immigration Archives - Iran News Daily

Majlis to discuss bill on immigration organization

mahla — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 06:41:03 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – A bill approved by the cabinet of ministers to establish the national immigration organization was brought before the Majlis (the Iranian Parliament), with the aim of organizing immigrants and granting them residency.

Iran is one of the top three countries in the world in accepting immigrants from other countries, especially neighboring countries, and since our neighboring countries are generally involved in civil wars, we must have an organization to manage the related issues, MP Abolfazl Abutorabi said on Saturday.

“There are certain laws in the field of citizenship, but in the issue of residency, the last law passed in this regard is related to the year 1931,” he stated.

Through national immigration organization, we seek to organize immigrants in the country by giving them residency, and they will be obliged to pay tax, in addition, a platform is provided for immigrants to invest in the country, he noted.

Iran is hosting the world’s fourth-largest refugee community. The country has generously hosted approximately 1 million refugees for the past 30 years. The majority, which mainly came from Afghanistan and Iraq, live in urban areas. Approximately 31,000 of the most vulnerable refugees are living in 20 settlements located throughout the country.

Based on the latest statistics, over 3 million Afghans are living in Iran – some 780,000 Afghan refugees, over 2 million undocumented Afghans, and another 600,000 Afghan passport-holders with Iranian visas.

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Trump: Immigration Suspension Will Last 60 Days

reporter 1222 — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 05:54:07 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – US President Donald Trump said Tuesday immigration suspension for green card seekers will last 60 days, arguing the controversial move would help Americans find work again after coronavirus caused a surge in unemployment.

Trump told reporters at the White House the suspension would come into force through an executive order that he would likely sign on Wednesday as he offered the first details about a vague announcement he made Monday night on Twitter.

Addressing an issue key to his conservative base as the country is ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 43,000 people dead in the US, Trump said his move would help Americans who have lost their jobs during the ongoing shutdown.

“By pausing immigration, it will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens,” Trump said at his daily pandemic briefing, AFP reported.

“This pause will be in effect for 60 days,” he told reporters, adding that he would decide on any extension or changes “based on economic conditions at the time.”

The Republican president said the order would “only apply to individuals seeking a permanent residency — in other words, those receiving green cards.”

“It will not apply to those entering on a temporary basis,” he added.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) granted lawful permanent residence to around 577,000 individuals in 2019.

Trump said there would be exemptions that his administration would detail before the order is signed.

“We’ll sign it most likely tomorrow. Being drawn now and tonight, and it’s something we have to have in this country,” he added.

According to US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Wall Street Journal before Trump spoke, the eventual executive order could include exceptions for farm and health care workers.

The US government issued 462,000 visas in fiscal 2019, according to official data — a major drop from the 617,000 visas granted in 2016 under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.

Any executive order on immigration will likely spark court action to reverse it, and has already raised hackles among Trump’s Democratic opponents.

Before Trump’s briefing, Texas lawmaker Joaquin Castro slammed what he called “an attempt to divert attention away from Trump’s failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives.”

In a tweet, Castro accused Trump of “an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda.”

The Supreme Court has in recent months offered several significant victories to the Trump administration in cases relating to immigration.

A month ago, the high court allowed the federal government to maintain a policy that will send more than 60,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy unveiled in December 2018 and implemented a month later calls for non-Mexican asylum seekers who attempt to enter the US via that country to stay there while their cases are being decided.

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Trump: ban immigration amid ‘coronavirus pandemic’

reporter 1222 — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 05:07:22 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Donald Trump has said he will sign an executive order to ban all immigration to the US as the coronavirus crisis deepens.

“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States,” he claimed in a tweet late on Monday.

Trump’s decision, which has drawn condemnation from Democrats, is in line with one of his long-term policy goals of curbing immigration.

The president had promised in 2016 to curb immigration by building a wall on the US border with Mexico and launched a crackdown on both legal and illegal entries into the country soon after he assumed office.

The White House gave no further details about the timing of the suspension, and long it would be in place, and what effect it would have on the operation of US border crossings, and on those who already hold green cards.

“You cut off immigration, you crater our nation’s already weakened economy. What a dumb move” former Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro said in a tweet.

Trump halted travel from much of Europe in mid-March and restricted travel from China in January as the virus spread.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has infected more than 780,000 people in the US and killed 42,000 as of early Tuesday morning.

More than 22 million Americans have lost their jobs because of the pandemic, wiping out a decade of job gains in the country. Only last week, 5.2 million people filed unemployment claims.

Trump has been widely criticized for initially downplaying the coronavirus, which he likened to flu, before later accepting that it was a national emergency.

The present, who is seeking reelection in November, has appeared impatient with preventive measures intended to slow the spread of the virus, voicing his support to anti-lockdown protests angry at US governors’ stay-at-home orders.

Trump has said parts of the country can begin to loosen lockdown restrictions and reopen the economy amid rising virus death toll.

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Trump threatens immigrants with raids after July 4: report

reporter 1222 — Sat, 06 Jul 2019 13:06:19 +0000

Trump, who has made a hardline immigration stance a key issue of his presidency and 2020 re-election bid, postponed the operation last month after the date was leaked, but on Monday he said it would take place after July 4, Reuters reported.

