Global Directions: Mobility Trends In July 2018

Mayer Brown's Global Directions is a summary of recent immigration and mobility trends arising in key jurisdictions around the globe. This high-level overview alerts recipients to select changes in law and practice that may affect their global mobility programs.

Americas

United States

Supreme Court Upholds Trump's Third Travel Ban

In a 5-4 decision issued on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, the US Supreme Court upheld the president's broad statutory authority to suspend the issuance of visas to nationals of certain countries in the interests of national security, as ordered in the September 24, 2017 presidential Proclamation 9645. The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, states, "By its plain language, [the Immigration and Nationality Act] grants the president broad discretion to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States ...The president lawfully exercised that discretion based on his findings—following a worldwide, multiagency review—that entry of the covered aliens would be detrimental to the national interest." (Please see Mayer Brown's analysis.)

President Trump Signs Executive Order to End Migrant Family Separation by Indefinitely Detaining Parents and Children Together at the Border

On June 20, 2018 the president signed an executive order, "Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation." The executive order states that officials will continue to prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally but will find or build facilities to hold families together while the parents' cases are considered by the courts.

The president indicated the border will be "just as tough," with borders "very strong," but families will no longer be separated. In a recent news conference, President Trump indicated, "We are keeping a very powerful border and it continues to be a zero tolerance." The executive order similarly reiterates the administration's hard-line zero tolerance policy of detaining any adults entering the country illegally, a policy that, according to statistics released on June 19, has led to the separation of more than 2,300 children from their parents.

To stem the separations the detentions have caused to date, the executive order provides a temporary detention policy, authorizing the secretary of Homeland Security, "to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations," to maintain custody of alien familiesincluding minor childrenduring the pendency of any criminal or...