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According to a State Department official, “the majority” of special immigrant visa applicants were left in Afghanistan because of the difficulty of evacuations. The official mentioned that he and his team are “haunted” by the evacuees the U.S. couldn’t get out by the Aug. 31 deadline. “We had a couple of instances where buses were a mix of foreign nationals and Afghan local employees of other missions, and the Talibs would only let pass the foreign nationals, and they turned away or they held at that location the Afghan citizens who were on that particular movement,” he said. POLITICO
In other federal immigration news…
Mexico’s President Frustrated with the U.S.
On Thursday, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed frustration with the U.S.’s strategy of stopping migrants from traveling north. López Obrador’s comments came days after groups of 200 to 300 migrants walked out of Tapachula. Mexico’s National Guard and immigration agents have broken up the groups and detained most of them. “We can’t just be detaining; the causes must be addressed,” he said. López Obrador suggested the U.S. fund his tree planting and youth employment programs. On Thursday, he said that with funding, the two programs could create 330,000 jobs within six months in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The Associated Press
DHS Extends Form I-9 Requirement
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Form I-9 employment eligibility verification would be extended because of the pandemic. The temporary flexibility guidance was set to expire on Aug. 31, but will be extended again. ICE first issued this flexibility in March 2020 and it has been extended multiple times since. The requirement that employers investigate employees’ I-9 identity and employment eligibility documents in person will apply only to employees who physically report to work on a regular basis. The National Law Review
