This summary was featured in Documented’s Early Arrival newsletter. You can subscribe to receive it in your inbox three times per week here.
Between Nov. 14 and the end of 2020, 171 new applicants to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program were approved — the first in several years, according to a report submitted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to a Brooklyn federal court. There were 2,713 applications submitted in total; 121 applications were denied and 396 applications were rejected. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it approved 61,844 DACA renewals while also denying 326 and rejecting 2,842 renewals in the last six weeks of 2020. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf attempted to end the DACA program, but a judge decided he was not legally appointed and didn’t have the authority to do so. The Associated Press
In other local immigration news…
Hunger Strikes Continue at Hudson County Jail
More than 50 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at Hudson County jail have restored a hunger strike over their alleged mistreatment amid the coronavirus pandemic. The organization Abolish ICE New York-New Jersey said 55 detainees from Kearny facility, as well as 86 detainees from Essex County jail, are demanding their immediate release to avoid COVID-19 risk. Advocates say about 25 detainees at the jail went on a hunger strike last week, but it was paused after detainees requested a meeting with ICE representatives. An ICE spokesman said there were no hunger strikes inside Hudson County jail, but did not reply to an email questioning about detainees demanding the meeting. NJ.com
Here’s the final look back at what Documented published these past few weeks while Early Arrival hibernated:
孰真孰假？对特朗普关于移民的言论的事实核查
How the FBI Coerced this Muslim Immigrant into Working as an Informant
📍 Documented Original
In October 2015, FBI agents bursted into the Bronx apartment Fatma, a Ghanian immigrant, lived in with her husband, baby and another family. They brought her to Manhattan, took her through a maze of tunnels and back doors into a building she had never seen, and questioned her citizenship status. Fatma didn’t know at the time, but this was the start of a four-year relationship with the agency. She was pushed to act as an FBI informant in exchange for help in her attempts to get a green card — a tactic that had been deployed against Muslim immigrants long before President Trump took office. Read more at Documented
Only 20% of ICE Detainees Get a Hearing Within 10 Days
📍 Documented Original
A New York judge’s ruling on the government providing immigration hearings for detainees within 10 days of their arrest may prove a challenge for the Biden administration. On Nov. 30, U.S. District Court Judge Allison J. Nathan of Manhattan declared the long waits detainees often face under ICE custody before encountering a judge unconstitutional. The order created pressure for ICE and the Executive Office for Immigration Review to apply this standard throughout the country if they want to avoid future lawsuits charging them with routinely violating the due process rights of thousands of immigration detainees. Read more at Documented
