[link removed]

**Legislative Bulletin**Hello y'all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday, March
29, 2024, is now posted.

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

All the best,

Ally

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, March 29, 2024**

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**

**February Border Encounters Remained Relatively Low; Biden and Harris
Meet With Guatemala's Arévalo to Discuss Migration, Democracy**

On March 22, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that the
Border Patrol documented 140,644 migrant encounters
 between
ports of entry at the country's southern border in February -
a slight uptick
 from
January's statistics, but still a relatively modest number under the
Biden administration. 

The agency said it had also processed over 42,100 people at ports of
entry with appointments through the federal government's CBP One phone
app last month. Since the end of the Title 42 public health order in
May, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has removed or returned
more than 593,000 people, over 93,000 of whom have been part of a
family.

"The majority of all individuals encountered at the southwest border
since January 2021 have been removed, returned, or expelled," CBP said
 in
a press release. 

After some Republicans tanked an immigration deal backed by the White
House, and now that numbers at the border have gone down, the Biden
administration is reportedly feeling 
less
urgency to take executive action on the issue. But the specter of
increased asylum restrictions and other potential policy changes still
looms as seasonal trends and chronic global displacement suggest an
impending increase in border crossings. 

Meanwhile, on March 25, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe
Biden met with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo at the White
House, in part to discuss migration management across Central America.
Harris shared that her work in the region had garnered $5.2 billion in
commitments from the private sector, according to the Associated Press
,
while she and Arévalo also talked about the U.S.'s "safe mobility
offices" across the Western Hemisphere, including in Guatemala.

**Government Funding Passes, Averting Major Shutdown and Providing
12,000 Visas for Afghan Allies **

On March 23, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion measure
 to
fund major departments within the U.S. government through the end of
September, avoiding a long-term shutdown in an election year. 

But even as Congress narrowly averted a funding crisis, Biden called on
lawmakers to reconsider other legislation he has deemed as priorities. 

"The House must pass the bipartisan national security supplemental to
advance our national security interests," Biden said
 in
a statement. "And Congress must pass the bipartisan border security
agreement, the toughest and fairest reforms in decades, to ensure we
have the policies and funding needed to secure the border. It's time
to get this done."

The enacted spending package includes funds for 2,000 more Border Patrol
agents, more money for increased immigration detention, and fewer
resources for local communities responding to arriving migrants. 

Helpfully, it also provides 12,000 more Special Immigrant Visas for
Afghan allies fleeing the Taliban takeover - lower than the 20,000
visas many policymakers and immigration advocates had asked for, but
still a positive development. 

"Well, we promised them, we will get them out. The Afghan partners, the
interpreters, we left them behind," Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said
.
"And that's the biggest sin of the Afghan evacuation. I think the
12,000 SIVs is a great response and a great start to that."

To do more, lawmakers could pass the Afghan Adjustment Act or similar
legislation. 

"The additional Afghan visas are a welcome stopgap measure, but since
the budget negotiations are already underway for fiscal year 2025, we
call on Congress to continue working to secure protections for
vulnerable Afghans who need to seek refuge in the U.S. so that they
aren't living in legal limbo," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah,
president and CEO of Global Refuge.

**Senate Prepares to Start Mayorkas Impeachment Trial on April 11**

On March 28, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) sent a letter
 to
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York) informing him of 
the lower chamber's intent to present impeachment articles against
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on April 10. 

In the letter, Speaker Johnson and eleven of his House Republican
colleagues requested the Senate to hold a trial against Mayorkas as soon
as possible. In response, Schumer announced
 that
jurors for the trial would be sworn in the day after the upper chamber
receives the articles of impeachment. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty
Murray (D-Washington) will preside over the trial.

Johnson's letter came more than six weeks after the House of
Representatives voted 214-213 to impeach
 Mayorkas.
The impeachment - opposed by all Democrats and three House
Republicans
 -
charged the DHS secretary with willfully refusing to enforce immigration
laws and court rulings around immigration detention.

Mayorkas's Impeachment - a process reserved for high crimes and
misdemeanors - has been criticized by national security leaders
 and legal
scholars