Latest news with #AmericanImmigrationCouncil
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill to require Texas illegal immigration impact study dies
AUSTIN (KXAN) — It's been nearly 20 years since Texas last studied the impact of mass deportations, and there's no plan to revisit the effort anytime soon. As the federal government continues widespread deportations of undocumented immigrants and workers, a bill that would have required an annual study of the effect unauthorized migrants have on the state has died. Senate Bill 825 would have required a biennial report cataloging the economic, environmental and financial impacts of illegal immigration. The governor's office could have contracted with a state or federal agency, a nonprofit or an institution of higher education to conduct the research. In 2006, former Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn released the first, and last, comprehensive study on unauthorized workers' impact on the state's finances. Undocumented immigrants in Texas generated 'more taxes and other revenue than the state spends on them,' the study found. Employing undocumented workers in Texas is illegal, but rarely enforced Back then, 31% of undocumented immigrants worked in the service industry, followed by 19% in construction. The study found a quarter of all farm workers were undocumented. Deporting 1.4 million undocumented workers would have dropped gross state product by $17.7 billion with the state unable to fully recover the loss of labor over a 20-year period, according to the report. Today, the American Immigration Council, estimates Texas has more than two million undocumented immigrants making up 9% of the workforce. The AIC estimates 27% of construction workers, 17% of agriculture workers and 11% of manufacturing jobs in the state are done by undocumented workers. But, without official data, the exact numbers are hard to know. EXPLORE: KXAN's Undocumented investigative series Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Sid Miller previously acknowledged 'we don't have the data,' but said, 'using cowboy logic,' he didn't foresee much economic damage from a spike in immigration enforcement — at least not for farming, which his office oversees. 'I'm not advocating spending a lot of tax dollars on it,' Miller told KXAN last month when asked if the state should revisit the issue and once again study the economic impact. 'The private industry is moving so fast I don't know that they could even catch them at this point. So, at some point, it would be nice to at least get 20 years [of] updated [data] and see what we've got. And, I think we could do that…with pretty reasonable research.' Miller credited automation and new technology for lessening the need to hire undocumented farm workers. Amid ongoing reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on businesses and job sites around the country a KXAN investigation previously found the federal government has focused far more on going after migrants than the bosses who hire and pay them. SB 825 passed the Senate but never made it to a floor vote in the House. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
What is temporary protected status and who is affected by Trump's crackdown?
Millions of people live legally in the United States under various forms of temporary legal protection. Many have been targeted in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. The latest move has been against people who have what is known as 'temporary protected status' (TPS), which grants people the right to stay in the US legally due to extraordinary circumstances in their home country such as war or environmental catastrophe. The Trump administration has in recent weeks announced its plan to end TPS for Haitians, Venezuelans, Afghans and Cameroonians. The move may force more than 9,000 Afghan refugees to move back to the country now ruled by the Taliban. The administration also is ending the designation for roughly half a million Haitians in August. Related: US supreme court allows Trump to revoke protected status for Venezuelans Here's what to know about TPS and some other temporary protections for immigrants: Temporary protected status allows people already living in the United States to stay and work legally for up to 18 months if their homelands are unsafe because of civil unrest or natural disasters. The Biden administration dramatically expanded the designation. It covers people from more than a dozen countries, though the largest numbers come from Venezuela and Haiti. The status does not put immigrants on a long-term path to citizenship and can be repeatedly renewed. Critics say renewal has become in effect automatic for many immigrants, no matter what is happening in their home countries. According to the American Immigration Council, ending TPS designations would lead to a significant economic loss for the US. The non-profit found that TPS households in the country earned more than $10bn in total income in 2021, and paid nearly $1.3bn in federal taxes. On Monday, the supreme court allowed the administration to end protections that had allowed some 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants to remain in the United States. Many Venezuelans were first granted TPS in 2021 by the Biden administration, allowing those who were already in the US to apply for protection from deportation and gain work authorization. Then, in 2023, the Biden administration issued an additional TPS designation for Venezuelans, and in January – just before Trump took office – extended those protections through October 2026. The Trump administration officials had ordered TPS to expire for those Venezuelans in April. The supreme court's decision lifted a federal judge's ruling that had paused the administration's plans, meaning TPS holders are now at risk of losing their protections and could face deportation. More than 500,000 people from what are sometimes called the CHNV countries – Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela – live in the US under the legal tool known as humanitarian parole, which allows people to enter the US temporarily, on the basis that they have an urgent humanitarian need like a medical emergency. This category, however, is also under threat by the Trump administration. In late March, the Trump administration announced plans to terminate humanitarian parole for approximately 530,000 Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Haitians. In April, a federal judge issued a temporary order barring the elimination of the humanitarian parole program. But last week, the administration took the issue to the supreme court, asking it to allow it to end parole for immigrants from those four countries. The emergency appeal said a lower-court order had wrongly encroached on the authority of the Department of Homeland Security. US administrations – both Republican and Democratic – have used parole for decades for people unable to use regular immigration channels, whether because of time pressure or bad relations between their country and the US. The case now returns to the lower courts. For the California-based federal court, the next hearing is on 29 May. For the Massachusetts case, no hearings are scheduled and attorneys are working on a briefing for the motion to dismiss filed by the government, according to WGBH, a member station of National Public Radio in Massachusetts. The appeals court hearing will be the week of 11 July.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Supreme court allows White House to revoke temporary protected status of many migrants
