Guatemalan family first to be deported from U.S. in Trump’s ‘remain in Mexico’ program

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A 30-year-old Guatemalan woman and her two sons on Friday became the first people to be deported from the United States while taking part in a controversial Trump administration program that requires some migrants to remain in Mexico while their U.S. immigration cases are heard. “Over there (in Guatemala), if they do something to me my children have somewhere to go. Over here (in Mexico,) they have nothing if something happens to me,” Karla told immigration judge Nathan Herbert in El Paso. Borderzine is not using her full name because she said her family faces threats in Guatemala. More: On Mexico’s southern border, migrants seek to survive one day at a time

‘Uncaged Art’ exhibit gives voice to migrant children detained in Tornillo tent city
Karla, her 9-year-old son Eddin and her 11-month-old son Ian entered the United States in El Paso on March 25, according to court documents.

Immigration judges in Minnesota face a 3,000 case backlog

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By Mark Brunswick and Alejandra Matos

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The realities of an immigration system under siege came walking one by one, in handcuffs and prison flip-flops, into the Bloomington courtroom of Judge William J. Nickerson. In a windowless chamber with mismatched chairs and worn wood paneling, Nickerson, one of three U.S. Immigration Court judges in Minnesota, heard case after case of people from Mexico to Micronesia detained for violating U.S. immigration laws. Their appearances put faces to lives caught up in one of the country’s 59 overwhelmed immigration courts. Intensifying enforcement has built such a backlog that an immigration case first heard in Minnesota today likely would take until next year or longer — an average of 400 days — to settle. Even with regulations intended to speed justice, undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers wait in the community or languish in jail to find out if they will be deported.

ICE reports precipitous decline in deportation proceedings following Morton’s memorandum

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By Griselda Nevárez

A 33% drop in deportation proceedings initiated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first three months of this fiscal year reflect recent Obama Administration efforts to prioritize those with criminal records, according to a report by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). From October through December, ICE filed 39,331 deportation cases to immigration courts across the country — down from the 58,639 filings recorded a year ago. Filings are usually low this time of year but the 33% falloff is unheard of, said TRAC co-director Susan Long. “You usually see a small drop — maybe 10% — but 33% is huge,” Long, an associate professor of managerial statistics, told Hispanic Link News Service. The decrease, she said, may have been caused by steps ICE has been taking to implement the use of prosecutorial discretion outlined by agency director John Morton in a June 17 memorandum.