Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
December 11, 2020 is now posted. 

You can find the online version of the bulletin
here: [link removed]
All
the best,
Danilo

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, December 11, 2020**BILLS INTRODUCED AND
CONSIDERED LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR

UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS

THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK

GOVERNMENT REPORTS

SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES

**BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED****H.R. 8883**

**The REPAIR Academia Act**

The bill would require colleges, universities, and other sponsors of
international students, exchange visitors and trainees to notify the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when they participate in federally
funded research. The bill allows DHS to revoke visas for individuals
whose research is deemed a risk.

Sponsored by Representative Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina) (0
cosponsors)

12/07/2020 Introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative
Norman

12/07/2020 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

**H.R. 8876**

**The Shadow Wolves Enhancement Act**

The bill would allow the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) to reclassify technical enforcement officers in tactical units on
Tohono O'odham Nation lands as special agents. This would give the
officers, commonly known as "Shadow Wolves," more authority to
investigate and track cross-border criminal activity. The bill is a
companion to S. 3435
.

Sponsored by Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) (0 cosponsors)

12/04/2020 Introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative
King

12/04/2020 Referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of
Representatives will be in session the week of December 14.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS****Supporting Hong Kong's
Pro-Democracy Movement Through United States Refugee Policy**

**Date:**Wednesday, December 16, 2020 at 2:00 pm E.T. (Senate Judiciary
Committee)

**Location:**Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G50

**Witnesses:**TBD

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Administration Finalizes**

**Regulation to Dramatically Restrict Asylum****On December 10, the
administration finalized a regulation

that will dramatically restrict the availability of asylum in the U.S.
The rule
,
which is set to take effect on January 11, 2021, includes sweeping
limitations that will impact almost everyone seeking protection from the
U.S. government. Among other changes, the rule will curtail the
opportunities asylum seekers have to make their case before an
immigration judge, raise the threshold of proof at a number of stages in
the asylum process, and limit what kinds of persecution constitute
grounds for receiving protection.

Included in the regulation is a section that interprets the Convention
Against Torture such that any torture committed by a "rogue government
official" does not count towards an individual's claim to protection.
Another clause precludes protective status if an asylum seeker has not
applied for asylum in "at least one country through which [they] have
traveled in route to the United States."

The regulation was initially published as a proposed rule

on June 15, after which it received over 88,000 comments from
individuals and organizations. In its 419-page response

to the comments - the vast majority of which were opposed to the
proposed reforms - the administration agreed to only five substantive
changes

to the rule. The alterations include narrow changes to the scope of
various provisions and the clarification of certain effective dates.

The final rule is the latest in a long list of asylum restrictions
implemented by the administration, and it comes as the administration
makes a late push

to finalize additional immigration restrictions in the weeks leading up
to Inauguration Day on January 20.

****Coronavirus Cases Increase Among Children in Immigration
Detention****According to federal records, a total of 1,061 minors in
U.S. immigration custody have now tested
 positive
for coronavirus as of December 7, an increase of 35 percent since
mid-November. A spokesman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
stated that while the majority of these unaccompanied migrant children
(UACs) have recovered and have been released to a parent or guardian,
118 active cases are being monitored to ensure the "safety and care" of
the children.

The number of UACs reaching the U.S.-Mexico border has doubled
 since
October, with an average of 153 young migrants seeking entry per day. A
number of factors may be contributing to the recent increase in UACs at
the border, including the physical and economic devastation caused
by hurricanes Eta and Iota
 in
Central America.

ORR has introduced COVID-19 safety protocols to ensure that adequate
distancing is possible even in congregate shelter settings. According to
a monitor

who reports on conditions inside the shelters, there are "several
discussions going on" to safely prepare for ongoing increases in UACs
arriving at the border.

****Whistleblowers Allege that Border Wall Contractors Hired
Undocumented Immigrants as Guards****According to a whistleblower
complaint unsealed on December 4
,
two contractors hired to construct barriers along the Southwest border
hired unauthorized workers from Mexico as security guards in 2019. The
complaint
,
filed by two employees contracted to provide security at the
construction sites, alleges that a contractor called Ultimate Concrete
"constructed a dirt road that would allow access from the Mexican side
of the border in to the United States," and blocked the road from
security cameras using construction equipment. The complaint further
alleges that the contractors overcharged for construction costs and
misrepresented their actions in a report to the Army Corps of Engineers.

The president of Ultimate Concrete dismissed the allegations
,
stating that "everybody can allege whatever they want to, and that does
not make it correct." The two employees who filed the complaint were a
former deputy sheriff of San Diego County and a former F.B.I. special
agent who had been detailed to provide security for border wall
construction.

****Report: Administration Awarded $58 Million to Companies with
Checkered Records to Care for Migrant Children ****According to a
bipartisan report released on December 8

by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) put unaccompanied migrant
children at risk by awarding a total of $58 million in grants to two
companies with records of improper care and neglect. The grants were for
opening or reopening shelters designed to care for migrant children. HHS
is the parent department of ORR, the federal agency tasked with caring
for UACs. The report was released

by Senators Tom Carper (D-Delaware) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio).

The report

details multiple transgressions made by the two companies, VisionQuest
National, Ltd. and New Horizon Group Home, LLC, prior to receiving the
HHS grants. These included multiple "confirmed instances of child abuse"
resulting in the removal of children from programs for troubled youth
run by VisionQuest in Pennsylvania. The report also notes that a North
Carolina residential facility run by New Horizon was found to have
violated state regulations, including failing to hire sufficient medical
personnel.

