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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick Profile picture
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
Senior Fellow @immcouncil. Tweeting on immigration policy and data. Formerly immigration lawyer with @IJCorps. Views my own, retweets =/= endorsements.
10 subscribers
Feb 3 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Mexico commits to another large deployment of its National Guard to the northern border, claiming they will focus on preventing fentanyl trafficking, and Trump calls off the tariffs for now.

Of course, since most fentanyl is smuggled by US citizens, this won't stop much at all. The deployment of Mexican National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019 under Trump had zero impact on fentanyl smuggling before, because it's not migrants who are smuggling fentanyl in the overwhelming majority of cases. Fentanyl traffic continued to rise each year.
Jan 26 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Colombia has accepted hundreds of deportation flights in the past years. It rejected two flights using military planes, but agreed to continue taking flights using normal ICE planes.

In response, the Trump administration has done the equivalent of punching them in the face. All repatriations are governed by bilateral agreements. Every country has an absolute right to set the terms by which they take deportations from another country.

And if you don’t know why military planes might be an issue, pick up a book on 20th century Latin American history.
Jan 24 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
When speaking to experts in Latin America, I've been told that the use of military planes by the United States could be seen as an insult. And now it seems they were right; Mexico's president just refused to take a deportation flight from the US for the first time in years. Mexico refuses to accept a U.S. deportation flight The Mexican government has criticized President Donald Trump's unilateral immigration actions, and the landing would have required Mexico's assistance. nbcnews.com/politics/immig…
Jan 24 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🚨NEW! The Trump administration has invoked a decades-old, never-before-invoked, legal authority that permits them to authorize willing state and local enforcement officers to carry out "any of the powers, privileges, or duties" of an immigration officer (ICE or Border Patrol). Accordingly, pursuant to the authorities under the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101, et sec., including the implementing regulations identified above, I find "that there exist circumstances involving the administration ofthe immigration laws ofthe United States that endanger the lives, property, safety, or welfare of the residents" of all 50 States. I further find that an actual or imminent mass influx of aliens is arriving at the southern border of the United States and presents urgent circumstances requiring an immediate federal response. I therefore request the ... The memo invokes an obscure law Congress enacted decades ago authorizing DHS (then INS) to declare a "mass influx" and deputize local law enforcement as full immigration officers.

DHS must enter into written agreements and oversee any deputized LEOs.
dhs.gov/sites/default/…
Jan 21 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
This guy just got a full and unconditional pardon from Donald Trump. USA Man Who Dragged Officer Into Jan. 6 Mob Gets More Than 7 Years October 27, 2022 10:13 PM By Associated Press This guy just got a full and unconditional pardon from Donald Trump. Press Release Maryland Man Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Law Enforcement During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach Friday, December 13, 2024
Jan 16 • 27 tweets • 7 min read
I can quibble with the timeline on some of these (e.g. "restart wall construction" will take months to put into action given the state of contractual issues) but I agree that the majority of this will be attempted. The most immediate EO impact will be cuts to legal immigration. Actually this is a great opportunity to do a thread on some of the things to look out for on in the first week. I'm going to mirror @David_J_Bier's thread here and go over some thoughts about each. Sorry David for spamming your mentions.

Let's start with CHNV parole.
Jan 16 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
NEW—Senator Britt has been sharing a document defending the Laken Riley Act with other senators raising concerns.

The problem is, the document makes a number of significant errors. We obtained a copy and marked it up, explaining where her office got the facts and law wrong.

1/5 Image Senator Britt's office says the Laken Riley Act just makes minor changes to current law. That is false. Immigration law has never mandated detention for arrests which didn't lead to criminal charges, or which even resulted in acquittals! That transforms how the law operates.

2/5 Image
Jan 9 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
If they actually put Title 42 into effect, expect border crossings to spike dramatically soon after he takes office. The policy was a huge winner for smugglers. Here's what happened with border crossings when Stephen Miller got the CDC to implement Title 42: after the April 2020 lockdown, border crossings rose every single month for a year.

By November 2020, smugglers were telling Reuters they loved the policy.
Image
Dec 11, 2024 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
There are serious factual errors with what @mattyglesias writes here. For example, the deals had nothing to do with "seeking refuge closer to home." That was a lie pushed by the Trump admin. In fact, there deal with Honduras would have let them send Mexicans and Brazilians there. Another thing missed by @mattyglesias is that the 2024 asylum ban crackdown couldn't have been done in early 2021! It required the end of Title 42, diplomatic deals with Mexico, Congressional funding of asylum officers, and more physical infrastructure.
Nov 26, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Not to put too fine a point on it, but anyone who claims that Mexico and Canada can "easily solve" migration and drug smuggling issues is either lying to themselves, lying to you, or just a complete moron. Sorry, but no, this is simply not true. Mexico has been ramping up anti-migrant enforcement at U.S. request for more than a decade and is currently engaged in the largest crackdown on migrants yet, which has had a very significant impact on reducing border crossings into the US.
Oct 8, 2024 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Not sure exactly what @whstancil is suggesting but a couple thoughts:

1. Migration is rising globally. The United States is not unique in dealing with this trend, despite many US-centric media takes.
2. A key part of the current problem is Congress's decade-long refusal to act. People are frustrated with migration not only because of the media's myopic and overdramatic views of the issue (remember the morning show filmed at the border wall in March 2021?), but also because policymakers keep suggesting this is an easy problem with an easy solution.
Sep 28, 2024 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
This is wrong. ICE’s non-detained docket includes many people whose cases ended years ago and who can’t be deported due to legal, diplomatic or humanitarian issues.

