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While the backlash was swift to President Trump’s executive order that suspended new visas for foreign workers, immigration experts said it would be a while before workers felt its impact. Consulates are currently not conducting interviews for green cards or temporary workers anyway because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “The immediate impact of the suspension is mostly symbolic until those consular officers reopen,” she said. “Then it will have a real impact on who is able to immigrate into the United States.” The New York Times
In other national immigration news…
Detained Children in COVID-19 Isolation are in Despair
At least three families at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention center in Dilley, Texas, are being isolated due to potential coronavirus exposure, and it’s particularly difficult for the children. With no toys in their room, and trapped inside except to use the bathroom, an 8-year-old boy from El Salvador recently asked his mother if they are going to die. “I tell him we’re not going to die,” said Maria, who spoke to The Associated Press. “We feel anguished. We can’t do anything for our own lives or the lives of our children.” The Associated Press
Lawsuit Challenging COVID Stimulus Check Withholding Can Continue
A lawsuit filed by U.S. citizen children whose undocumented parents were denied coronavirus stimulus checks can move forward after a judge rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to get the case thrown out. A federal judge in Maryland denied the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the families could sue and reject arguments raised by the Justice Department claiming the administration was immune to these types of claims over how Congress and the Treasury Department chose to administer relief money. BuzzFeed News
Democrats Confident Arizona Will Turn Blue
In early 2020, Democrats started to suspect this may be the year when Arizona turns blue. In 2018, they sent a Democrat to the Senate from their state for the first time in over 30 years, with young Latinos voting at record rates. Now, with four months to Election Day, the party is even more confident. Trump is beginning to campaign in the state and needs its 11 electoral votes, but Democratic officials believe statewide frustrations over his immigration policies and his handling of the pandemic show Joe Biden has the best shot of any Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since Bill Clinton did in 1996. The New York Times
Former Arizona Official Seeks Plea Change in Human Trafficking Case
A former Arizona county official is changing his plea in a human trafficking case, where he is accused of running an illegal adoption scheme in three states involving women from the Marshall Islands. Former Maricopa County assessor Paul Petersen pleaded guilty to human smuggling and fraud charges in Arizona and Utah last week. He is accused of illegally paying women from the Marshall Islands to come to the U.S. to give up their babies in 70 adoption cases in Arizona, Utah and Arkansas over three years. Citizens of that country have been prohibited from traveling to the U.S. for adoption purposes since 2003. The New York Times
