Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday, May
26, 2023, is now posted.

You can find the online version of the bulletin
here: [link removed]
<[link removed]>
[link removed]


All the best,

Arturo 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, May 26, 2023**Welcome to the National
Immigration Forum's weekly bulletin! Every Friday, our policy team
rounds up key developments around immigration policy in Washington and
across the country. The bulletin includes items on the legislative,
executive, and judicial branches, as well as some coverage at the state
and local levels. 

****DEVELOPMENTS IN IMMIGRATION POLICY THIS WEEK ****Immigration policy
is a dynamic field subject to constant change. Here, we summarize some
of the most important recent developments in immigration policy on the
federal, legal, state, and local levels. 

Content warning: This section sometimes includes events and information
that can prove disturbing. 

****Federal ****

**Afghans Join Historic Number of Migrants Traversing the Darién
Gap **Since early 2022, over 3,600 Afghans
<[link removed]>
have journeyed across Latin America, many of them enduring extortion,
robbery, kidnapping, family separation, and other adversities in an
effort to reach the United States. 

Among this diverse and desperate group of asylum seekers, there have
been engineers, doctors, a former women's rights official, a body guard
who protected First Lady Laura Bush and President Barack Obama,
grandfathers, and a teenage girl with aspirations of becoming an
astronaut. They have gotten hurt, collapsed from exhaustion, and prayed
for the survival of others on their way through the treacherous Darién
Gap jungle, often after their petitions for more orderly pathways to the
U.S. never received a response. 

"They [the Americans] left us behind," an Afghan named Taiba told the
New York Times. "Sometimes I think maybe God left all Afghans behind."

"No one cares about us!" screamed an engineer named Ahmad, who had tried
to apply for humanitarian parole in the U.S. years before making the
dangerous trek north. "We have important people left in Afghanistan and
no one cares!"

When Afghans have finally reached the U.S., they have been detained,
lied to, expelled back to Mexico, charged with misdemeanors for crossing
the border, and stranded between border fences, according to the New
York Times. 

And yet, even with the Biden administration's new asylum restrictions in
place, Afghans - and other migrants from across the globe - are
continuing to set their sights on the U.S., with officials already
presaging
<[link removed]>
a potential record number of migrant crossings through the Darién Gap
this year. 

"My question is: How do we become Americans?" Nematullah Nikzad told the
Los Angeles Times
<[link removed]>
at a roadside camp in Mexico. "Under the Taliban, life is very hard for
us now. We want to be Americans."

**Deportations, Returns Top 11,000 After Title 42's End **In the week
after the Title 42 public health order expired, over 11,000 migrants
were deported or returned to Mexico and elsewhere as the Biden
administration paired strict legal consequences with new asylum
restrictions to try to deter people from crossing the U.S.'s southern
border without authorization. 

The highly publicized removals <[link removed]>
- documented through agency news releases and on social media
<[link removed]>
- are part of a larger strategy
<[link removed]>
to manage an increasingly hemispheric phenomenon of large-scale
humanitarian migration, as people fleeing persecution, violence,
climate-related disaster, and poverty turn to the U.S. for help. 

Asylum officers conducted interviews with over 2,700 migrants in just a
week, CBS News reported, even as a new final rule came into play
severely limiting asylum eligibility - and as some people who
expressed a fear of returning home continued to undergo expedited
initial screenings while still in U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) custody. 

In addition, troubling reports
<[link removed]>
indicate some asylum seekers are being turned away when they try to
request asylum at a port of entry, where U.S. officials are telling them
they must use the CBP One phone app to pre-schedule an appointment.
Notably, such statements of policy on-the-ground directly contradict
what others at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have said is
protocol. 

"We are not turning individuals away at our ports of entry," Blas
Nuñez-Neto, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, told
the San Diego Union-Tribune. 

Amid so much confusion, border apprehensions
<[link removed]>
remain considerably lower than in the days ahead of the Title 42
policy's end. Many migrants are choosing to wait in Mexico -
sometimes in dangerous situations, or at shelters that are farabove
capacity <[link removed]>- as
they try to access one of the limited number of CBP One appointments
<[link removed]>
each day to enter the U.S. 

Others from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba who have already tried
to cross the border are accepting "voluntary returns
<[link removed]>"
to Mexico in hopes that they will be able to return stateside via CBP
One or another pathway, without facing the five-year bar to re-entry
that comes with removal. 

Still others are turning to high-cost smugglers
<[link removed]>
to get them past immigration authorities undetected, so they can avoid
the hardline policies at the border and reach their final destination in
the U.S.

**Report: Demand for Biden Administration's Parole Programs Tops 1.5
Million **On May 22, CBS News reported
<[link removed]>
that over 1.5 million requests have been submitted in a matter of months
by potential sponsors hoping to support Venezuelans, Nicaraguans,
Cubans, and Haitians trying to come to the U.S. legally through the
Biden administration's relatively new parole processes.

