Tag: immigration

Oregon Resumes Automatic Voter Registrations After Errors Registered Noncitizens

The Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) resumed automatic voter registrations on Feb. 27, saying it had strengthened the system to prevent the registration of noncitizens.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek in October 2024 ordered a pause of the process after an audit discovered some individuals were automatically registered to vote despite not providing proof of U.S. citizenship. Officials later disclosed they’d identified additional individuals, taking the total to about 1,600.

The DMV said it has strengthened its system to minimize the risk of more noncitizens and others who have not provided proof of citizenship being registered. This includes hiring a voter registration integrity analyst and modifying the internal interface, which the agency says will reduce the likelihood of DMV staff selecting the wrong option.

Since the pause was imposed, the DMV has sampled new records and manually compared them with information collected from customers. The DMV said that no new mistaken registrations have been found so far.

“We believe these enhanced processes and permanent system changes, along with DMV’s observations and measurements regarding their effectiveness, provide adequate confidence that data integrity … is sufficient to reinstitute the process,” Deloitte, which the governor hired to review the system, said in a report.

“As a partner to Oregon’s Secretary of State, Oregon DMV is proud of the role it plays in helping U.S. citizens engage in our elections,” Oregon DMV Administrator Amy Joyce said in a statement. “We will continue our work to ensure the Oregon Motor Voter process is more secure and reliable than ever.”

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is also trying to prevent noncitizen voter registration.

The office said it has added more steps, including a daily confirmation step.

“The new protections we are adding today will help us catch and fix government data entry errors faster. These are first steps, focused on getting the fundamentals right. I will continue to dig into the system and take action whenever I can to strengthen our voter rolls and prevent future mistakes. Our highest priority is – and must always be – protecting the integrity of Oregonians’ fair, secure, and accessible elections,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement.

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More Of The Same? Germany Resumes Inbound Afghan Flights After Legacy Parties Survive Election Scare

The German government has resumed flights for Afghan refugees from Pakistan after a temporary suspension during the election campaign. On Tuesday, 155 Afghans arrived in Berlin, marking the first group to be transported since the election results secured power for the legacy parties CDU and SPD, who are expected to form a coalition government.

Flights for Afghan refugees were paused ahead of the election due to concerns over immigration and political optics. The decision followed a series of high-profile crimes committed by Afghan nationals, which fueled fears that further arrivals could strengthen the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) had officially cited logistical issues as the reason for canceling two charter flights in the weeks leading up to the election.

Now, with the election concluded, approximately 3,000 Afghans currently waiting at reception centers in Islamabad are expected to be transported to Germany in the coming weeks.

According to Die Welt, Germany has accepted more than 48,000 Afghans since August 2021, with almost 36,000 classified as “particularly endangered” by the federal government. Reports indicate that the cost of these relocations has amounted to several hundred million euros.

The decision to suspend flights during the campaign followed a string of violent crimes involving Afghan nationals across Germany. 

Two weeks before the election, an Afghan migrant drove a vehicle into a left-wing Ver.di demonstration in Munich, injuring at least 28 people, including a toddler. Police confirmed that the attacker, 24-year-old Farhad Noori, was a rejected asylum seeker with a history of theft and other offenses. His asylum claim had been denied in 2020 after authorities deemed his account of persecution in Afghanistan to be fabricated.

The January 2024 fatal stabbing of a toddler and a 41-year-old man in Schöntal Park, Aschaffenburg, by a 28-year-old Afghan national who targeted a group from daycare, sparked national outrage and reignited calls for a suspension of new arrivals and expedited deportations back to the country now governed by the Taliban.

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Appeals Court Says Trump Can’t End Birthright Citizenship — Battle Likely Heading to Supreme Court

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that President Donald Trump cannot end birthright citizenship with his executive order, likely setting up a battle about the issue in the Supreme Court.

The Justice Department had filed an emergency request for the court to lift a Seattle judge’s freeze on the policy, but the appeals court denied it on Wednesday.

CNN reports:

The 9th Circuit panel – made up of a Trump appointee, a Jimmy Carter appointee and a George W. Bush appointee – said that a closer review of the case will move forward in its court, with arguments slated for June.

The case before the San Francisco-based appeals court is one of several major legal challenges to the policy and the first to get the weigh-in by an appellate panel.

In filings, the Justice Department said that the birthright citizenship executive order was “an integral part of President Trump’s broader effort to repair the United States’ immigration system and to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border.”

The court said the decision was made because the appeal was not likely to succeed on the dispute’s merits.

The lawsuit against the order was brought by four state’s Democratic attorneys general.

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New York Court Considers Law that Would Allow 800,000 Non-Citizens to Vote

A staggering 800,000 non-citizens could reportedly be voting soon in New York City elections, as a court is considering legislation this week that would allow them to register to vote ahead of the city’s elections.

A top New York court is set to hear arguments regarding the matter on Tuesday, according to a report by Politico. This comes after an appellate court struck down Democrats’ efforts to permit non-citizens to vote last year.

If the initiative by Democrats is successful, around 800,000 non-citizens living in New York City will be allowed to vote in city-level elections, such as the upcoming mayoral election this November, the report noted.

Advocates of the legislation that would let non-citizens cast ballots are arguing that these residents are being unfairly taxed.

“In five City Council districts, non-U.S. citizens make up about a third of the adult population,” attorneys reportedly wrote in a filing. “These New Yorkers pay billions in taxes and yet have no say in local policies on public safety, garbage collection, or housing — all matters that affect their day-to-day lives.”

New York City Republicans, meanwhile, remain nonplussed, reminding those involved that the state’s constitution specifically states that voting rights are granted to “every citizen.”

