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
SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES
A reminder: the bulletin will publish every other week in August and will return on Thursday, August 22, 2024.
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
CHNV Parole Processes Suspended Over Concerns of Sponsor Fraud
On August 2, news broke that the Biden administration’s parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans had been suspended amid allegations of fraud among the U.S.-based private sponsors who are meant to financially support new arrivals through the programs.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paused processing for new advanced travel authorizations in July, after an internal report raised flags around suspicious behavior by sponsors. DHS has not indicated any potential fraud by the beneficiaries of the programs, many of whom are fleeing political instability and economic dislocation in four of the Western Hemisphere’s most insecure countries.
The Biden administration will now implement new security vetting to ensure potential sponsors are not taking advantage of the programs or the vulnerable people trying to access them.
"DHS will restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards," said Erin Heeter, a spokeswoman for DHS.
Harris Selects Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Running Mate
On August 6, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the White House. Walz is a former high school teacher, veteran, and former Congress member and top Democrat on the House Veteran Affairs Committee. On immigration, Walz has mostly supported measures such as a permanent pathway to legal status for Dreamers, and access to in-state tuition and driver’s licenses in Minnesota regardless of immigration status.
Separately, on August 6, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to provide "any correspondence with Harris’s office." The requests include all documents and communication with Harris’s office "related to the southwest border or illegal immigration." Near the beginning of the Biden administration, Harris was given a role to address root causes of migration from Central America. Despite that limited assignment, some have incorrectly designated her the Biden administration’s "border czar."
CBP One Expands Reach to Southern Mexico as U.S. Border Numbers Plummet
On August 5, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that its personnel would expand the reach of the CBP One appointment system so that migrants and asylum seekers could use the app to pre-schedule authorized appearances at eight U.S. ports of entry while still farther south, in the Mexican states of Tabasco or Chiapas.
Thus far, applicants on CBP One have only been able to access the appointment system from central or northern Mexico, effectively forcing them to wait in Mexico City or farther north. The agency did not say when they planned to roll out the app’s wider radius.
The announcement comes as CBP One has become one of the few narrow avenues through which migrants can remain eligible for asylum, after President Biden’s "Securing the Border" proclamation and related interim final rule in June imposed another round of restrictions on humanitarian protections in the U.S. Many individuals and families are reportedly waiting more than half a year in Mexico to get an appointment, often in dangerous or insecure situations.
Estimates indicate that every day, more than double the number of migrants enter Mexico as compared to the number of available daily CBP One appointments, and around 100,000 migrants are thought to be waiting in Mexico as they try to reach the U.S.
Now, the appointment system’s expected expansion may end up extending CBP One wait times even longer, as a larger geographical radius of people will be able to apply.
At the same time, irregular border crossings into the U.S. have dropped precipitously to around 56,000 in July, according to CBS News — the lowest tally since September 2020, amid the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
That said, given a tumultuous election and its aftermath in Venezuela, some analysts are warning that political instability in that country could lead to another mass exodus of its people, many of whom may set their sights on the U.S. and exercise their statutory right to seek asylum.
U.S. Refugee Program On Track For More Than 90,000 Arrivals in FY 2024
The U.S. resettled 6,451 refugees in July, an increase of 694 refugees from the 5,757 welcomed in June. The 10-month total of refugee arrivals for FY 2024 is 74,742 people.
If the U.S. were to resettle 7,474 refugees — the average monthly arrivals for this fiscal year — for the remaining two months of FY 2024, it would resettle 89,690 refugees. The last month or two of the fiscal year often see the highest monthly arrivals annually.
The last time the U.S. refugee program resettled more than 90,000 people was 29 years ago, in FY 1995.
Protections Announced for Certain Lebanese Nationals
On July 26, President Biden issued a memorandum extending temporary protections through Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) to Lebanese nationals already in the United States who meet certain criteria.
The memo recognized that "humanitarian conditions in southern Lebanon have significantly deteriorated due to tensions between Hezbollah and Israel," and "it is in the foreign policy interest of the United States to defer for 18 months the removal" of most Lebanese nationals already stateside. Exceptions include — for instance — those who voluntarily return to Lebanon after July 26, those who have been convicted of certain crimes, or those who endanger public safety.
Alongside the DED announcement, Biden told Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to give DED-eligible Lebanese nationals work authorization and provide Lebanese students in the U.S. with greater flexibility.
Migrants Fighting Labor Abuse Now Given Four Years of Protection
Undocumented victims and witnesses of a labor violation who are helping a government entity to investigate the abuse will now be eligible for an initial period of up to four years of deferred action protections from deportation and employment authorization, an increase from the previous two-year initial grant.
The change comes after advocacy from state and local labor enforcement agencies, which asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement an extension.
"This is a victory for vulnerable workers nationwide, who will now feel more secure and empowered to assert their rights and seek justice in the face of unjust workplace violations," Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement.
Legal
Appeals Court Allows Texas to Float Buoy Barriers in Rio Grande
On July 30, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals — sitting en banc — handed Texas’s leadership a major victory when it ruled that the state could keep its controversial string of buoy barriers in the Rio Grande.
The bright orange buoys have become a symbol of Texas’s clash over border policy with the Biden administration under Operation Lone Star, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) signature initiative to deter irregular migration into his state.
The appeals court overturned a district court’s preliminary injunction and one of its own three-judge panels to take issue with the classification of the Rio Grande — which divides the U.S. from Mexico — as "navigable."
Separately, Judge James C. Ho argued that federal courts may lack jurisdiction over the issue, as Abbott had used constitutional authority through the federal invasion clause to try to justify the buoys as a protection against migrants and asylum seekers.
Some legal experts balked at the decision, and especially at Ho’s intervention.
"Judge Ho… argues that courts must defer to the Texas governor’s assertion that there is an invasion, at least so long as the governor is acting in ‘good faith,’" wrote Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University.
"This theory has breathtakingly awful implications. It implies a state governor can declare the existence of an ‘invasion’ virtually any time he or she wants, and then ‘engage in war’ in response—even without authorization from Congress."
After the Fifth Circuit’s decision, a trial in the case was postponed until at least November as the parties consider how this latest ruling may affect their arguments.
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
Amid August recess, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives are not expected to be in session again until September 9, 2024.
UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS
Here, we round up congressional hearings and markups happening in the field or in Washington.
No relevant hearings or markups have been announced for the week of August 12, 2024.
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); U.S. Immigration Courts: Access to Counsel in Removal Proceedings and Legal Access Programs; Updated August 6, 2024
This report provides an overview of access to legal representation in the immigration courts and describes relevant legal access programs through the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
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:
D-3 Waivers for the Three- and Ten-Year Bars of Dreamers
On June 18, 2024, the Biden administration announced administrative actions to make it easier for Dreamers and DACA recipients who have earned a degree at an accredited U.S. institution of higher education to become eligible for work visas in the United States.
The Myths and Truths of Noncitizen Voting in the United States
Noncitizens have been barred from voting in federal elections since 1924. This blog post explains the history of restrictions on noncitizen voting in the United States.
Explainer: The Biden Administration’s Announcement to Protect American Families
This explainer provides an overview of President Joe Biden’s executive actions to keep American families together.
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*This Bulletin is not intended to be comprehensive. Please contact Alexandra Villarreal, Senior 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.
