Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello y'all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
October 13, 2023, is now posted.

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

All the best,

Ally 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, October 13, 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. 

Here's a breakdown of the bulletin's sections:

DEVELOPMENTS IN IMMIGRATION THIS WEEK

BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED

LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR

UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS

GOVERNMENT REPORTS

SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES

**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. 

****Federal****

**Ukrainian Arrivals to the U.S. Left Without Critical Support Amid
Congressional Funding Battle **On September 30, when Congress passed
acontinuing resolution

to avert a government shutdown, lawmakers failed to extend eligibility
for newly arriving Ukrainians to access much-needed federal assistance
as they seek safety in the United States, according to a new report
by the U.S.
Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). 

Through the Biden administration's initiative, Uniting for Ukraine
(U4U), Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion arrive initially in the U.S.
not as refugees, but as "parolees" - a status that allows them to live
here temporarily, but does not offer a clear pathway to a green card or
federal support. 

That said, in May 2022, Congress took action to at least provide
mainstream benefits and resettlement help to Ukrainian parolees who came
into the U.S. between February 24, 2022, and September 30, 2023, making
them eligible for job training, health insurance via Medicaid, cash
assistance, childcare, and other support services that aren't
available to most other parolees. 

But when Congress passed its temporary stopgap measure to continue to
fund the U.S. government late last month, policymakers neglected to
extend the current cutoff date for people to qualify for that federal
aid, which means that many Ukrainian parolees arriving now - after
September 30 - may not be able to get the services they need for a
safe and healthy start in the U.S.

"The expectation was that when they come over here, they will at least
have some kind of support," said Oleksandr Nemchenko, a USCRI program
officer.

"Particularly vulnerable cases will suffer the most," he continued.
"Trafficking and exploitation concerns are real. We hear about such
cases. We believe when people will have less access to benefits, the
number will grow - and they will go unreported."

****State and Local ****

**Texas Republicans Push for State Immigration Enforcement, Deportation
Powers Despite Operation Lone Star Concerns **On October 9, the first
day of Texas's third special legislative session this year, the Texas
House gaveled in and out in under half an hour amid political ruptures
within the state's Republican leadership. 

In the latest sign of divisions within Texas's GOP
,
House Speaker Dade Phelan has called on Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to return
$3 million

to the Defend Texas Liberty PAC. The political action committee is
facing scrutiny from Phelan and beyond after revelations that its
president, Jonathan Strickland, hosted known white supremacist Nick
Fuentes at an office building near Fort Worth. 

Patrick responded by saying that Phelan should resign. 

This bitter infighting over the Texas GOP's future comes even as state
lawmakers are being pressed to enact border policies that would likely
tee up a court battle over whether states can police migration in the
United States. 

Despite long-established precedent that immigration enforcement is a
federal responsibility, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made state legislators
return to work on Monday in part to "pass laws to mirror the federal
immigration laws," including by imposing a new state criminal offense on
people who enter Texas unauthorized from abroad. The penalty would be
enforced by any licensed peace officer, who would now ostensibly have
the authority to "remove" unauthorized migrants.

"Federal law is very clear: States cannot engage in immigration
enforcement," Aron Thorn, senior attorney at the Texas Civil Rights
Project's Beyond Borders Program, said in a statement.

During the special session, Abbott also called for legislation to trump
up smuggling penalties and fund more border barriers, as Texas builds
its own border wall
and even
reportedly erects barriers

to cut off migrants trying to cross

through its neighboring state, New Mexico. The Biden administration is
also planning to resume construction of border barriers in the Rio
Grande Valley -  despite analyses that walls are not  an effective
solution

for border security. 

At the same time, Abbott is pushing for legislation to address "public
safety, security, environmental quality, and property ownership in areas
like the Colony Ridge development," a community outside of Houston that
has quickly become a news fixation because many of its homeowners are
reportedly immigrants
.
In September, federal Texas lawmakers

portrayed Colony Ridge as a den of violent crime and a battleground for
"the ongoing invasion at our southern border," using concerning language
to voice their opposition against the community and ask the state
legislature to look into it. 

 But after state lawmakers visited Colony Ridge on October 5, they
found little cause for concern. 