The US supreme court on Friday announced it would allow the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president's drive to step up deportations. The court put on hold Boston-based US district judge Indira Talwani's order halting the administration's move to end the immigration humanitarian 'parole' protections granted to 532,000 people by Donald Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, potentially exposing many of them to rapid removal from the country, while the detailed case plays out in lower courts. As with many of the court's emergency orders – after rapid appeals brought the case to their bench – the decision issued on Friday was unsigned and gave no reasoning. However two of the court's three liberal-leaning justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor, publicly dissented. The court 'botched' its assessment of whether the administration was entitled to freeze Talwani's decision pending the litigation, Jackson wrote in an accompanying opinion. Related: Trump administration sets quota to arrest 3,000 people a day in anti-immigration agenda The outcome, Jackson wrote, 'undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending'. Jackson also said that 'it is apparent that the government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum pre-decision damage.' She added that those living under parole protections in this case now face 'two unbearable options'. One option is to 'elect to leave the United States and thereby, confront 'dangers in their native countries,' experience destructive 'family separation' and possibly 'forfeit any opportunity to obtain a remedy based on their … claims', Jackson wrote. The other option is that they could remain in the US after parole termination and 'risk imminent removal at the hands of government agents, along with its serious attendant consequences'. To Jackson, 'either choice creates significant problems for respondents that far exceed any harm to the government … At a minimum, granting the stay would facilitate needless human suffering before the courts have reached a final judgement regarding the legal arguments at issue, while denying the government's application would not have anything close to the kind of practical impact.' Immigration parole is a form of temporary permission under American law to be in the country for 'urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit', allowing recipients to live and work in the US. Biden, a Democrat, used parole as part of his administration's approach to handling migrants entering at the US-Mexico border. Such a status does not offer immigrants a long-term path towards citizenship but it can typically be renewed multiple times. A report from the American Immigration Council found that halting the program would, apart from the humanitarian effect, be a blow to the US economy, as households in the US where the breadwinners have temporary protected status (TPS) collectively earned more than $10bn in total income in 2021 while paying nearly $1.3bn in federal taxes. Trump called for ending humanitarian parole programs in an executive order signed on 20 January, his first day back in office. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subsequently moved to terminate them in March, cutting short the two-year parole grants. The administration said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place migrants in a fast-track deportation process called 'expedited removal'. The case is one of many that the Trump administration has brought in an emergency fashion to the nation's highest judicial body seeking to undo decisions by judges impeding the president's sweeping policies, including several targeting immigrants. The supreme court on 19 May also let Trump end TPS that had been granted under Biden to about 350,000 additional Venezuelans living in the United States, while that legal dispute plays out. Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent then, while House Democrats condemned the supreme court's decision. In a bid to reduce unauthorized border crossings, Biden starting in 2022 offering limited extra pathways to come to the US legally, allowing Venezuelans who entered the US by air to request a two-year parole if they passed security checks and had a US financial sponsor. Biden expanded that eligibility process to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023 as his administration grappled with high levels of illegal immigration from those countries. The plaintiffs in this case, a group of migrants granted parole and Americans who serve as their sponsors, sued administration officials claiming they violated federal law governing the actions of government agencies. Talwani in April found that the law governing such parole did not allow for the program's blanket termination, instead requiring a case-by-case review. The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals declined to put the judge's decision on hold and the government appealed. Related: US immigration authorities collecting DNA information of children in criminal database The justice department told the supreme court that Talwani's order had upended 'critical immigration policies that are carefully calibrated to deter illegal entry', effectively 'undoing democratically approved policies that featured heavily in the November election' that returned Trump to the presidency. The plaintiffs told the supreme court they would face grave harm if their parole is cut short given that the administration has indefinitely suspended processing their pending applications for asylum and other immigration relief. They said they would be separated from their families and immediately subject to expedited deportation 'to the same despotic and unstable countries from which they fled, where many will face serious risks of danger, persecution and even death'. Speaking at the White House on Friday afternoon, Trump praised the decision, saying 'a couple of hours ago we had a great decision from the supreme court that's very important'. Reuters contributed reporting
Mint
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
What is Temporary Protected Status — why is it under threat from Trump's crackdown?
