Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday, June
2, 2023, is now posted.

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


All the best,

Alexandra 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, June 2, 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 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. 

****Legal ****

**DACA Hearing in Texas Represents Latest Chapter in Years-long Court
Saga Amid Congressional Inaction **On June 1, the drawn-out court saga
around Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) took its latest
turn duringa hearing
<[link removed]>
in Texas, where attorneys laid out their arguments around whether the
Biden administration's new federal regulation bolstering the program
can withstand legal scrutiny. 

DACA is an Obama-era policy that exercises discretion to allow Dreamers
- immigrants brought to the United States unlawfully as children
- to live and work without the fear of deportation. But U.S. District
Judge Andrew Hanen previously found that the program was illegal
<[link removed]>
in a decision that has shuttered access to new applicants and caused
widespread uncertainty among Dreamers as they try to plan their
futures. 

On Thursday, attorneys for the nine states trying to end DACA - Texas,
Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South
Carolina, and West Virginia - called on Hanen to similarly declare
DACA unlawful despite the Biden administration's recent use of the
formal regulatory process
<[link removed]>. 

DACA's detractors argued in part that unauthorized immigrants cost
their states hundreds of millions of dollars in health care, education,
and other services. But defenders of the policy noted a complete lack of
evidence
<[link removed]>
that those alleged costs are related to DACA recipients specifically and
said the states lack standing to sue. 

Attorneys advocating for DACA also asked Hanen to only shut down parts
of the program that he finds illegal - if any - as opposed to
gutting the whole policy. 

"We should not be in court, at all, having to defend DACA," said
<[link removed]>
Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Hanen did not rule immediately following the hearing, but he said
<[link removed]>
he would do so "as expeditiously as we can." Ultimately, the case is
expected to end up in front of the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, in Congress, a number of compromises to legislate a more
permanent solution for Dreamers do not appear to have garnered the
momentum or political will needed to move forward yet, even as DACA
continues to face an existential threat in the courts, CQ Roll Call
reports
<[link removed]>. 

As of December, over 580,000 people
<[link removed]>
were enrolled in DACA - a population that typically does not have
access to other immigration pathways so they can live and work legally
in the U.S., where they grew up. Some
<[link removed]>
DACA recipients have become so disheartened that they are turning to
other countries like Canada for a new home after waiting for years to
see if Congress would resolve the uncertainty they experience every day.

****Federal ****

**USCIS Processing Times for Asylum Seekers' Work Permits Improve**After
months of dismal compliance rates around a court-mandated 30-day
timeline for asylum seekers' work permit processing, U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services (USCIS) made headway
<[link removed]>
in April, processing over 44% of applications
<[link removed]> within the designated time period. 

Already, asylum seekers are not eligible
<[link removed]>
for employment authorization until their asylum applications have been
pending for at least 180 days. But USCIS processing delays have forced
many asylum seekers to wait far longer than those initial six months to
secure permission so they can work legally in the U.S. while their cases
proceed through a backlogged adjudication. 

The U.S.'s employment authorization practices for asylum seekers have
come under intense scrutiny in recent months, as local
<[link removed]> and state officials
<[link removed]>have
urged federal policymakers to expedite access to and eligibility for
these much-needed work permits. 

Once asylum seekers receive employment authorization, they are able to
fill critical labor shortages in key industries across the country,
while relying less on service providers and government entities for
support. But delays - both for eligibility and processing - are
getting in the way
<[link removed]>
of people's desire to be self-sufficient. 

"They're ready to work, they're willing to work, and they're not able to
work," said New York Gov.
<[link removed]>
Kathy Hochul. 

A number of congressional proposals, including the Border Management,
Security, and Assistance Act of 2023
<[link removed]>
and various iterations
<[link removed]>
of the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act of 2023
<[link removed]>,
aim to remedy some of these issues. 

