Page 2 - Us Immigrants

National Spelling Bee: Reflection of Indian immigrants at global stage

When Balu Natarajan became the first Indian American champion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1985, a headline on an Associated Press article read, Immigrants' son wins National Spelling Bee, with the first paragraph noting the champion speaks his parents' native Indian language at home. Those details would hardly be newsworthy today after a quarter-century of Indian American spelling champs, most of them the offspring of parents who arrived in the United States on student or work visas. This year's bee is scheduled to begin Tuesday at a convention centre outside Washington and, as usual, many of the expected contenders are Indian American, including Shradha Rachamreddy, Aryan Khedkar, Bruhat Soma and Ishika Varipilli. Nearly 70 per cent of Indian-born US residents arrived after 2000, according to census data, and that dovetails with the surge in Indian American spelling bee champions. There were two Indian American Scripps winners before 1999. Of the 34 since, 28 have been

People of Indian origin feel very proud to be Indian, says FIIDS chief

Observing that there has been a paradigm shift in India's stature at the global stage and its all round development in the last 10 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, the head of a Indian diaspora think-tank on Friday said the global Indian community right now feel very proud to be an Indian. Indian diaspora right now feels very proud to be an Indian and I think a lot of credit goes to the leadership of Prime Minister Modi in these last two terms. It really did a paradigm shift and infused confidence not just on Indian Americans but also people of Indian origin all over the world because they're now getting respected, Khanderao Kand, chief of Policy and Strategy at Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS), told PTI Friday. India is not just strong, but India's position on various issues are really appreciated. India is making awesome progress on the climate side. India is developing its infrastructure. Indian diaspora when visiting India now from ..

US firm helping immigrants in detention to pay over $811 mn in lawsuit

A company that provides services for immigrants in federal detention was ordered Tuesday to pay more than $811 million in restitution and penalties in a lawsuit alleging it used deceptive and abusive tactics. Nexus Services must pay roughly $231 million in restitution as well as penalties of $13.8 million to New York, $7.1 million to Virginia and $3.4 million to Massachusetts, according to a judgement filed in federal court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg. The Virginia-based company, its subsidiary Libre by Nexus and its three executives must also each pay more than $111 million in civil penalties. This judgment is a victory for thousands of immigrant families who lost their life savings and were targeted and preyed on by Libre, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. Libre exploited vulnerable immigrants and their families to pad its pockets, and that is illegal and unconscionable. James joined state attorneys general in Virginia and ...

Four, including 3 Indians, arrested while illegally entering US from Canada

At least four people, including three Indian nationals, have been arrested in Up state New York along the Canada border when they were trying to enter the US illegally, officials here said on Wednesday. The US Border Patrol arrested four people, including a woman, when they were jumping off a moving freight train on the International Railroad Bridge in the city of Buffalo. The fourth person, a man, was identified from the Dominican Republic. The men left the woman who became immobile due to an injury as they were approached by the police and were caught shortly after a foot pursuit. The injured woman received first aid from Erie County Sheriff's deputies and US Customs and Border Protection officers (CBP). After treatment, the woman was transported by ambulance to a local medical centre. The investigation concluded that all four people were undocumented non-citizens. The three men are being processed for removal and detained in Batavia Federal Detention Facility awaiting a deport

Programme that allows 30K migrants from 4 nations into US each month upheld

A federal judge in Texas on Friday upheld a key piece of President Joe Biden's immigration policy that allows a limited number of migrants from four countries to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds, dismissing a challenge from Republican-led states that said the program created an economic burden on them. U.S. District Judge Drew B. Tipton ruled in favor of the humanitarian parole program that allows up to 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined. Eliminating the program would undercut a broader policy that seeks to encourage migrants to use the Biden administration's preferred pathways into the U.S. or face stiff consequences. Texas and 20 other states that sued argued the program is forcing them to spend millions on health care, education, and public safety for the migrants. An attorney working with the Texas attorney general's office in the legal challenge said that the program created a shadow immigration ...

Indians now third-largest population of illegal immigrants in US: Report

The influx of undocumented Indians in the US has been climbing since the Covid restrictions were lifted, with 30,662 apprehended in FY21 and 63,927 in FY22

Pedro Pascal, Ajay Banga among Carnegie's 2023 Great Immigrants list

World Bank President Ajay Banga, Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan, singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal are on this year's Great Immigrants list announced on Wednesday by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Since 2006, the foundation has assembled an annual list of notable naturalised American citizens to celebrate the contributions immigrants make to the country and how they strengthen democracy. These are extraordinary people, said Dame Louise Richardson, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York and a native of Ireland who is a naturalised citizen herself. Presenting all these amazingly positive stories of people who've contributed hugely to American life I think is important every year. However, she acknowledges that the issue of immigration has become more politicized. I do think there is a growing sense that the numbers of migrants are somehow getting out of hand -- and this is not unique to the US, Richardson told The Associated Press in a

Immigrants wait 10 years in US just for a court date, system overwhelmed

US immigration offices have become so overwhelmed with processing migrants for court that some some asylum-seekers who crossed the border at Mexico may be waiting a decade before they even get a date to see a judge. The backlog stems from a change made two months after President Joe Biden took office, when Border Patrol agents began now-defunct practice of quickly releasing immigrants on parole. They were given instructions to report to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at their final destination to be processed for court work previously done by the Border Patrol. The change prevented the kind of massive overcrowding of holding cells in 2019, when some migrants stood on toilets for room to breathe. But the cost became evident as ICE officers tasked with issuing court papers couldn't keep pace. Offices in some cities are now telling migrants to come back years from now, and the extra work has strained ICE's capacity for its traditional work of enforcing immigration .

