Filing for asylum is a lengthy and often tedious process, especially if English isn’t your first language. That’s why the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy hosted its first free asylum clinic to help these immigrants meet the strict filing deadline.
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A federal judge in Texas blocked new and pending applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals from being reviewed last Friday. The decision could affect the more than 12,000 in North Carolina who are eligible for the program and have not yet received it.
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Mayda Vargas lost her partner after she says he was killed by gang members in Guatemala. She's now seeking asylum in Charlotte — with one toughest immigration courts in the country — and trying to rebuild the life she left behind.
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The Biden administration directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to no longer detain immigrants who are pregnant, nursing or within one year postpartum, in a new policy announced on Friday.
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North Carolina ranks last in the country for the likelihood of having legal representation in immigration cases, according to a report from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. It also ranks 10th for total pending deportation cases.
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Immigration law is complex, and there is a short supply of lawyers in North Carolina who are specifically certified in it. The certification is one way to assure immigrants that their lawyer understands the system. Immigrants seeking help have a wide range of choices, and in some cases, they turn to people who don’t even work in the legal field.
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A unanimous ruling out of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will affect thousands of North Carolina immigrants who have received Temporary Protected Status. The high court ruled that those who entered the country illegally and later received TPS are not eligible to apply for permanent residency.
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Earlier this year, thousands of unaccompanied minors arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, sparking debate once again about the immigration system. Children have been arriving alone for years. WFAE caught up with a father in North Carolina who nearly seven years ago had to wait for months as his four children traveled from Guatemala to Charlotte.
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Recent data out of Syracuse University show that very few deportation cases in Charlotte this year were due to criminal charges.
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A Trump administration policy required asylum seekers who traveled through Mexico on their journey to the U.S. to remain in Mexico while their claims were being processed. A small fraction of those cases were transferred to courts across the U.S. More than 100 of them are moving through Charlotte Immigration Court.
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A Guatemalan immigrant and mother of four who spent the last four years in sanctuary inside a Greensboro church was granted stay of removal by the Department of Homeland Security.
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A bill introduced in the North Carolina Senate would give in-state tuition to college students protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. It would apply to public universities and community colleges. To qualify, students must have attended a K-12 school in North Carolina for at least two years and graduated.
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Civil unrest and a crumbled economy have propelled more than 5 million Venezuelans to leave the country and settle abroad. Now, about 300,000 Venezuelans living in the United States can apply for temporary protected status, and at least 4,000 are in the Charlotte area.