Tag: immigration issues

Immigration

As length of immigrant detentions grows in Minnesota, so do petitions for relief

By Brandon Stahl

Cabduqaadir Mayow fled Somalia in 2014 and asked the United States for asylum, saying the terrorist group al-Shabab was threatening to kill him. A judge, finding no credible evidence to support the claim, ordered him deported. But with no functioning government in Somalia, the Department of Homeland Security let Mayow go.

He moved to Minnesota, married a U.S. citizen in 2015 and hoped they could start a life in the country. During a check-in on June 10, 2017, ICE arrested him and told him he would be deported to Somalia. For nearly two years he sat in jail, despite never being charged with a crime.

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Opinion

Why Should Immigrants ‘Respect Our Borders’? The West Never Respected Theirs

Immigration quotas should be based on how much the host country has ruined other countries.

By Suketu Mehta

There is a lot of debate these days about whether the United States owes its African-American citizens reparations for slavery. It does. But there is a far bigger bill that the United States and Europe have run up: what they owe to other countries for their colonial adventures, for the wars they imposed on them, for the inequality they have built into the world order, for the excess carbon they have dumped into the atmosphere.

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Immigration

VIDEO: Border Patrol detains 116 African migrants crossing US-Mexico border

U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas intercepted 116 African migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. The group consisted of migrants from Angola, Cameroon and Congo.

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Immigration

Eight Rwandan traditional dancers vanish while on US tour.

A group of 8 traditional dancers of the ‘Inganzo Ngari’ have gone missing after taking part in a Dance Festival in New York. The group of 20 Rwandans had traveled to the US to showcase their talents at the festival.

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Immigration

U.S. Now Requiring Visa Applicants to List Social-Media Names

By Steven T. Dennis

The U.S. now wants to know the social-media user names of people applying for visas, part of stepped up screening of foreign visitors and immigrants.

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Immigration

There Are Few Resources to Help African Migrants at the Mexican Border

The number of Eritreans and Cameroonians detained in Mexico has been steadily increasing over the past five years. But they haven’t tapped into many of the resources available to Central American and Mexican migrants for a variety of reasons, including language and other cultural barriers. They also encounter unique hurdles when navigating the asylum process in the United States.

By Maya Srikrishnan

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Diplomacy, Immigration

Ghanaian government is making headway in efforts to reverse US visa restrictions

By Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh

Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, says the government is making some progress in its quest to reverse visa restrictions imposed on the country by the United States government.

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Immigration

642 Ghanaians deported from the United States

By Priscilla Aklorbortu

A report on the activities of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in the 2018 fiscal year shows that 642 Ghanaians were deported from the United States between 2016 and 2018.

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Immigration, Opinion

Who decides who is a real American?
By Douglas Moore Who decides who is a real American? Does any one person or group have the right to define those who are real Americans as opposed to those who are not? Continue reading “Who decides who is a real American?” →
Asylum

Asylum Claims Triple in Canada Over the Past Two Years

The number of people seeking asylum in Canada more than tripled over a two-year period and reached a monthly peak in August 2017 when thousands crossed illegally from the US, Statistics Canada said on Friday.

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Immigration

29,723 Nigerians overstayed in US in 2018

Almost 30,000 Nigerians stayed beyond the period lawfully allowed by their visas in the US last year.

By Samson Toromade

A total of 29,723 Nigerian immigrants who travelled to the United States of America in 2018 overstayed their visas according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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Immigration

US deporting more people to Eritrea — a country it says tortures.

As the U.S. remains locked in a debate over asylum seekers from Central America, lawyers and advocacy groups say they are seeing an alarming uptick in deportations to the African nation of Eritrea — a country that President Donald Trump’s government acknowledges arbitrarily imprisons and tortures its own citizens. 

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Opinion

The U.S. Is Crazy to Scare Skilled Immigrants Away

Welcoming foreign talent is a win-win policy.

By Noah Smith

President Donald Trump has done a lot to scare high-skilled immigrants away from the U.S. He has made it harder for them to get green cards. He has blocked some foreign students from entering and discouraged others from working during school. He is considering banning the spouses of H-1b visa holders from working in the country at all. The harassment campaign appears to be working. H-1b applications are down, as is the number of visas being issued to overseas students:

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Uncategorized

Trump’s crackdown on visa overstays targets mostly African, Asian nations

By Alan Gomez

President Donald Trump’s order to crack down on visa overstays will target mostly African and Asian nations.

And the effort will deal with only about 12% of foreigners who legally enter the U.S. on short-term visas but remain in the country after that visa has expired.

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Opinion

The U.S and Canada need immigration

By Don Thompson

I didn’t immigrate to Canada to escape murderous gangs, an oppressive government or religious persecution. I chose to come here…freely. I am not a person of colour, a woman, a member of the LGBTQ community. I had no children with an ache for a better life. I am, in fact, a member of the most privileged group in the world…an educated white man of means…from the United States.

That said, I have a deep and abiding empathy for refugees and immigrants who come to Canada and the United States…two countries I call home…for a better life.

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News, People

8-Year-Old Homeless Nigerian Refugee is a Chess Champion in New York

By Nicholas Kristof

In a homeless shelter in Manhattan, an 8-year-old boy is walking to his room, carrying an awkward load in his arms, unfazed by screams from a troubled resident. The boy is a Nigerian refugee with an uncertain future, but he is beaming.

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Immigration

Liberians in U.S. face tough choice as immigration program ends
By Orion Donovan-Smith

Magdalene Menyongar’s day starts with a 5:30 a.m. conference call with women from her church. They pray together as Menyongar makes breakfast and drives to work, reflecting on everything they are thankful for.

But lately, the prayers have turned to matters of politics and immigration. They pray with increasing urgency for Congress or President Trump to act before Menyongar, 48, faces deportation to her native Liberia, where she fled civil war nearly 25 years ago.

In less than six weeks, the order that has allowed her and more than 800 other immigrants from the former American colony in West Africa to live in the United States for decades will end, the result of Trump’s decision last year to terminate a program that every other president since George H.W. Bush supported.

Come March 31, Menyongar will face a choice: Return to Liberia and leave behind her 17-year-old daughter, an American citizen, or stay in the United States, losing her work authorization and becoming an undocumented immigrant.

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Uncategorized

Congolese Family Pleads For Help With Dad’s Asylum Case

By Jean Guerrero

The family of Constantin Bakala gathered in downtown San Diego on Thursday to submit a petition with the federal government, with nearly 500 signatures, asking for their father not to be deported.

As soon as Friday the father of seven from the Democratic Republic of Congo may be returned to a country where he fears he’ll be killed. The family fled home in 2017 after they were tortured and poisoned because of Bakala’s calls for democracy, according to the family.

After a harrowing journey through some of Latin America’s most dangerous countries, including a shipwreck where they lost important documents for their asylum case, the family was separated upon arrival in the U.S. through the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Bakala was put in detention while his wife and kids were released on parole. His asylum petition was rejected, his family says, because he couldn’t get an attorney from inside detention until months into his case.

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