"From what we've seen, it looks a lot like places you might see in East
Texas," said Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain. "It looks a lot like my
family's place in Louisiana."

Meanwhile, a recent New York Times report

documents the reality of Abbott's signature border initiative,
Operation Lone Star, with footage recorded over 10 days at the juncture
between Mexico and El Paso. Videos show soldiers trying to force a woman
and child against concertina wire and yanking a young man back toward
Mexico. In many of the shots, officials are armed. 

**Mayor Adams Advocates 'Right to Work' as New Yorkers Struggle to
Support Migrants**On October 7, at the end of a whirlwind four-day visit
to Latin America, New York Mayor Eric Adams stood on a dock where
migrants boat toward the treacherous Darién jungle as he called for
transnational collaboration and work pathways in the U.S. to respond to
large-scale migration across the region. 

"Nothing is more humane and nothing is more American than your right to
work, and we believe that is a right we should extend," Adams said

from Necocli, Colombia.

Adams' trip took him to Colombia, Mexico, and Ecuador to learn more
about what's driving migration to the U.S.'s southern border - and
from there to New York. During his travels, he tried to hammer home the
message that his city is "at capacity" after more than 120,000 migrants
and asylum seekers have arrived since last year. 

"Our hearts are endless, but our resources are not," he said. "We
don't want to put people in congregate shelters. We don't want
people to think they will be employed."

Some have been discouraged from going to New York - though perhaps not
as much by Adams as by people already there. Henry Aguilar was planning
to take his family to the city but heard from a friend that "it's not
as easy as they paint it." Now, he has shifted his strategy and will
head toward Texas instead.

Yet for many aspiring migrants, Adams' messaging did not seem to break
through
.
Carlos Gabriel Hernández, whose family had failed to make it through
the Darién Gap but intended to attempt the trek again en route to New
York, wondered aloud, "How can you tell someone not to follow their
American dream?"

Meanwhile, Adams - with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's (D) support

- is vying in court to suspend New York's unique requirement to
provide shelter to anyone who asks for it. The mandate has been a
central point of debate as the city struggles to accommodate tens of
thousands of newcomers in one of the most oversaturated housing markets
in the country. 

As the number of new migrant arrivals has increasingly become a
flashpoint in recent months, some New York residents are feeling
conflicted about their own immigration beliefs. 

"These are human beings who deserve a chance at life and opportunities,"
Carin Bail, a public school teacher and daughter of immigrants, told the
New York Times
.
"My heart goes out to some of these folks. But then on the flip side, I
feel that our government and our leadership have been failing us.

"There's not one positive outcome that has come from this yet. And it
seems like it's just heading toward a downward spiral."

**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. This list includes federal legislative
proposals that have recently been introduced and that are relevant to
immigration policy. 

Please follow this link

to find new relevant bills, as well as proposed legislation from past
weeks. 

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate is expected to be in
session from Monday, October 16 through Friday, October 20, 2023.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to be in session from
Tuesday, October 17 through Friday, October 20, 2023.

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

**Preserving Due Process and the Rule of Law: Examining the Status of
Our Nation's Immigration Courts**

**Date:** Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 2:30 p.m. EST (Senate Judiciary
Committee) 

**Location:**Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226, 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. 

**Congressional Research Service (CRS);****Citizenship and Immigration
Statuses of the U.S. Foreign-Born Population**

**; Updated October 6, 2023**This report provides an overview and a data
breakdown of the foreign-born population in the U.S., including
nonimmigrants, lawful permanent residents, naturalized citizens, and
unauthorized immigrants. It also gives brief context around migrants
seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

**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: 

**Fact Sheet: Temporary Protected Status (TPS)**
This
fact sheet explores Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which gives
beneficiaries access to deportation protections and work authorization.
The resource was updated on October 3 with recent developments. 

**Explainer: What Are Safe Mobility Offices?**
Read
this explainer for information about what we know so far on how SMOs are
being implemented in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Colombia, and who may
qualify to participate. 

**CBP One: Fact Sheet and Resources Directory**
This
fact sheet and resources directory provides information and useful links
about CBP One's key features, its significance for asylum seekers, and
its shortcomings. 

* * * 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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