US Immigration Crackdown: The future of hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States under temporary legal protection hangs in the balance, as the Donald Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown. Recent actions have specifically targeted individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation granted to those unable to return to their home countries due to extraordinary circumstances such as armed conflict or natural disasters. The administration's decision to end TPS for Venezuelans, Haitians, Afghans, and Cameroonians has drawn sharp criticism. Concerns have been raised about the potential forced return of over 9,000 Afghan refugees to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and the displacement of approximately half a million Haitians. TPS allows eligible individuals to reside and work legally in the US for up to 18 months, with the possibility of repeated renewals. Critics argue that these renewals have become virtually automatic, regardless of conditions in the immigrants' home countries. Legal challenges surrounding these policies have reached the Supreme Court, which recently permitted the Trump administration to terminate protections for Venezuelans that had been previously granted by the Biden administration. This ruling lifted a lower court decision that had temporarily paused the administration's plans, placing TPS holders at immediate risk of losing their protected status and facing potential deportation. Beyond TPS, other forms of humanitarian relief are under threat. The Trump administration has moved to end humanitarian parole for over half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Humanitarian parole allows individuals to enter the US temporarily based on urgent humanitarian needs. Although a federal judge initially blocked the termination of this programme, the administration has appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking to end parole for immigrants from these four countries. The case is now returning to the lower courts. These policy shifts have sparked widespread debate about the economic and social impact of ending temporary immigration protections. The American Immigration Council estimates that TPS households earned over $10 billion in total income in 2021 and paid nearly $1.3 billion in federal taxes, highlighting their significant contributions to the US economy. As legal battles continue and policy changes unfold, the future remains uncertain for millions of immigrants and the communities they support.
Indian Express
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
What is temporary protected status for immigrants rolled back by Trump & who will be affected?
Millions of immigrants in the United States live and work legally under temporary protections, often granted during times of crisis in their home countries. These protections, including Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and humanitarian parole, have been lifelines for people fleeing war, political upheaval, or natural disasters. They do not lead to citizenship but allow recipients to remain in the US lawfully, support their families, and contribute to the economy. For years, both Democratic and Republican administrations have used these tools as part of broader immigration policy, balancing humanitarian needs with border management. Now, these protections are under direct threat. In a sweeping crackdown reminiscent of his first term, Donald Trump's administration has begun rolling back several of these programs—chief among them, TPS. In recent weeks, the administration has announced plans to end protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from countries like Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, and Cameroon. TPS allows individuals already living in the US to remain and work legally for up to 18 months if their home countries are unsafe due to war, civil unrest, or environmental disasters. It can be renewed but does not lead to citizenship. As per The Guardian, critics argue renewal has become 'effectively automatic,' regardless of conditions in home countries. The Biden administration significantly expanded TPS, covering people from over a dozen nations—Venezuelans and Haitians being the largest groups. According to the American Immigration Council as cited by The Guardian, TPS households earned over $10 billion in 2021 and paid nearly $1.3 billion in federal taxes. Ending the designation, the council notes, would lead to significant economic losses. The Trump administration recently announced plans to end TPS for Haitians, Venezuelans, Afghans, and Cameroonians. This could force over 9,000 Afghans to return to a Taliban-ruled country. Around 500,000 Haitians are also set to lose protections by August. On Monday, the US supreme court allowed the administration to end TPS for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans, lifting a prior block. These protections, first granted in 2021 and extended by Biden through 2026, are now at risk. TPS holders could face deportation. The administration also wants to terminate humanitarian parole—a temporary entry program for those facing urgent needs like medical emergencies—for over 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (the CHNV countries). In March, Trump officials announced plans to end this program. In April, a federal judge temporarily halted that decision. However, the administration appealed to the supreme court, arguing the block infringed on the Department of Homeland Security's authority. The case returns to lower courts: a California hearing is scheduled for 29 May, while the Massachusetts case is still at the motion-to-dismiss stage, with an appeals hearing expected in July.