This outpouring of generosity from U.S.-based sponsors who are
volunteering to financially back vulnerable migrants looking for safety
and opportunity stateside underscores a major takeaway from the Forum's
latest polling, which found about two-thirds of registered voters
believe that "it is important that the U.S. welcome and preserve
essential protections for people fleeing persecution."

But these humanitarian programs are capped at just 30,000 advance travel
authorizations per month total, for all four nationalities - a drop
in the bucket compared to the almost 12,000 applications DHS received on
average daily by the end of April. 

Internal DHS documents obtained by CBS News raised concerns that -
given the significant backlogs and wait times that are now ensuing
- the programs could lose some of their effectiveness as a more
orderly alternative to migrants traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border,
unless the 30,000 monthly cap increases. Already, USCIS had announced
changes to its review process for applications
<[link removed]>,
so migrants would still retain hope that they might receive permission
to come to the U.S. quickly. 

**DHS Announces its First Body Worn Camera Policy**On May 23, the
Department of Homeland Security announced its first-ever department-wide
policy on the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) for all its operational
law enforcement agencies. According to thepress release
<[link removed]>,
this guideline-which was signed into effect on May 22 - details that
BWCs will be used "for law enforcement interactions with the public in
response to emergency calls, pre-planned arrests, or during execution of
a search or seizure warrant or order." The policy further specifies that
agents are not permitted to wear BWC "for the sole purpose of recording
individuals engaged in First Amendment activity." Among the agencies
subject to new rule will be U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S.
Secret Service, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According toMayorkas
<[link removed]>,
the new DHS policy builds upon that order, stating that "our [DHS]
ability to secure the homeland rests on public trust, which is built
through accountability, transparency, and effectiveness in our law
enforcement practices." He added that "requiring the use of body-worn
cameras by our law enforcement officers and agents is another important
step DHS is making to bring our law enforcement to the forefront of
innovation, and to further build public trust and confidence in the
thousands of dedicated and professional law enforcement officers at
DHS." 

****Legal ****

**Texas Sues the Biden Administration Over Asylum Rule**On May 23, Texas
filed suit
<[link removed]>
against top officials in the Biden administration to block the new
"Circumvention of Lawful Pathways
<[link removed]>"
final rule that has imposed significant restrictions on asylum
eligibility.

The complaint - led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and filed in
a federal court for the state's western district - focuses on the
federal regulation's reliance on the CBP One phone app to control
migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The plaintiff argues
<[link removed]>that
by using the CBP One app to pre-schedule appointments for migrants to
enter the country at a port of entry, members of the Biden
administration are actively encouraging people without proper
documentation or a legal pathway to come into the U.S. 

And so - while immigration advocates raise alarms
<[link removed]>
that the new asylum rule is far too restrictive, and while advocacy
organizations
<[link removed]>
have filed their own legal challenges against it - Texas is suing to
try to stop the federal regulation from a completely disparate rationale
that it is in fact too lenient. 

"The Biden Administration's attempt to manage the southern border by
app does not meet even the lowest expectation of competency and runs
afoul of the laws Congress passed to regulate immigration, and the Final
Rule should be enjoined," Texas's complaint suggests. 

State officials have requested that the court hold the final asylum rule
unlawful and set it aside, issue a preliminary and permanent injunction
prohibiting its implementation, and take other actions. 

The federal regulation has been in effect since the end of the Title 42
policy, rendering migrants ineligible for asylum unless they meet a
limited number of exceptions. 

****State and Local ****

**Lawmakers in Texas Advance Concerning Bill Challenging Federal
Immigration Enforcement Authority**On May 24, House Bill 7
<[link removed]>-
a sweeping immigration and border security proposal out of Texas -
received final approval from the state Senate, after already passing the
state House.

The bill would create a controversial state border police force that
could challenge federal authority over immigration enforcement. It would
impose a state crime on migrants who enter between ports of entry and
create a new mandatory minimum of 10 years for human smuggling,
according to the Texas Tribune
<[link removed]>.
Plus, it would provide $100 million in funding for courts, security,
detention centers, and other infrastructures.

Some of the Senate's changes to the legislation rolled back
protections that had been incorporated before passing the House. For
example, the version out of the Senate allows the new border police to
operate anywhere in Texas, compared to limitations in the House that had
required permission from county commissioners in border communities for
the unit to intervene there. 

The Senate version also allows the border unit to employ both
commissioned officers and noncommissioned workers, in contrast with an
amendment in the House that had restricted participation in the new
police force to licensed peace officers.

Lawmakers in the House can now
<[link removed]>
either accept the Senate's version of the bill or call a conference
committee among both chambers' lawmakers in an effort to find a
compromise. 

**Illinois Bill Passes Allowing Dreamers to Become Police Officers**On
May 19, Congress passed a bi-partisan supported bill (HB 3751
<[link removed]>)
that enables Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients to
apply for city or county law enforcement jobs. The bill also allows them
to purchase, carry, and possess a firearm following their employment.

