Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Jun 11, 2021 24 tweets 14 min read Read on X
The Uniform Regulatory Agenda is out and we now have our first OFFICIAL confirmation that the Biden administration is planning to issue its first big asylum rule through an "interim final rule," without going through notice and comment.

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I'm going to do a thread on all of the immigration-related new regulations and proposals included in the Spring 2021 Uniform Regulatory Agenda, which previews an administration's plans to create new regulations.

Here is a link to the full agenda. reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge…
Continuing on the theme of asylum, here is the Biden administration's preview of a *separate* asylum rule, that would go through notice and comment rulemaking, to follow the February 2 executive order that called on DHS and DOJ to strengthen asylum protections by regulation. Image
The Biden administration will also formally "rescind or substantively revise" two Trump regulations aimed at restricting eligibility for work permits to asylum seekers.

One is already blocked in full and the other has been partially blocked in court.

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The Biden administration will also formally rescind three Trump regulations—all currently blocked in court—that would have made it almost impossible for people to seek asylum. This includes the infamous "death to asylum" regulation.

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Moving way from asylum, the Biden administration previewed a new "public charge" rule that will likely put the more favorable old standards into regulations. This will be an "Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking," meaning they'll ask for early comment. reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge… Image
The regulatory agenda shows that the Biden administration is currently targeting August for their new regulation that would "preserve and fortify" DACA, as promised in a day one EO.

There will be a notice and comment period after the rule is proposed.

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Confirming comments that Secretary Mayorkas made at yesterday's conversation at the AILA conference, USCIS will be proposing a new fee rule this fall that rescinds the block-in-court Trump fees and proposes new fees.

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The Biden administration is also going to propose its own "specialty occupation" H-1B rule, which will also address "F-1 students who are the beneficiaries of timely filed H-1B cap-subject petitions." More details in the abstract.

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The Biden administration will also publish a rule to implement the 2020 Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act which expanded "premium processing" for USCIS benefits. The rule, which will be a final rule, will set the new fees.

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There is also a series of actions that the Biden administration will take to rescind or modify a number of Trump immigration regulations, such as:

- The DOL discretionary review rule
- The Asylum Ban 1.0 regulation
- The Asylum Ban 2.0 regulation
- The COVID Asylum Ban ImageImageImageImage
The Biden administration says that it will formally withdraw the terrible proposed rule that would have ended "duration of status" admissions for student visas and that would have targeted students from many African countries with harsher visa rules.

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The Biden administration also seeks to move ICE into the 21st century by "allow[ing] delivery bond notifications requiring obligors to present noncitizens at ICE Offices or Immigration Courts to be issued electronically."

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Moving to the State Department, looks like there will be a State Department process similar to what USCIS did that asks for comments that "identify[] barriers that impede access to immigration benefits and fair, efficient adjudication of these benefits."

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Here's one of the more technical changes I've seen yet; the Biden administration proposes to make a technical amendment to an old State Department regulation that falsely suggests consular officers could grant Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.

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The Biden administration says that it will formally rescind the 2019 State Department "public charge" rule, given that "the 2019 [interim final rule] is based on a rule that is no longer the policy of the Department of Homeland Security."

reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge… Image
Here's a great new rule; the Biden administration will formally publish a "temporary final rule" that allows consulates to waive in-person appearances and oath requirements for "certain repeat immigrant visa applicants." That should help clear backlogs!

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On top of that temporary final rule on the waiver of in-person appearance at consulates, the Biden administration will also add a more permanent "limited exception to the general requirement that an immigrant visa applicant appear in person."

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There are also two new planned Notices of Proposed Rulemaking on exchange visitors, entitled "Records" and "Sanctions."

There is very little detail on what these rules would do.

Records: reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge…
Sanctions: reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge… ImageImage
On to the immigration courts! There are multiple proposals to modify or rescind Trump-era rules, such as:

- The 15-day filing rule
- The rule expanding the EOIR Director's authority
- The "no admin closure" rule
- The EOIR fee rule

3 of 4 of these are blocked in court already. ImageImageImageImage
The Biden administration will also reopen the comment period on two terrible midnight rules on motions to reopen and continuances that the Trump administration failed to get over the finish line. The goal will likely be to formally withdraw the rules after that. ImageImage
The Biden administration will also "rescind or modify" the 2019 rule on safe third country agreements that the Trump administration used to send nearly 1,000 people to Guatemala before the pandemic led to the asylum cooperative agreement being suspended.

reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge… Image
The Biden administration will issue an interim final rule rearranging the organizational structure of the Office of Legal Access Programs inside EOIR "to better facilitate the agency's mission." OLAP oversees legal orientation programs. reginfo.gov/public/do/eAge… Image
And that's it for new rules! There are a few parallel EOIR asylum rules that I didn't include here because they are effectively repeats of the DHS rules.

