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Alexandria, Va. – Kerry Alys Robinson, a renowned expert in Catholic leadership and philanthropy, will serve as the next president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA).

When Robinson begins her tenure at CCUSA on August 23, 2023, she will become only the second layperson and second woman to guide the domestic humanitarian work of the Catholic Church in the United States. Robinson will succeed Sister Donna Markham OP, Ph.D., who is retiring this summer after nine years of transformational leadership.

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According to government data, the Biden administration has authorized the legal entry of a record 521,000 migrants into the United States over the past two years through its humanitarian parole authority. The figure includes over 160,000 Ukrainians, 148,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and about 77,000 Afghan evacuees. The use of humanitarian parole to facilitate entry represents a shift from past US immigration policy, in which parole authority was used more sparingly and often on a case-by-case basis.

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Record triple-digit temperatures have driven an increasing death toll in 2023 in U.S. Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, which includes southern New Mexico. More than 70 migrants have died in the first nine months of fiscal 2023, including at least 14 in Sunland Park since May — among them a 12-year-old child, according to the Sunland Park Fire Department.

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On July 19, Law360 published the attached commentary entitled A Blueprint For Addressing The Immigration Court Backlog, by Donald Kerwin. This article addresses the US immigration court backlog, which it attributes to systemic problems in the broader US immigration system.

“It would be a mistake to blame the backlog on EOIR [the Executive Office for Immigration Review] or its 650 immigration judges,” Kerwin writes. “Instead, the backlog results from … gross disparities in funding between immigration enforcement and the adjudication of removal proceedings, the failure of Congress to enact meaningful legislative reform, backlogs in the legal immigration system and the limited authorities of immigration judges.”

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new parole process for family members of US citizens or permanent residents with approved family-based petitions from Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. According to DHS, qualified family members will be eligible to apply, upon invitation, for parole to join their family members in the United States while they await their immigrant visas.

It is estimated that as many as 73,500 persons from these countries have already been approved for a visa but are caught in a visa backlog, keeping them separated from their families for years.

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On May 25, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) released a paper entitled, The US Immigration Courts, Dumping Ground for the Nation’s Systemic Immigration Failures: The Causes, Composition, and Politically Difficult Solutions to the Court Backlog, by Donald Kerwin and Evin Millet. The paper examines several causes and solutions to the massive backlog of cases in the US immigration court system, and offers recommendations to reverse and eliminate the backlog.

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E-mails shared with CNN by the Texas Department of Public Safety detail a trooper-medic expressing concerns to a supervisor over the “in humane [sic]” treatment of migrants along the border in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The trooper writes in the e-mail that they “were given orders to push the people back into the water to go to Mexico” and were also ordered not to give water to the migrants.

Some have tried to deter migrants from crossing by restricting access to asylum and separating families while others may try to slow crossings by narrowing eligibility for asylum and try to create limited alternatives for people to seek admittance to the US. These temporary solutions are not enough to address the needs of those arriving to the US.

Instead, this creates a tumultuous system in which the dignity of those seeking protection is left up in the air to the discretion of the president in office and the border agent they encounter. Until we as a country recognize the humanitarian aspect of the current migratory reality we will continue to resort to solutions that ignore the cries of those suffering.

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LAS CRUCES – A federal program launched during the pandemic helps low-income families pay their monthly internet cost – sometimes covering the whole bill. But many people across Southern New Mexico are unaware of the program or have had problems signing up.

Thursday, July 6, local internet access advocates formally announced a $300,000 funding award for boosting awareness about and helping people sign up for the home internet subsidy, known as the Affordable Connectivity Program. The ACP pays families up to $30 per month (or $75 for tribal members) for internet.

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On June 21, 2023, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced through the Federal Register the rescission of the termination of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua. The notice also redesignates all four countries’ TPS for a further 18-month extension. This decision by DHS is in tandem with the en banc Ramos v. Garland hearing which occurred on June 22, 2023.

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