This legislation responds to staffingshortages
<[link removed]>
in police departments across the country and functions to expand the job
market to DACA recipients-providing another opportunity for Dreamers
to serve their local communities. If the bill is signed by Governor JB
Pritzker, it will become effective January 1, 2024. 

****BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED****It can be challenging to keep up
with the constant barrage of proposed legislation in Congress. So, every
week, we round up new bills here. This list includes federal legislative
proposals that have recently been introduced and that are relevant to
immigration policy. 

Please follow this link
<[link removed]>
to find new relevant bills, as well as proposed legislation from past
weeks. 

****LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR****The U.S. Senate will be in session
from Tuesday, May 30 through Friday, June 2, 2023. 

The U.S. House of Representatives will not be in session the week of
Monday, May 29, 2023.

****UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS****Here, we round up congressional
hearings and markups happening in the field or in Washington. 

**Securing the Nation: Modernizing DHS's Mission-Critical Legacy IT
Systems**
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Wednesday, May 31 at 10:00 a.m. EST (Senate Committee on
Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs)

**Location:**SD-562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses: **

**Eric Hysen,**Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security

**Charles R. Armstrong,**Chief Information Officer, Federal Emergency
Management Agency

**Yemi Oshinnaiye,** Chief Information Officer, Transportation Security
Administration

**Kevin Walsh,** Director of Information Technology and Cybersecurity,
U.S. Government Accountability Office

****GOVERNMENT REPORTS****Reports by bodies such as the U.S. Government
Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service, and the
Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General provide
invaluable information on immigration policy and practice. Here, we give
brief summaries of new immigration-related reports, with links to the
resources themselves in case you want to learn more. 

**DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG);****DHS' Fiscal Year 2022
Compliance with the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019**
<[link removed]>

**; May 22, 2023**This report finds that the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) did not comply with the Payment Integrity Information Act
of 2019 during last fiscal year and offers recommendations. 

**DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG);****Results of an Unannounced
Inspection of Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington**
<[link removed]>

**; May 22, 2023**This report details findings from an unannounced
inspection of  the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma,
Washington. While the facility met certain standards, it failed to
always respond in a timely manner to detainee grievances, at times did
not store food safely, and had a large percentage of medical staff
vacancies, among other concerns. 

**DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG);****CBP Facilities in Vermont
and New York Generally Met TEDS Standards, but Details to the Southwest
Border Affected Morale, Recruitment, and Operations**
<[link removed]>

**; May 23, 2023**This report details findings after unannounced
inspections of seven U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities
at the northern U.S. border. The facilities generally complied with the
National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search (TEDS),
but mandatory details of agents from the northern border to the
southwest border had impacted operations.

**Congressional Research Service (CRS);****Adverse Effect Wage Rate
(AEWR) Methodology for Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in the
United States** <[link removed]>

**; May 23, 2023**This report explores the H-2A visa program, with a
focus on how the Department of Labor calculates adverse effect wage
rates for a variety of occupations. 

**U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO);****DNA Collections: CBP
Is Collecting Samples From Individuals in Custody, but Needs Better Data
for Program Oversigh** <[link removed]>

**t; May 24, 2023**This report explores DNA collection by U.S. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP), including obstacles that have prevented DNA
collection for some individuals who would otherwise be  subject.

****SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****The Forum is
constantly publishing new policy-focused resources that engage with some
of the most topical issues around immigration today. Here are a few that
are particularly relevant this week: 

**Q&A: What to Know About the Biden Administration's New Asylum
Restrictions**
<[link removed]>This
explainer provides an overview of the "Circumvention of Lawful Pathways"
rule. It explains in simple terms what the rule does, how it will affect
asylum seekers, and where it will interact with other border enforcement
policies post-Title 42.

**The DIGNITY Act: Bill Summary**
<[link removed]>This
bill summary provides an overview of a bipartisan bill introduced by
Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Florida), which couples heightened border
security measures with legal pathways. 

**Statement for the Record U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary Hearing
on "The Biden Border Crisis: Part III" - May 23, 2023**
<[link removed]>This
Statement for the Record explores the current situation at the
U.S.-Mexico border as a symptom of our country's larger broken
immigration system, with an eye toward solutions.

*This Bulletin is not intended to be comprehensive. Please contact
Alexandra Villarreal, Policy and Advocacy Associate at the National
Immigration Forum, with comments and suggestions of additional items to
be included. Alexandra can be reached at
[email protected]. Thank you.

 

DONATE
<[link removed]>

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum

10 G Street NE, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20002

www.immigrationforum.org <[link removed]>

 

Unsubscribe from the Legislative Bulletin <[link removed]>
or opt-out from all Forum emails. <[link removed]>

 

                                               
           
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 10 G St NE, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002, United States