There are some lingering Trump-era rules still in the pipeline, too. I expect those to eventually be quietly withdrawn.

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More from @ReichlinMelnick

Feb 9
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.

If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little to no real oversight.
Right now Rikers Island, the physically largest jail in the entire United States, is holding under 7,000 people.

ICE's warehouse plans include detention camps which will hold between 8,500-10,000 people in buildings not designed for human habitation.
The largest federal prison in the nation is Fort Dix, which has a rated capacity of 4,600 people. The largest of these warehouse camps may hold more than twice that number of people.

The federal government hasn't operated a prison camp that large since Japanese Internment.
Read 10 tweets
Feb 5
🚨HOLY CRAP. The Trump admin just took a SLEDGEHAMMER to due process, largely eliminating the Board of Immigration Appeals process and MANDATING DISMISSAL of ALL appeals (which cost $1,000 thanks to OBBBA) filed after March 9 unless a majority of the BIA votes to hear the case. Image
The Trump admin is ALSO changing the rules so that rather than 30 days to file a Notice of Appeal, people will now only have 10 days in most cases.

That's just 10 days to find $1,000 and appellate counsel for an appeal the government says it will likely automatically deny! Image
The goal is clear; mass deportations over due process. An order of removal does not become "final" until the Board of Immigration Appeals denies an appeal. After that, ICE can deport the person unless they file ANOTHER appeal to a federal circuit court AND get an emergency stay.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 3
This is a LIE. The most recent Haitian TPS grants began in August 2021, after President Moïse was assassinated by mercenaries, plunging Haiti into chaos. Thousands were killed in an earthquake two weeks later.

Since then, it’s been redesignated twice as the situation worsened.
Only about 1 in 7 people with Haitian TPS were protected in 2010 or 2011 after the earthquake. The Obama admin extended TPS for those ~50,000 people in 2012, 2014, and 2015, given the slow recovery. Here's Judge Reyes summarizing it.

In 2017, the Trump admin tried to end it. Image
Image
The fate of the 50,000 people with Haitian TPS was tied up in court battles through Trump's first term. Long story short, the admin failed to end TPS for them.

After Biden took office, President Moïse was assassinated and the situation in Haiti took a massive turn for the worse.
Read 6 tweets
Feb 3
NEW: Judge Reyes blocks the Trump admin from ending Temporary Protected Status for roughly 350,000 Haitians granted protection in the years following the assassination of President Moïse in July 2021.

She begins with a comparison: President Washington versus Kristi Noem. Image
Judge Reyes begins by explaining who the plaintiffs are: not "killers, leeches, or entitlement junkies" as Kristi Noem suggested.

They are a neuroscientist, a software engineer, a laboratory assistant, a registered nurse, and an economics major. All were facing deportation. Image
Right at the top, Judge Reyes lays out her official findings, after reviewing the evidence. She says it is "substantially likely" that Secretary Noem's decision to end Haitian TPS was "preordained" and based on Secretary Noem's general "hostility to nonwhite immigrants." Image
Read 20 tweets
Jan 30
BIG news from Bloomberg, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* some commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.

This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — the literal warehousing of people in converted buildings. Image
ICE has already spent $172 million to purchase two warehouses, one in Hagerstown, MD and one in Surprise, AZ.

ICE will then have to pay more to convert them into makeshift detention camps. Leaked reports suggest each of these two warehouses will hold 1,500 people each. Image
The Hagerstown and Surprise warehouse detention camps are set to be DWARFED by the purchase of a massive warehouse in El Paso where ICE wants to hold 8,500 people, making it instantly the second-largest jail in the entire United States (behind only Rikers Island in NYC). Image
Read 6 tweets
Jan 21
🚨HOLY CRAP. An ICE whistleblower just revealed a secret memo authorizing ICE officers to break into homes without a judicial warrant, which DHS's own legal training materials say is unconstitutional!

ICE then hid the memo from the public, passing it along by word of mouth. Image
ICE secretly told its officers that any time someone has been ordered removed, ICE can break down their door.

It has been accepted for generations that the only thing which can authorize agents to break into your home is a warrant signed by a judge. No wonder ICE hid this memo! Image
Image
Chillingly, the whistleblower says that ICE trainers were directed (no paper trail?) to train all of ICE's new recruits that these administrative warrants authorize breaking into peoples' homes, even though DHS's own training materials still make clear that's illegal! Image
Read 9 tweets

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