Immigration Nerds

As the summer approaches many countries across the board are opening up to accommodate the expected influx of tourism as the weather gets warmer. And with that in mind, Bloomberg created a ranking system called the covid resilience index to help guide you along the way. The system aggregates each country’s lockdown severity, vaccinated travel routes, flight capacity, vaccine doses per 100 people, reopening progress, and quality life index (which takes in universal health care coverage and human development ratings). This episode will cover the top 10 countries which we hope can be a cheat sheet of what is required when entering a foreign country, as you decide your summer plans with the family.

On May 23, 2022, the controversial Trump administration policy known as Title 42 is scheduled to officially end. The end of Title 42 follows the CDC announcement that the policy measure is no longer necessary based on current COVID-19 public health conditions.

In this week's Immigration Nerds podcast, we talk to Aaron Karnell, Erickson Immigration Group Senior Attorney, Government Affairs, about the forthcoming policy change, bipartisan concerns about border security, and immigration policy at the US Southern Border without Title 42.

Cair Coalition's Senior Attorney Elizabeth Schmelzel joins EIG 's Partner Hiba Anver.

They discuss:

• How international travel expanded her notions of hard work, survival, and compassion experienced worldwide
• Working in a career that allows you to live out your values
• The empathy needed to represent clients in immigration detention, and tend to their needs
• Wrestling notions of gender dynamics in work, life, and how to balance a career with family

Erickson Immigration Group's Senior Attorney Lauren Clarke joins this week. We walk through the H-1B post-selection process, what to expect, how to prepare, and provide the information necessary to be successful after receiving a determination. A quick guide to help applicants navigate their way through each round.

Sarah Paoletti is a Practice Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she founded and directs the Transnational Legal Clinic. Prof. Paoletti is a founding member of the Board of Directors of Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc., a binational migrant worker rights organization with offices in the U.S. and Mexico, and she serves on the Executive Committee of Migration that Works. Co-host and EIG's Legal Writer Kahn Branch joins.

We discuss:

• Temporary labor migration programs
• Communication to U.N. Human Rights Mechanisms
• The Role of Private Military and Security Companies in Immigrant Detention

University of Illinois-Chicago History Professor and Author Michael R. Jin joins the podcast. His latest book Citizens, Immigrants, and the Stateless: A Japanese American Diaspora in the Pacific captures the lives of more than 50,000 U.S.- born Japanese American Migrants across the U.S. and Japanese colonial borders pre and post-WWII.

• Actions taken to combat anti-Japanese sentiment throughout wartime
• Opportunities and obstacles presented by two influential and contrasting powers
• How artists, creatives, and intellectuals help reconcile notions of transpacific identity and loyalty

Today we discuss the State Department's role during a war crisis and the resulting visa implications that follow.

• US Embassy's role in facilitating humanitarian parole to Ukrainian refugees
• Nonimmigrant visa implications
• How USRAP handles refugees
• State Department role in managing surge capacity

Erickson Immigration Groups' Senior Attorney, Consular Affairs Aaron Karnell joins Lead Researcher and Host Luke Bianco.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is a non-profit organization that welcomes and supports refugees and migrants entering the United States. It is one of nine refugee resettlement agencies working with the Office of Refugee Resettlement[2] and one of only two that serves unaccompanied refugee minors.

With more than 1 million refugees fleeing Ukrainian borders today, President and CEO Krish O'Mara Vignarajah shares her organization's resettlement initiatives, assistance programs, and how everyday citizens can help during these trying times.

Kahn Branch is a Corporate Immigration Legal writer for Erickson Immigration Group. This year we wanted to take an outward-facing scope during black history month, in particular examining the exportation of the Black experience abroad. We take a look at a few notable figures in American history, who used the challenging conditions of their homeland as a creative force to bring insight to the world outside their borders.

Doris Meissner is the former Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)  under President Bill Clinton, heading the program from 1993 to 2000. And now the Senior Fellow and Director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

We discuss:

• Immigration's social and structural changes over the last 30 years
• Biden's first year: Immigration record
• Build Back Better