Asylum and Its Discontents in the United States
My law partner and I are adjunct professors at GW Law School, where we teach Asylum and Refugee Law (yes, we are basically one-trick ponies). This week, we learned that a scheduled debate called “Immigration 2018: Words Matter” was effectively canceled after one of the panelists was dis-invited due to his affiliation with the Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”), … Read more
This article is by Josh Rigney, the Legal Services Program Manager at the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC). Josh has worked with survivors of torture seeking asylum since May 2012. He holds a Master’s in International Relations and a Juris Doctor from American University. He is a member of the Virginia State … Read more
Nayla Rush, a Senior Researcher at the anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies, has apparently been spying on the USCIS Asylum Division – and lying about what she has overheard. First, a bit of background: As you may know, the Center for Immigration Studies or CIS (not to be confused with USCIS – the United States Citizenship and Immigration … Read more
A recent article by Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies posits that even if the unaccompanied minors arriving at our Southern border are refugees, they should be sent back. I find that CIS in general and Mr. Krikorian in particular are usually fairly reasonable in their arguments (though there are exceptions; and more … Read more
The Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”) is a restrictionist immigration group with which I rarely agree (though they did recently call me a babe, which I certainly appreciate). In a new report, Asylum in the United States: How a finely tuned system of checks and balances has been effectively dismantled, CIS Fellow Dan Cadman argues … Read more
It’s easy to find anti-immigration websites and blogs on the internet, but there really aren’t many websites devoted exclusively to opposing refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. Of course, many of the anti-immigration websites periodically discuss these issues, but this is not the same as a restrictionist website focusing on asylum. The only blog … Read more
For those who seek to limit immigration to the U.S., one area of concern is so-called “chain immigration,” where one immigrant brings multiple family members to the United States. This applies to asylees and refugees as follows: Such people can immediately bring their spouses and under-21, unmarried children to the United States (the term “immediately” … Read more
In this series (I suppose two posts counts as a series), I’ve been writing responses to some restrictionist proposals to reform the asylum system. My first piece was a response to Professor Jan C. Ting, who suggested we move asylum adjudication from DHS and EOIR to the U.S. Department of State. Today, I will examine … Read more
David North recently posted a blog entry, the Uses and Abuses of the Asylum System, on the Center for Immigration Studies website. Normally, I disagree (sometimes vehemently) with postings on the CIS website. But this time, I’m pretty much in agreement with Mr. North. In his posting, Mr. North describes the refugee system and the … Read more
The Center for Immigration Studies never seems to let the facts get in the way of attacking immigrants and those who advocate for them. Most recently, Jessica Vaughan, CIS Director of Policy Studies, criticized Immigration Daily for holding a training on gang-based asylum claims. Instead of discussing the actual subject of the training, which is not particularly controversial, Ms. … Read more