It’s April 10, 1864 and Mexico is under Austrian rule. The elected president, Benito Juarez, the president of the people, has been cast aside and in his stead, Carlotta of Belgium and Maximilian of Austria have claimed the “crown” and built a castle in the Western Hemisphere’s largest park—Chapultepec Forest, in Mexico City. Maximilian became the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire, appointed by Napoleon the III of France. On the 5th of May (cinco de mayo) 1862 a battle was fought and won by the Mexican people against the French in what is known as “la guerra de los pasteles”—the War of Cakes.
Read moreNew York Times: “From Offices to Disney World, Employers Brace for the Loss of an Immigrant Work Force”
As hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Nicaragua and El Salvador prepare to lose their legal status when Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for their countries end, some employers across the country are preparing for significant losses to their workforce. These TPS recipients, along with DACA recipients whose long-term status in the US remains unclear, make up approximately a million individuals in the US, many within the American work force.
Read moreUSCIS Announces They Will Resume DACA Renewals
Because of the nationwide injunction last week, US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that they will resume accepting requests to renew DACA status. The agency says that unless otherwise specified the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will be operated until further notice on the same terms that were in place before it was rescinded on September 5, 2017.
Read moreDeeply Indebted
Talking Statues
In 1892, composer Antonín Dvořák came to America to serve as the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. It was in this country that Dvořák was inspired by African American music and wrote his most well known works, including Symphony in E minor ("From the New World"), the String Quartet in F, and the Cello Concerto. The New York Talking Statues project brings this history to life at the site of the Dvořák statue in Stuyvesant Square Park, near where he lived on East 17th Street. Visitors can scan the QR code near the statue using their smart phone or look up a listed web address to hear a pre-recorded message by an actor portraying the historical figure. Originally started in Copenhagen by documentary filmmaker David Peter Fox, the popular project spread to the cities of Helsinki, London, San Diego, Berlin, and Chicago. The Talking Statues project has recordings for statues in all five boroughs, and aims to "recreate an image of how the city has changed over several centuries and was built not from a single nationality, but from many nations."
McClatchy: “Under pressure, Trump team backs off proposal to cull foreign tech workforce”
After reports late last month that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was considering a policy change that could have prevented certain H-1B workers who are applying for permanent residency from extending their H-1B status beyond the normal time limit of six years, the agency has reportedly reversed course. Facing intense pressure from the business and technology communities, the Trump administration appears to be no longer considering the policy change that could have potentially forced hundreds of thousands of foreign skilled workers out of the country.
Read moreDHS: Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Designation for El Salvador Will Terminate on September 9, 2019
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced this week that the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation that has allowed approximately 200,000 Salvadorians to reside in the US after earthquakes devastated their country in 2001 will be terminated as of September 19, 2019.
Read moreNY Times: “Trump Must Keep DACA Protections for Now, Judge Says”
On Tuesday, Judge William Alsup of the Federal District Court in San Francisco issued a nationwide injunction ordering the Trump administration to partially resume the DACA program. The judge said the Trump administration’s decision to discontinue the program was improper and wrote that the administration must “maintain the DACA program on a nationwide basis” as legal challenges go forward in court. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was set to end on March 5, 2018, and this week lawmakers and the Trump administration have been negotiating the program’s continuation.
Read moreReuters: “Fewer family visas approved as Trump toughens vetting of immigrants”
As the Trump administration campaigns against “chain migration”—where US citizens or Green Card holders petition for extended family members to immigrate to the US—approvals of family-based visas have dropped dramatically in the 2017 fiscal year despite no changes to law. Within the first nine months of 2017, the number of I-130 approvals dropped to 406,000, compared to the 530,000 approvals from the same time period in 2016, despite a similar amount of applications, a Reuters review of US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) figures show.
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