First modification:
The update to the temporary program allows up to 30,000 Cuban, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan and Haitian migrants to enter the United States by plane each month who certify that they have financial sponsors who will support them once they are on US soil. A measure that comes shortly after Title 42 expired, a regulation originated by the Covid-19 health situation during the term of former President Donald Trump.
Due to the large number of petitions that the Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has received, more than half of the monthly total of petitions that arrive at this office began to be reviewed on Wednesday, May 17. May, regardless of the date of receipt, randomly.
The agency said in a statement that the other half of the monthly total will be verified based on the normal criteria for review, that is, depending on when the application is submitted, on a first-come, first-served basis, starting with the oldest to the most recent. recent.
In the document, released this Thursday, May 18, the USCIS explains that this update is intended for applicants for humanitarian visas have a fair margin of opportunity and they can advance in the advance travel authorization process without there being cases of inequality or priorities due to time issues in which the documents were received. This contemplates people who have filled out the so-called Form I-134AnailsOnline application to become a ‘Support Person and Declaration of Financial Support’.
With this modification, the entity will select at least 15,000 of the 30,000 monthly applicants who arrive at the office, regardless of their presentation date, to determine which case can be confirmed.
“We will review the other half of the monthly total of Forms I-134A based on the filing date of the case under a ‘first in, first out’ method that gives priority to older applications for review,” USCIS announced.
Venezuelans were the first to benefit from this program when, in October 2022, the Government of President Joe Biden implemented it. Later, in January 2023, applicants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua joined and the number of applicants that could be accepted was increased.
In April alone, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office recorded that 28,738 migrants from these four countries entered the United States. A scenario that occurred just weeks before Title 42 expired, which was implemented in the Donald Trump Administration as a measure linked to a public health emergency, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Applicants and sponsors who want to know the progress of their cases can go to the agency’s website.
The Supreme Court dismisses Title 42
The great American court announced that it will formally eliminate Title 42. After the presentation of a case led by Republican politicians in which they sought to keep the Trump-era policy in force.
The main argument of the magistrates was that said policy was designed under a health emergency framework that ended when President Biden determined it on May 11.
JUST IN: Supreme Court dismisses defense of Title 42 migrant policy.
Neil Gorsuch: “Since March 2020, we may have experienced the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country… leaders imposed lockdown orders… shuttered businesses and schools.” pic.twitter.com/v9T1AYr79D
—Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) May 18, 2023
The petition reached the High Court through an application involving 19 state attorneys general who claimed to be defending the policy.
In November, a federal judge had ruled that Title 42 was illegal, but the Supreme Court stayed that ruling a month later and agreed to consider allowing attorneys general to participate in that case.
In the document, the judicial authority says that at the time the Supreme Court had been “part of the problem by allowing litigants to manipulate” the file “to perpetuate a decree designed for one emergency to address another.”
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, said that many state governments took advantage of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis to “give themselves liberties” and address other problems that were not related to the health emergency.
“The Title 42 orders served as emergency orders that severely restricted immigration into this country for the apparent purpose of preventing the spread of Covid-19,” Gorsuch said. He added: “We may have experienced the greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the history of this country in peacetime.”
With Reuters and local media.