The number of people on the docket with convictions rose just 15% in 9 years — while the docket itself rose 225%.
Image Here is Tom Homan's testimony to Congress in support of Trump's FY 2018 budget request, noting that in June 2017, there were 177,000 people on ICE's non-detained docket with prior convictions AND final orders.

As I said—many have been here for decades. This isn't some new thing. Furthermore, abolishment of the Priority Enforcement Program and re-establishment of the Secure Communities program, combined with the expansion of the 287(g)2 program, is expected to result in significant increases to interior apprehensions and removals. As of June 3, 2017, there were 968,773 individuals on ICE’s non-detained docket with final orders of removal, of which 177,496 were convicted criminals. In order to safely and securely carry out this mission across the Nation, ERO will require additional deportation officers to handle this increased workload. The FY 2018 Budget supports hi...
Sep 27, 2024 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
This report by @BillMelugin_ gets facts wrong and omits essential context: that millions of people on ICE's non-detained dockets have been here for decades.

By FY 2015, already 368,574 people on the docket had convictions. Many can't be deported, often for diplomatic reasons.
Image In the report, Bill repeatedly refers to people on ICE's non-detained docket as "illegal immigrants."

In fact, the non-detained docket contains many people who came here with green cards and then lost their status due to a criminal conviction. Some have been here for decades. Image
Sep 15, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Trump here uses the phrase "remigration." I was unfamiliar with the term, so I googled it.

Wikipedia describes it as a "far-right and Identitarian political concept" largely used to describe the mass deportation of non-white immigrants and their descendants from Europe.
Image Needless to say, the use of such a loaded far-right term suggesting a purge of non-white people in the US far greater than described would itself be newsworthy in a normal world. But given how much else has happened just in the last 24 hours, it's barely even been noticed.
Sep 5, 2024 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
That's roughly $1,841 per person. By comparison, a bus ticket to New York costs about $215, while a flight costs about $350.

It would have WAY cheaper to just give migrants money for tickets. Abbott's effort not only made it a political stunt, it lined a contractor's pocket. The overwhelming majority of migrants didn't want to stay in Texas. They wanted to go elsewhere. So if the question was the most efficient way to help them leave the state, the answer would be just buy them tickets and not pay millions to bus them to NYC.
Aug 19, 2024 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
It's here! The biggest executive action since DAPA/Extended DACA in 2014 just dropped on the Federal Register in the form of a "Notice of Implementation." Here's a 🧵on the Biden admin's new program for undocumented spouses and stepchildren of US citizens. public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2024-18725.pdf

Screenshot of the first page of the "Notice of Implementation" of the Keeping Families Together program. Before I dive into the fine details, a reminder of why this new program matters.

Even though spouses of US citizens are eligible to apply for green cards, a 1996 law keeps that process out of reach for many undocumented immigrants. Read 👇 for more.
Aug 16, 2024 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Wow! Paxton is going after ANOTHER immigrant rights nonprofit. He's arguing that if any nonprofit engages in activities he thinks violate 501(c)(3) status, he can sue to shut it down.

That argument should send shivers through every nonprofit in the state! houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas… Paxton is trying to punish @FIELHouston for social media posts which he argues run afoul of the limits federal law places on 501(c)(3) nonprofit status.

If judges accept that argument (and so far it seems they're not), it would put every nonprofit in the state at risk. Image
Aug 14, 2024 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
Not commenting on the election here, just noting that deporting what some estimate at half of all farmworkers in the country is the kind of thing that will cause grocery prices to go UP, not down. The estimate I’m referring to is that half of all farmworkers are undocumented immigrants, currently.

Temporary agricultural work visas are nice, but they don’t come even close to filling the demand for labor on US farms/ranches/meatpacking plants.
Aug 11, 2024 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Let's do a brief fact-checking 🧵 of this section on immigration. I'll start with 4 specific, provably false claims Senator Vance makes about VP Harris' record and the role she played in the Biden admin, each marked below. My count excludes claims which could arguably be opinion.
Image First, Senator Vance claims VP Harris is "our border czar." As I've been arguing for years, this is simply false. Jon Karl himself pushes back on this, but I want to emphasize again that the role Biden assigned her was a diplomatic role, not a border role.
Jul 25, 2024 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Since some people are still confused about this issue:

Border policy is about what happens AT the U.S.-Mexico border—once migrants who left their homes get here.

Root causes policy is about what happens in migrants' home countries—hoping to convince people not to leave home. Image Yes, of course one of the main goals of root causes work is to reduce migration TO the U.S.-Mexico border through improving conditions in peoples' home countries.

But that work does not involve making any decisions about how migrants who DO come to the border are treated.
Jul 22, 2024 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Once again, Harris was never appointed "border czar!" Biden tasked her with leading the administration's diplomatic "root causes" strategies in Central America—NOT his admin's border policy.

The "border czar" title was invented by the press, which didn't get the difference.

Image
Image The policy work involved with “root causes” strategy is about changing conditions in OTHER countries such that people don’t feel compelled to leave home and travel thousands of miles away in an effort to cross the border.

It’s long-term work that might take years to pay off.