FOR THOUSANDS of Massachusetts immigrants worried about paying higher fees for immigration and citizenship applications, the significant increases have been held at bay —at least temporarily. A federal judge in California last week granted a nationwide preliminary injunction against the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, barring the agency from hiking fees on October 2 for […]
Immigration
Posted inUncategorized
Boston leads effort protesting naturalization fee hike
THE CITY OF BOSTON filed an amicus brief Thursday on behalf of 34 cities, counties, and municipal agencies asking a federal court to stop a new rule from going into effect that would nearly double the cost to apply for citizenship. Beginning October 2, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is increasing its fee […]
Posted inUncategorized
Appeals court backs Trump on immigrant program
A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT has ruled the Trump administration can end humanitarian protections that have allowed more than 300,000 people from El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan to remain in the United States, including thousands in Massachusetts. A divided 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday lifted a preliminary injunction that blocked the government from ending Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for people from […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Appeals court reverses ban on ICE courthouse arrests
A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT has lifted a ban that kept immigration authorities from civilly detaining immigrants in and around Massachusetts courthouses. The First Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday vacated an injunction that barred US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making civil arrests in courthouses. The lawsuit to obtain the injunction, first reported by […]
Posted inUncategorized
Healey sues Trump over immigrant ed aid
MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL Maura Healey sued the Trump administration on Thursday seeking to block a rule barring colleges and universities from using federal stimulus money to provide financial aid to certain immigrant college students. “This is yet another senseless, cruel attempt from the Trump Administration to harm immigrant and other vulnerable students by blocking them from accessing relief under the CARES Act,” […]
Posted inPolitics
Federal immigration agency cancels furloughs
EMPLOYEES THAT WORK for the federal agency that processes immigrant visas found out Tuesday morning they won’t be furloughed after all, but the spending cuts that allowed the agency to keep its workers on board are expected to increase wait times for immigrants. Officials with US Citizenship and Immigration Services sent an email to employees […]
Posted inUncategorized
After 19 years in refugee camps, a new home in Lowell
PAW PYA, spent more than half of her life in Thai refugee camps, longing for a permanent home. Coronavirus tacked another five months onto her wait. But following the July 29 lifting of a ban on refugee admissions put in place when the pandemic broke out, Pya and her family became the first refugees to arrive in Massachusetts in five months through standard resettlement […]
Posted inUncategorized
Trump relaxes some visa rules
FOR FOREIGN CITIZENS who work in Massachusetts but found themselves stuck abroad due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, the State Department has offered a yellow light to come back. The US Department of State said Wednesday that foreign nationals working in the US legally who were stranded overseas with suspended work visas can now return to […]
Posted inEconomy
Poll finds Latinos heavily impacted by coronavirus
FOOD INSECURITY, DEPRESSION, and unemployment are the top three issues impacting Latino residents in Massachusetts during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the MassINC Polling Group. Twenty percent of Latinos are unemployed, a figure higher than the state’s overall highest-in-the-nation rate of 17.4 percent, according to the poll. Over a third say they have gotten food […]
Posted inBy The Numbers
Survey shows impact of pandemic on immigrant households
A NEW STUDY demonstrates that immigrant families in the state are facing the same toll from the coronavirus disruption of the economy as most working-class Americans — but their problems are exacerbated by exclusion from crucial safety-net programs and stimulus payments. The survey, conducted from July 2 to 27 by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, included 433 respondents from across the Commonwealth who speak 16 languages. […]