**First Regional Processing Centers to Begin Accepting Appointments on
June 12**On June 1, the United States and Guatemala announced
<[link removed]>
that appointments for a six-month pilot of the new Safe Mobility Offices
would be available online at movilidadsegura.org
<[link removed]> starting on June 12. 

The pilot program is part of the Biden administration's initiative to
erect brick-and-mortar regional processing centers across the Western
Hemisphere, where migrants and asylum seekers can be screened for legal
immigration pathways to the U.S. and elsewhere without making the
dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Previously, the U.S. had signaled plans to eventually erectaround 100
<[link removed]>
of these processing centers, deploying federal personnel from the
Departments of State and Homeland Security to work alongside staff from
the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees. Both Guatemala and Colombia had been floated
as locations for initial sites, where migrants could be screened
<[link removed]>
for potential pathways to the U.S., Canada, and Spain. 

The new online webpage <[link removed]> for these Safe
Mobility Offices says that potential pathways for applicants could
include refugee resettlement, humanitarian parole for certain
nationalities, family reunification, and temporary work opportunities. 

The new regional processing centers debut even as the number of
unauthorized migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border have reached a
comparativelow
<[link removed]>
for the Biden administration. The precipitous decline in migrant
crossings since the end of the Title 42 public health order - from
over 10,000 to barely 3,000 a day - is being attributed to a melange
of policy changes and other temporary factors.

But in Congress, this relative calm on the U.S. side of the border has
not completely quelled attempts to pass hardline, enforcement-only
legislation. An amendment trying to attach the border security and
immigration package passed by the House last month, H.R. 2
<[link removed]>,
to a debt ceiling deal in the Senate ultimately failed Thursday.
Undeterred, and despite preliminary signs that the Biden
administration's current border policies are having their intended
effects, lawmakers have scheduled hearings for next week to focus on
"the border crisis" and "DHS' failure to prepare for the termination of
Title 42." 

**U.S. Border Patrol Chief to Retire at End of June**

** **On May 30, news broke that U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz
will retire at the end of June after devoting more than three decades of
his career to the agency.  

In a letter to Border Patrol employees,Ortiz wrote
<[link removed]>,
"I leave at ease, knowing we have a tremendous uniformed and
professional workforce, strong relationships with our union partners,
and outstanding leaders who will continue to tirelessly advocate for you
each day." 

Ortiz has led the Border Patrol since 2021 and has seen the agency
through many challenges - including most recently the expiration of
theTitle 42
<[link removed]>
public health order.  

In a statement
<[link removed]>,
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised what he perceived
as Ortiz's devotion to duty. "He is the model of a law enforcement
leader," said Mayorkas. "The Border Patrol is stronger, and our nation
is more secure, thanks to his leadership. I will miss his candor, our
thought partnership, and our friendship."  

**Trump Threatens to End Birthright Citizenship If Re-Elected
President **On May 30, the former president, Donald Trump, announced
<[link removed]>
that if re-elected in 2024, he will sign an executive order on day one
ending birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants
and people in the U.S. short-term.

The extreme proposal - which legal scholars have panned aslikely
unconstitutional
<[link removed]>
- would deny U.S. citizenship to a child born here
<[link removed]>,
unless at least one parent were an American citizen or lawful permanent
resident. 

"I think it's pretty clear that, for political purposes, he thinks that
this kind of announcement will appeal to his base. It shows that he has
anti-immigration credentials. And most of his voters don't know or don't
care about whether such an executive order would be legal," Stephen
Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell University, told CBS
News. 
<[link removed]>

The U.S. Constitution
<[link removed].>'s
fourteenth amendment clearly says that "all persons born or naturalized
in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States," with no caveats about a parent's
immigration status. But anti-immigrant advocates have long decried
birthright citizenship as a supposed pull factor for unauthorized
migration and so-called "birth tourism," using the pejorative of "anchor
babies
<[link removed]>"
to construct fallacies around American children as pawns for their
unauthorized immigrant parents to benefit by proxy. 