Do not just show up at the border: US President Biden tells migrants

The Biden administration on Thursday said it would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, a major expansion of an existing effort to stop Venezuelans attempting to enter the US. Instead, the administration will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offer the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks. These four affected nations are among those for whom migrant border crossings have risen most sharply, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries. Do not, do not just show up at the border," Biden said Thursday. Stay where you are and apply legally from there. It was Biden's boldest move yet to confront spiralling arrivals at the US border with Mexico, a major change to immigration rules that will stand even if the US Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law that allows American ..

US immigrants generate 36% of nation's innovation, finds NBER study

About 36% of the innovative output of the past three decades can be attributed to immigrants - who make up 16% of the country's inventors, the paper concludes

Migrants near US border wait for asylum ruling amid falling temperatures

Hairdresser Grisel Garcs survived a harrowing, four-month journey from her native Venezuela through tropical jungles, migrant detention centres in southern Mexico and then jolting railcar rides north toward the U.S. border. Now on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande across from El Paso, Texas, she's anxiously awaiting a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on asylum restrictions expected to affect her and thousands of other migrants at crossings along some 3,100 kilometers of border from Texas to California. And she's doing so while living outside as winter temperatures plunge over much of the U.S. and across the border. She told of fleeing economic hardship only to find more hardship, such as now having to shiver through temperatures colder than any she's ever experienced. Riding the train was bad. Here the situation is even worse. You just turn yourself over to God's mercy, said Garcs, who left a school-aged daughter behind, hoping to reach the U.S. with her husband. Their savings

US SC temporarily halts expiration of asylum-limiting policy Title 42

The US Supreme Court has temporarily halted the expiration of an asylum-limiting policy which was set to end this week

US plans for more migrant releases when asylum restrictions end next week

The Department of Homeland Security said more migrants may be released into the United States to pursue immigration cases when Trump-era asylum restrictions end next week in one of its most detailed assessments ahead of the major policy shift. The department reported faster processing for migrants in custody on the border, more temporary detention tents, staffing surges and increased criminal prosecutions of smugglers, noting progress on a plan announced in April. But the seven-page document dated Tuesday included no major structural changes amid unusually large numbers of migrants entering the country. More are expected with the end of Title 42 authority, under which migrants have been denied rights to seek asylum more than 2.5 million times on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. A federal judge in Washington ordered Title 42 to end December 21 but Republican-led states asked an appeals court to keep it in place. The Biden administration has also challenged some aspects of

Nearly one million immigrants gained US citizenship in FY22: Report

Nearly one million immigrants obtained US citizenship during 2022, the highest number of naturalized citizens in almost 15 years, according to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services report

US govt appeals ruling that would lift asylum restrictions for migrants

The US government said Wednesday it is appealing a court ruling that would otherwise lift asylum restrictions that have become the cornerstone of border enforcement in recent years. The enforcement rule first took effect in March 2020, denying migrants' rights to seek asylum under US and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The Homeland Security Department said it would file an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging a November ruling by US District Judge Emmet Sullivan that ordered President Joe Biden's administration to lift the asylum restrictions. The restrictions were put in place under former President Donald Trump at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The practice was authorized under Title 42 of a broader 1944 law covering public health, and has been used to expel migrants more than 2.4 million times.

Will expand temporary legal status for Haitians residing in country: US

The Biden administration said Monday that it would expand temporary legal status for Haitians already living in the United States, determining conditions in the Caribbean nation were too dangerous for their forced return. The Homeland Security Department said Haitians who were in the United States November 6 could apply for Temporary Protected Status and those who were granted it last year could stay an additional 18 months until August 3, 2024. The administration has extended temporary status for several countries and expanded or introduced it for Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Myanmar, Cameroon and Venezuela, reversing a Trump-era trend to cut back on protections for those already in the United States. TPS, which typically comes with authorisation to work, may be extended in increments up to 18 months for countries struck by natural disasters or civil strife. Haiti has seen increasingly brazen attacks by gangs that have grown more powerful since the July 2021 assassination of ...

Joe Biden turning to Trump-era rule to expel Venezuelan migrants

Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted cruelty and exclusion at every turn, including toward those fleeing the "brutal" government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the US-Mexico border as the Nov 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor's playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 -- which Biden's own Justice Department is fighting in court to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America's southern border will be expelled

California first to cover health care for all low-income immigrants

It's a long-sought victory for health care and immigration activists, who have been asking for the change for more than a decade

Mexico's Prez Obrador urges US to legalise status of Mexican immigrants

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said his administration will continue to press the US to legalise the status of Mexican immigrants.

US dismantles Trump-era govt office for victims of immigrant crime

The Joe Biden administration said on Friday it has dismantled a Trump-era government office to help victims of crimes committed by immigrants