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The Senate confirmed Ur Jaddou to become director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. She will become the first woman and first of Arab and Mexican descent holding the position. The agency hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed leader in over two years. Jaddou, the daughter of Mexican and Iraqi immigrants, was the lead attorney at USCIS during the Obama administration. Jaddou’s confirmation comes after years of continuous changes within the agency during the Trump administration, during which USCIS altered its focus from providing immigration benefits to executing policies to restrict immigration. Under the Biden administration, the agency has taken steps to reverse these immigration policies, terminating a previous change to the U.S. citizenship test and adjusting ways people discuss immigrants in public. BuzzFeed News
Biden Administration Sues Texas Over Order
Three days after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced an executive order restricting the transportation of migrants, the Justice Department sued the state over the order. The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Texas, asked the court to affirm Abbott’s order as invalid. It claimed the order “causes injury” to individuals the federal government “is charged to protect, jeopardizing the health and safety” of migrants held in federal custody. Abbott’s executive order bars anyone who isn’t a “federal, state or local law enforcement official” from transporting migrants released from federal custody. The Biden administration’s lawsuit pointed out that the federal government often uses contractors who may not be law enforcement to transfer migrants. HuffPost
Audio Reveals Sexual Misconduct by Migrant Shelter Staff
Audio from inside of the Fort Bliss Army facility housing migrant children, revealed alleged sexual misconduct by staff towards minors, staffers’ acknowledgement that children lack clean clothes and hesitation by officials to make a public announcement on the facility’s COVID-19 outbreak. “If you catch them, especially if it’s a staff member, you separate that minor from that person immediately,” a federal contractor said in May at a training session regarding the assault allegations. The recording also showed the contractor saying a staffer who was with minors inappropriately was already caught, and that they were aware of the shortage of clean underwear, socks and shoes. The federal contractor’s comment confirms recent allegations from whistleblowers who spoke about the lack of clean clothes at the temporary shelter. NBC News