In reality
<[link removed]>,
undocumented parents often face significant hurdles to deriving U.S.
citizenship from their American kids - including decades-long waits
before they're even eligible - and mixed-status families endure
tremendous uncertainty plus overwhelming fear of family separation by
deportation as they navigate the U.S.'s broken immigration system. 

**Preliminary Report on the Death of 8-Year-Old Girl in CBP Custody
Shows Negligence of Authorities**On June 1, the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection's Office of Professional Responsibility (CBP-OPR) published
<[link removed]>
an update on the investigation of the death of an 8-year-old migrant
girl in CBP custody in Harlingen, Texas. The investigation - mainly
based on interviews due to alleged problems with the closed-circuit
television recording system - highlights that despite the girl having
a high fever (which reached 104.9 degrees), flu-like symptoms, nausea,
and pain, the medical personnel at the detention center refused to
transfer her to a hospital for high-level care.

The report notes
<[link removed]>
that the girl and her mother had at least nine interactions with medical
personnel after the girl's symptoms started. Instead of transferring
the girl to a hospital, they only gave fever-reducing, nausea, and flu
medications, as well as a cold shower. After having a seizure, the girl
was transferred to the hospital, where she was declared deceased one
hour later.

According to the report, the closed-circuit television recording
capabilities of the facility have been restored,
<[link removed]>
and CBP-OPR's investigation of the case is still ongoing.

****State and Local ****

**Restrictive Bill Fails in Texas, Gov. Abbott Immediately Calls Special
Session**On May 29, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott immediately called a special
session
<[link removed]>
of the state legislature after lawmakers failed to enact a number of
priorities during the regular legislative session, including a
restrictive immigration bill that would have created astate border
police force
<[link removed]>. 

The defeated bill, HB 7
<[link removed]>,
passed both chambers of the Texas legislature. But in the last days of
the regular session, lawmakers were unable to reconcile differences in
their versions, including amendments in the state Senate to impose a
10-year mandatory minimum sentence
<[link removed]>
for human smugglers. 

Abbott has now promised to call multiple special sessions
<[link removed]>,
where he gets to set the agenda for lawmakers. During the first, which
began at 9 p.m. Monday evening, one of the agenda items includes
"legislation solely for the purpose of increasing or enhancing the
penalties of certain criminal conduct involving the smuggling of persons
or the operation of a stash house." 

**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, June 6 through Friday, June 9, 2023. 

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session Monday, June 5
through Thursday, June 8, 2023.

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

**Help Wanted: Law Enforcement Staffing Challenges at the Border**
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. EST (House Committee on
Oversight and Accountability)  

**Location:**2154 Rayburn, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**TBA

**Examining DHS' Failure to Prepare for the Termination of Title 42**
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EST (House Homeland Security
Committee)

**Location:**310 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**TBA

**Examining the Fiscal Year 24 Bureau of Consular Affairs Budget**
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EST (House Foreign Affairs
Committee)  

**Location:**RHOB 2154, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses: **

**The Honorable Rena Bitter,** Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of
Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State

**The Border Crisis: Is the Law Being Faithfully Executed? **
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EST (House Judiciary
Committee)  

**Location:**2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**TBA

**Transnational Criminal Organizations: The Menacing Threat to the U.S.
Homeland**
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. EST (House Homeland
Security Committee)

**Location:**310 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**TBA

**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's Office of Inspector General (OIG);****Results of Unannounced
Inspections of CBP Holding Facilities in the Rio Grande Valley Area**
<[link removed]>

**; May 24, 2023**This report documents findings from unannounced
inspections of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities in
Texas's Rio Grande Valley, including compliance issues with general
standards and limitations on the amount of time migrants can be held. 

**The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO);****Information
Technology: DHS Needs to Continue Addressing Critical Legacy Systems**
<[link removed]>

**; May 31, 2023**This report analyzes the Department of Homeland
Security's (DHS) legacy IT systems, modernization plans, and progress on
those modernizations. 

**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: 

**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. 

**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.

* * *

*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.

 

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