Want to keep up with immigration news in the U.S.? Every month, Global Cleveland publishes our immigration update so that you can stay informed about the latest immigration news.

This month’s Immigration Update at a glance:

• Ex-President Donald Trump proposed giving green cards to non-citizens who graduate college
• Biden Eases Visa Process for US Grads and Dreamers
• Biden Executive Order Limits Asylum Seeking

• Ohio lawmakers introduced House Bill 327, which would require public works contractors, nonresidential construction contractors, and businesses with more than 75 employees in the state to use E-Verify to confirm that employees are legally authorized to work in the United States.
• E-Verify is a federal system that matches an I-9 document to government records to ensure that they have legal authorization to work in the country.
• The bill had support from both parties in the house, some of whom said that it could crack down on bad business practices, with one Rep highlighting companies in construction who take advantage of workers.
• https://www.statenews.org/government-politics/2024-06-14/ohio-bill-mandating-e-verify-use-gets-backing-from-both-sides-in-house

• A bipartisan bill in the Ohio House of Representatives would require state universities to adapt and enforce a policy to prevent racial, religious, and ethnic harassment and intimidation
• The bill, called the Enact Campus Act, follows a complaint made by several nonprofits and civil rights organizations against Ohio State, who said that Jewish students at the university faced antisemitic harassment and sometimes even violence since war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7th of last year.
• The bill is sponsored by Republican Justin Pizzulli and Democrat Dontavius Jarrells.
• https://www.crainscleveland.com/education/ohio-bill-would-require-colleges-adopt-harassment-and-intimidation-policy

• President Biden took an executive action that would allow for the turning away of migrants when there is a high volume of border crossings
• The order will take effect when the seven-day average of daily crossings is over 2,500.
• Migrants expelled under the border can receive a minimum five-year ban on entry to the US and may be subject to criminal prosecution
• https://thehill.com/latino/4702539-biden-executive-order-asylum-southern-border-immigration/

• President Joe Biden announced a new policy that would protect some 500,000 people from deportation who are undocumented immigrants but married to US Citizens.
• To be eligible, the individual must be married to an American citizen and has to have lived in the US for over ten years.
• Some commentators have called it the largest expansion of immigration protection since DACA.
• https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/news/biden-protections-undocumented-spouses-daca-recipients

• Apprehensions involving illegal border crossings plummeted by almost half in the aftermath of President Biden’s executive order to restrict asylum access when border crossings reached a certain level
• Border Patrol statistics showed that daily arrests by the Border Patrol have fallen below 2,400 on average, marking the lowest number since January of 2021.
• https://www.livenowfox.com/news/migrant-crossings-fall-biden-border

• Former President Donald Trump proposed giving green cards to non-citizens who graduate college in an interview on the All-In Podcast.
• “What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” Trump said. “And that includes junior colleges, too.”
• Trump said that without being able to stay here, many foreign students return to their home countries, creating companies there.
• https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/us/politics/trump-green-cards-college-graduates.html

• A new Biden administration policy eases the path towards getting a work visa for foreign nationals educated here.
• The policy would prioritize graduates from US Colleges and Universities who are working in the same field they were educated for, would prioritize ‘national interest’ skills and would provide certainty to the waiver process for those with prior unlawful presence in the US
• DACA recipients are eligible for this if they meet the requirements
• https://www.boundless.com/blog/biden-eases-visa-process-for-u-s-grads-and-dreamers/

• The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have opened new offices in the Middle East, in both Ankara, Turkey, and Doha, Qatar.
• Officials cited the need to increase overseas presence as well as the refugee population in the region as key reasons for the expansion
• USCIS has 11 field office outside the USs; existing ones are in China, Guatemala, Cuba, Mexico, Kenya, India, El Salvador, and Honduras.
• https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/uscis-to-open-international-field-offices-in-qatar-and-turkey

• In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court found that US Citizens do not have the constitutional right to challenge their spouses visa denials.
• The Case, Muñoz v. Dept. Of State, involved an American woman and her Salvadorian husband, who was denied a visa as the state department suspected him of having ties to organized crime, which her husband denied.
• The Court decided that Muñoz could not challenge this visa denial, under the principle of consular nonreviewability, which limits the ways in which decisions by consular officials can be challenged in court.
• https://www.boundless.com/blog/scotus-rules-on-u-s-citizens-right-to-challenge-spousal-visa-denials/

• Last Month, José Raúl Mulino was elected president of Panama
• The Darién Gap, a remote and rugged forested area, separates Panama and Colombia. Impassible by road, it has emerged as a passageway on foot for migrants seeking to enter the US, but traversing the territory is often very dangerous.
• Mulino has promised to close the Darién Gap to migrants and is seeking to work with President Biden’s administration to accomplish this. Mulino also said that he wants US funding to repatriate migrants, an idea that former US Ambassador to Panama John Feeley was supportive of.
• https://ca.news.yahoo.com/biden-opportunity-deal-stem-migrant-202527989.html

• Ecuador’s Foreign ministry announced they would suspend their agreement with China that allowed them to visit the South American country without a visa.
• The Foreign ministry noted that Ecuadorian authorities found that around half of Chinese nationals did not leave the country “through regular routes”, and many likely attempted to travel through Central America to the US.
• The US-Mexico border has seen an increase in Chinese citizens trying to cross into the US over the past year and a half.
• https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-china-visas-agreement-migration-5f44c3c0ad6bbb2b86aedb1e5a9798f3