“It’s hard to discuss because it’s crazy it’s even an issue,” New York State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-24th Senate District) told Politico, adding, “Citizens ought to vote. If you’re not a citizen of a country, you should not have a say.”

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Trump signs order prioritizing US ‘resettlement’ of white South Africans over ‘discrimination’

After years railing against immigrants coming to America, Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to prioritize the U.S. resettlement of white South African “refugees” suffering from what he called “government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”

Trump also shut down all funding for the country, much of which is used to battle AIDS.

Afrikaners, architects of the historically brutal discriminatory system of apartheid in South Africa, would be resettled in America through the U.S. refugee program, which Trump had suspended by executive order on his first day in office, according to the president.

Trump accused the South African government in his order of discriminating against the white Afrikaaners, descendants of the largely Dutch colonists who arrived in the country in the 1600s and imposed apartheid against the overwhelming majority of Blacks living there until the 1990s.

Trump raged in his order that South Africa’s government is seizing “ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” and enacting “countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity” in employment, education and business.”

He wrote that the U.S. cannot support the government of South Africa’s “commission of rights violations in its country.”

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US Judge Hints He May Release Prince Harry’s Immigration Files, as Embattled British Royal Is Suspected of Lying on Visa Application About Past Drug Use

While his ties to England seem to have been severed for the most part, the prodigal son of King Charles, Prince Harry, is now involved in a lawsuit aiming to release his US immigration files to the public—a move that could end up seeing him turned away from his new chosen home.

A US federal judge hinted yesterday (5) that he is ‘likely’ to order the release of Harry’s immigration documents.

These files are expected to reveal if the Duke of Sussex was lawfully issued a visa or if he could now be subject to deportation for lying to US authorities about his admitted past drug use.

US District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Carl J. Nichols decided this during a hearing for a case brought by lawyers at the Heritage Foundation.

The conservative group is suing the Department of Homeland Security to compel the release of Harry’s records.

The New York Post reported:

“’To the maximum extent possible, I’m required to make public everything that can be made public’, Nichols told both parties, adding that he had to take care any disclosures do not violate US privacy laws shielding the Duke.

‘I’m going to take this in stages’, Nichols added at the end of the hearing, indicating that he would allow the government to ‘submit proposed redactions’ in order for him to ‘analyze’ whether Harry properly attested to cocaine, cannabis and psychedelic mushrooms abuse, as detailed in his 2023 memoir ‘Spare’.”

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Nearly Half of Germans Feel Unsafe In Their Own Neighborhoods Thanks to Mass Migration

A new national survey has found that nearly half of Germans feel unsafe in their own neighborhoods thanks to mass migration, with 81% believing the country has taken in too many refugees.

German broadcaster Welt revealed details of the 2025 Security Report, which shows a massive increase in Germans saying they fear for their safety.

“According to the survey, around half of Germans say they feel unsafe in their own neighborhood and would not go outside alone at night,” reported the news network.

The report highlighted several recent violent attacks across the country carried out by migrants, including most recently in Aschaffenburg, where a failed Afghan asylum seeker who should have been deported targeted a group of kindergarten children in a park, stabbing a 2-year-old boy to death.

A woman who was interviewed said she felt particularly vulnerable when using train and bus stations and places “wherever it is dark.”

“I’m already worried about my children who are young and more vulnerable than me,” added another woman.

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Trump orders review to identify, punish and deport antisemites — including students on visas

President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday instructing federal agencies to identify “all civil and criminal authorities” available to combat antisemitism — including finding ways to deport anti-Jewish activists who violated laws.

The order, first reported by The Post, requires agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days and outlines plans for the Justice Department to investigate pro-Hamas graffiti and intimidation, including on college campuses.

“Jewish students have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault,” the order says.

“It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

The executive order calls for the deportation of resident aliens — including students with visas — who broke laws as part of anti-Israel protests following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that sparked the invasion of Gaza.

“[T]he Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security… shall include in their reports recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) so that such institutions may monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens,” the order says.

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Donald Trump Cancels Flights for 1,600 Refugees: Report

President Donald Trump has cancelled flights for 1,660 refugees from Afghanistan who were previously cleared by the government to come to the U.S., according to Reuters.

The 1,660 Afghan refugees who have been taken off flights include family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, unaccompanied minors flying to the U.S. to reunite with family, and those who fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government.

Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs and subsequent cancelling of flights is detailed in a report from Shawn VanDiver, the head of the #AfghanEvac, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, and an anonymous U.S. official.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump transition team for comment via email outside of business hours. Newsweek also reached out to the U.S. Department of State for comment via a form on their website outside of working hours.

Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs is significant because he is following through with the immigration crackdowns he mentioned during his presidential campaign.

Further, by cancelling the flights of Afghan refugees, the president is mirroring actions from his first term, as he signed an executive order barring people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days in 2017.

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EU state demands ‘honest life’ from future citizens

Immigrants hoping to become Swedish citizens must demonstrate that they have lived an “honest life” and commit to respecting the Nordic nation’s liberal values, under new rules announced by Migration Minister Johan Forssell

The new regulations were proposed by a government-appointed commission and adopted by the government this week, Forssell said at a press conference on Tuesday. They will come into force next year

Under the new system, immigrants applying for citizenship will have to prove that they have resided in Sweden for eight years, and that they have lived an “honest life” – with no criminal convictions or outstanding debts – both before and after arriving in Sweden

Currently, Swedish authorities only examine applicants’ conduct after arrival, and immigrants may apply for citizenship after five years

”This is particularly important at a time when Sweden has welcomed hundreds of thousands of people from many parts of the world in recent years,” Forssell told reporters. “You should feel proud to be a Swedish citizen, and you only feel proud once you’ve made an effort.”

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