivers, sneaked across borders and dodged militias and thieves to get here in hopes of eventually reaching the United States. But now they are stuck, because Mexico has denied them the travel visas necessary to proceed north.
Continue reading “African migrants stuck in southern Mexico, their American dream on hold”
Advertisements
By Bill Decker
When I read or hear stories about the current immigration crisis on the U.S. southern border, the word “cacophony” frequently comes to mind: an “unpleasant mixture of loud sounds,” as one dictionary defines it.
The same dictionary then provides a list of synonyms: bedlam, clash, commotion, salvo, thunder, and uproar.
Continue reading “Taxi rides provide illumination about crisis of immigration”
Advertisements
Another 200 migrants were rescued on the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, this time as they attempted to make the crossing from Morocco into Spain. These migrants from sub-Saharan countries, traveling in three boats, are the latest in the all-too-familiar story of Africans who travel through Libya and other nations, desperately seeking to reach Europe, even as the European Union crafts policies to prevent them from crossing the sea.
The same principle is at work along the southern border of the United States, where immigration policies and enforcement under President Donald Trump have become increasingly draconian.
Continue reading “For African migrants, will Panama become the new Libya?”
Advertisements
An asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo was reunited with his family in San Diego on Sunday after almost two years in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention.
Continue reading “Congolese Asylum-Seeker Reunited With Family After Almost Two Years Apart”
Advertisements
By Donna Ditota
About three weeks ago, Bourama Sidibe and John Bol Ajak were driven to New York City by a Syracuse basketball team manager to secure a visa that would enable them to travel to Italy with their Orange teammates.
Sidibe, a native of the African nation of Mali, carries a 5-year student visa, which enables him to stay in the United States until its expiration date. But to travel anywhere outside the U.S., Sidibe needs to secure a visa. Ajak, who came to America by way of South Sudan and then Kenya, is governed by the immigration laws of South Sudan and his case apparently was complicated by his restrictive immigration status.
Continue reading “Jackson State University students go to Ghana, gain understanding of ‘Sankofa’”
Advertisements
By JACQUELINE NKHONJERA
When Fahmo Abdi and her family immigrated to the United States from Kenya, they lost contact with all of their loved ones. While living in a refugee camp, Abdi’s mother decided to move her family to the United States in search of a better life. “She knew she had to work hard to provide for us and [for] her family back home,” Abdi recalls.
Advertisements
By Rene Otinga
A Kenyan doctor who was recently deported from the United States now needs help get back to the country. Alexander Ondari, jetted back to the US in a bid to complete his last year as a resident physician at the University of Texas on July 6 but was denied entry to the country.
His unfortunate predicament has prompted him to send an urgent plea to the US embassy in Nairobi to intervene on his behalf.
Continue reading “Kenyan doctor deported from the US seeks help to return”
Advertisements
Dr. Halifu Osumare
With the Trump administration’s hardline and heartless immigration policies — starting with the 2017 rescinding of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) for young immigrants already in the U.S. and continuing with the 2018 family separation policy under his so-called “zero-tolerance” approach at the U.S.-Mexico border — the focus has been on brown people escaping poverty, gang violence, and state terror in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. But there are also tens of thousands of African, Caribbean, and African diasporans entering the country by plane that are also trapped in the morass of Trumpian hardline immigration policies.
Continue reading “Immigration And The African Diaspora”
Advertisements
Amadou Sow, 49, a Mauritanian national, stands in the doorway of his apartment in Lockland, where his family has lived for 13 years. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him Aug. 22 but inexplicably released him July 12 after almost 11 months in detention. (Photo: Albert Cesare / The Enquirer)
Continue reading “‘I do everything all Americans do.’ Home but for how long? ICE releases Mauritanian man after 11 months”
Advertisements
President Trump’s tirade against four minority congresswomen prompts the question: Whom does he consider to be American?
By Ibram X. Kendi
I live in envy. I envy the people who know their nationality. All the people whose nationality has never been a question in their mind.
Continue reading “Am I an American?”
Advertisements
By David Love
The subject of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border conjures images of people from Latin America, particularly Central America, who are fleeing poverty and violence. However, the dynamics of migration into the U.S. are changing. Increasingly, many migrants crossing the border are from nations in Africa and the Caribbean, particularly Haiti, making asylum seekers and the border a Black issue as well.
Continue reading “Why No One Is Discussing the Rise in Africans Migrants Piled at U.S.-Mexico Border”
Advertisements
The Crisis at the Border Is of Washington’s Own Making
By Randy Capps
President Donald Trump’s stance on immigration could hardly be less welcoming. During the 2016 presidential campaign, he pledged to build a wall across the entire southern border, deport all undocumented immigrants, and restrict legal immigration—including instituting a “complete and total shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. He has yet to deliver on the most draconian of these promises, but there’s no denying that his administration has made border security and immigration enforcement top priority
Continue reading “Trump’s Incendiary Rhetoric Is Only Accelerating Immigration”
Advertisements
Until the United States establishes and articulates clear rules, the crisis at the border will continue.
By David Frum
A 25-year-old man from El Salvador tried to swim with his daughter across the Rio Grande to Brownsville, Texas. Father and daughter were caught in the current, and drowned. Their bodies washed ashore on the Mexican side of the river, in an image that has seized the attention of the world.
Continue reading “America’s Asylum System Is Profoundly Broken”
Advertisements
By Rob Curran and Andrew Nelson
The last time we saw Eritrean asylum seeker Kidane Okubay, we were in a little port town on the border of Colombia and Panama and he was heading off into the night on a motorboat with 10 of his compatriots. We received emails from him on the road to the U.S., but they abruptly stopped in late August. What happened to him?
Continue reading “He traveled from Africa to Houston via Central America on plane, boat, bus and foot. There is no happy ending”
Advertisements
By Aline Barros
Sylvester Owino is a small business owner in San Diego, California. His family owns Rafikiz Foodz — an authentic African food vendor offering “Kenyan food for your soul,” using fresh ingredients from the local farmers market. Those who encounter Owino’s welcoming personality are not aware what happens once he is done working for the day. A convicted felon who robbed a shop, Owino is fighting to stay in the United States through an asylum case that has lasted nearly a decade.
Continue reading “Kenyan Immigrant Spends a Decade Fighting Deportation”
Advertisements
By Nick Schroeder
PORTLAND (BDN) — As of Friday afternoon, a total of 177 migrants have arrived in Portland. Thursday night, 157 stayed at the Portland Expo, and 20 more arrived on buses from San Antonio Friday morning. Since arriving on Sunday, 41 have also left, according to the city of Portland, possibly headed for Canada.
Continue reading “Here’s a look at the process of seeking asylum and why it’s different this time”