Immigration

North Carolina ranks seventh in the country for most recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But a new court decision out of Texas has left the more than 12,000 immigrants in the state who are eligible for DACA, but have not yet received it, at a standstill.

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.

Education dominated the news this week — despite most schools being on summer break. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited Charlotte, and the CMS board held its first in-person meeting since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. That meeting saw a debate over how schools handle racism — and a protest outside the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center over how allegations of sexual assault were handled at Myers Park High.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Advocates hoped for more, but the administration says this is the pace it wants as it scales up the effort. "We chose intentionally to start slow so that we can go fast later," an official says.

The vice president met with Guatemala's president to talk about the root causes behind migration to the United States, including corruption. But another prominent Democrat called that "disappointing."

A unanimous Supreme Court has ruled that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents.