News

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) recetnly announced that it will phase out the use of private prisons within the federal prison system. This is a great move, but it’s bittersweet. While DOJ is in charge of federal prisons generally, it is not in charge of immigration detention. Instead, immigration detention falls under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). And DHS shows no intention of phasing out its use of private prisons.

A couple of days ago, the Los Angeles Times published this story about language problems that asylum seekers from Guatemala and Honduras can face. While many people think of these countries as Spanish-speaking, that misses a range of linguistic diversity. In fact, two languages from this region have become so frequent that they are now the 10th and 11th most common languages in US immigration court: Mam and Quiché. These languages have surpassed French in US immigration courts.

On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a final regulation that expands the provisional unlawful presence waiver. This waiver is necessary for persons who have a qualifying relative in the United States (a spouse or a parent where the spouse or parent is a US citizen or a lawful permanent resident) but who cannot get a green card from within the United States. The most common reason that a green card is not available in the United States is because that person entered without inspection (e.