The Defenders for All Act took effect at the beginning of this year. Since then, the Cook County Public Defenders’ immigration unit says it’s taken on over a dozen cases free of charge — the largest county in the nation to do so.
Immigration

As it released its annual report, reflecting eight months under President Joe Biden, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said immigration arrests dropped nearly 40% from the previous year while the number of people apprehended who had committed “aggravated felonies” nearly doubled.

Last year, President Joe Biden recalled the journey of his ancestors to this country as he welcomed new citizens at the White House. In his speech, President Biden ticked off some of the ways he planned to evolve immigration policy. We look at where he stands on those goals.

For years, companies have sold data from cable, phone and power bills -- including names, home addresses and more.

Many immigrants dream of owning and operating a small business. A Chicago-based photographer has a personal understanding of immigration, and he has spent years documenting small businesses. He calls his project “Immigrant Owned,” and it’s about to be expanded in a big way.

Every year thousands of refugees seek asylum in the United States. Re:new is helping refugee women get back on their feet by teaching them how to become designers.

Lawmakers in at least seven states considered eliminating use of “alien” and “illegal” in state statutes this year and replacing them with descriptions such as “undocumented” and “noncitizen,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights recently announced the launch of its Immigrant Health Academy. It will train community leaders in suburban areas with high immigrant populations to inform immigrants about their health care rights and correct misconceptions about access to care.

Some Afghan youth at a local immigration center are traumatized after fleeing their country, according to a recent report by ProPublica. We hear from the reporter who broke the story.

In August, Gov. J. B. Pritzker signed into law, the Illinois Way Forward Act. Among the changes are stronger protections for immigrants and an effective discontinuation of federal detention centers in Illinois by 2022.

The Biden administration said it plans to reinstate a Trump-era border policy next month to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, complying with a judge’s order.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals has given immigrants who were brought here as youth an opportunity to work and study in the U.S. lawfully. But recently, DACA recipients have been reporting longer delays in the renewal of their status, putting many of their employment eligibility at risk.

Only 225 migrants remained in a Texas border camp where almost 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants had gathered just days ago hoping to seek asylum, the top elected official in Val Verde County said Friday.

Thousands of immigrant-rights advocates, including some with Illinois organizations, marched in Washington on Thursday to demand congressional leaders create a legal pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Options narrowed Tuesday for thousands of Haitian migrants straddling the Mexico-Texas border as the United States government ramped up expulsion flights to Haiti, and Mexico began flying and busing some away from the border.