“They’ll be starting fairly soon, but I don’t call them raids, we’re removing people, all of these people who have come in over the years illegally,” he told reporters at the White House on Friday.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month said operations would target recently-arrived undocumented migrants in a bid to discourage a surge of Central American families at the southwest border.

ICE said in a statement its focus was arresting people with criminal histories but any immigrant found in violation of US laws was subject to arrest.

Government documents published this week by migrant rights groups showed some past ICE operations resulted in more so-called “collateral” arrests of undocumented migrants agents happened to find, than apprehensions of targeted people.

Some American lawmakers have reported that migrants were being held in “horrifying” conditions.

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US government set to shuts down over border wall disputes

reporter 1222 — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 09:50:35 +0000

The US federal government partially shut down after members of Congress failed to resolve disputes over $5 billion in spending for President Donald Trump’s border wall.

Trump had previously said he would be “proud’ to shut down the government unless he received the $5 billion he is seeking to fund the construction of a barrier along the U.S.’s southern border, Anadolu reported.

According to Sputnik, funding for key government operations expired at 11:59:59 pm on 21 December (around 5:00 am GMT on 22 December). Earlier in the day, the Senate failed to reach a compromise over a House-passed bill and decided to adjourn until 22 December.

Building a wall on the US-Mexico border was one of Trump’s key promises throughout his presidential campaign. The US President believes that the wall will stop illegal migration, as well as human and drugs trafficking.

The Senate earlier this week passed a stopgap spending bill that would have funded through February the agencies that have shut down. But it did not include funding for Trump’s wall, and as it headed to the House, the president hastily called a meeting with its leaders, who tacked on to the bill the funds Trump is seeking, sending it back to the Senate for consideration, where it was dead on arrival.

The federal government previously closed twice this year. A three-day shutdown in January took place over a weekend and a February closure only lasted for a day. All three shutdowns this year involved disputes over immigration.

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Poll: 58 Percent Disapprove of Trump’s Handling of Immigration

reporter 1222 — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 13:00:57 +0000

More than half of American voters surveyed by Quinnipiac University for a recent poll said they disapprove of the way President Donald Trump has handled immigration.

Just 39 percent of those polled said they approve of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 58 percent said they disapprove. But 50 percent of respondents said they believe the motive behind the president’s immigration policies is “a sincere interest in controlling our borders.”

Similarly, 47 percent of those polled said they do not believe the president is racist, compared with 49 percent who said he is. Forty-four percent of respondents said the motive for his immigration policies is “racist beliefs.”

Trump’s immigration policies have drawn significant scrutiny in recent weeks thanks to the administration’s move to refer all illegal border-crossers for prosecution, a step that resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents, Politico reported.

Trump administration officials initially described the practice as a deterrent against illegal immigration but later said that separating families had merely been a consequence of enforcing the law, not an intended outcome.

After days of pressure, Trump signed an executive order ending the practice of family separation, but it is unclear what effect the order has had and how quickly the separated families are being reunited. Sixty percent of respondents to the Quinnipiac poll said the separation of families was a violation of human rights, and 83 percent said the Trump administration has a responsibility to reunite the separated families.

Trump, who has insisted that any immigration legislation be included in a larger reform package that also includes money for a border wall and the end of certain legal immigration programs, has complained often that Democrats in Congress are unwilling to find a solution on immigration because they want to campaign on the issue.

Sixty percent of voters polled agreed with the president’s argument that Democrats are more interested in “exploiting the nation’s immigration issue for political gain,” compared to 34 percent of respondents who said Democrats are more interested in “resolving the nation’s immigration issue.”

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted via landlines and cellphones in both Spanish and English, contacting 1,020 registered voters nationwide. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 points.

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Protesters demand US Congress to pass immigration bill

reporter 1222 — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 06:25:33 +0000

Hundreds of protesters have occupied a US Senate office building to press Congress to pass legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children to stay in the country, a protection taken away by President Donald Trump.

More than 1,000 people filled the Hart Senate Building with chants and banners calling for lawmakers to pass the so-called DREAM Act, which would grant legal residency to an estimated 800,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, who are referred to as “Dreamers.”

The activists held a giant sign reading, “Congress we demand a clean Dream Act now!”

The protest comes two months after the Trump administration canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a US immigration policy similar to the DREAM Act that was founded by the administration of former President Barack Obama in June 2012.

Under the DACA program, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as children, are temporarily allowed to live, work and go to school in the country if they meet several requirements.

Almost 800,000 Dreamers live in the US. The vast majority have arrived from Mexico and other Latin American countries south of the US border.

Polls show that there is wide support for offering protection to the so-called Dreamers. A Washington Post/ABC News poll taken in September found 86 percent of respondents are in favor allowing Dreamers to stay in the country.

Trump’s immigration policies have sparked protests both inside the US and abroad since he took office in January.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump characterized Mexican migrants living in the US as murderers and rapists and said the US would build a wall on the US-Mexico border to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country.

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