The report criticized HHS's failure to research past disciplinary
histories of the two companies. Due to their records, the companies have
had difficulties

getting zoning and licensing approval to open the new shelters. HHS has
now discontinued grants to both companies, but only after it had
distributed over $32 million for their facilities. HHS has also
implemented reforms to limit funding to unlicensed companies and require
disclosure of abuse allegations.

As of December 4th, ORR has 3,150

unaccompanied minors in its care.

****Migrant Caravan Fleeing Aftermath of Hurricanes Sets Off from
Honduras****On December 9, a caravan of over 1,000 migrants from
Honduras began their journey
 attempting
to reach the United States, fleeing mass destruction in the Central
American country following back-to-back hurricanes.

Hurricanes Eta and Iota struck Honduras two weeks apart in November,
leading to severe flooding that destroyed homes and key infrastructure,
affecting millions of people. The hurricanes have also severely damaged

Honduras's economy, one that was already suffering from the impacts of
the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guatemalan officials have warned

that the Honduran migrants will need to provide negative coronavirus
tests and passports in order to enter Guatemala, criteria that most
members of the caravan will be unable to meet. The Mexican government
has also increased security at its border with Guatemala to prevent
unauthorized immigration into Mexico. Several recent caravans

have been stopped by Guatemalan or Mexican border officials before
reaching the United States.

****Legal****

****Administration Fully Restores DACA Protections Following Court
Order****Days after a federal judge in New York ordered

that a July 28 memorandum

limiting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) must be set
aside, DHS began accepting

new applications on December 7, issuing an update

on the DHS website. The July 28 memorandum from acting DHS secretary
Chad Wolf, which followed the U.S. Supreme Court permitting DACA to
survive
,
barred new DACA applications and limited existing recipients to renewing
their protections for one year.

In the update, DHS stated that it is now accepting new applications as
well as renewal requests, and that it is automatically extending
one-year grants of protection and work authorization that were issued
under the memorandum to two years, in compliance with the court order.
The change restores DACA to its status before September 2017, providing
access to protection to hundreds of thousands of eligible individuals

who are not currently protected by the program.

The statement stated

that, "DHS will comply with the order while it remains in effect, but
DHS may seek relief from the order," Indicating that DHS may still
appeal the order. A separate case challenging the legality of DACA is
also being actively litigated in the Southern District of Texas. A
hearing for that case has been scheduled

for December 22.

According to the Migration Policy Institute
,
over 1.3 million U.S. residents are eligible for DACA, including those
who would be first-time applicants and those who have recently turned 15
and "aged in" to eligibility.

****DHS Extends Temporary Protected Status (TPS) For Six Countries****On
December 9, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced
 a
6-month extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than
300,000
 individuals
from six countries until October 4, 2021. TPS protections for
individuals from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and
Sudan. Protections for each of those countries were set to expire in
January.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
 is
granted to eligible foreign-born individuals living in the U.S. who are
unable to return home safely due to violence or other circumstances in
their home country. The Trump administration has spent years attempted
to end
 TPS
for a majority of recipients, but multiple lawsuits
 have been filed
challenging the terminations on procedural and discriminatory grounds.
In

**Ramos, et. al., v. Nielsen, et al.**in 2018

**,** and in

**Bhattarai v. Nielsen** in 2019, two district courts issued preliminary
injunction orders preventing the termination of protections for the six
countries.

On September 14, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
 in
the

**Ramos**case that DHS has the authority to end the TPS program.
However, the Ninth Circuit has not yet issued a directive to the
district court to carry out the order, so the preliminary injunction
remains in effect. The additional six-month extension of status was
granted in continued compliance

with the district court injunction.

****Administration Files Lawsuit Against Facebook for Use of H-1B
Program****On December 3, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a
lawsuit

against Facebook alleging the company discriminated against U.S. workers
by hiring high-skilled H-1B workers for specialty occupations. The
complaint

alleges that Facebook engaged in discrimination by inadequately
advertising certain positions to U.S. workers that were subsequently
filled by H-1B recipients. The complaint acknowledges that Facebook
followed Department of Labor (DOL) hiring regulations that are designed
to protect the interests of U.S. workers, but argued that Facebook still
discriminated against U.S. workers.

Under DOL guidelines, prospective H-1B employers are required to utilize
the permanent labor certification program (PERM) process, which includes
setting a minimum prevailing wage for the position and demonstrating
that they could not find a qualified American worker to fill the
opening. Facebook followed these guidelines with DOL's approval for
the positions in question, but the lawsuit argues

that Facebook advertised the positions differently from other openings,
including requiring U.S. candidates to mail-in their applications.

Immigration advocates and lawyers have raised concerns

about the lawsuit, noting that, "the most concerning part is that the
Immigrant and Employee Rights Section of DOJ is asserting that an
employer following the rules laid out by another agency . . . has
engaged in citizenship discrimination."

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**There were no immigration-related government
reports were published the week of December 7, 2020.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Fact Sheet:
Unaccompanied Migrant Children (UACs)**
This
resource provides information on unaccompanied children arriving at the
border. It describes why these children come alone to the border, the
particular challenges they face, and the legal protections offered to
them.

**Fact Sheet: Temporary Protected Status**
This
fact sheet provides an explanation of what Temporary Protected Status is
and who is eligible to receive it and includes a summary of how many
immigrants living in the U.S. have TPS. The fact sheet also provides an
overview of current ongoing litigation and policy changes surrounding
TPS.

**Fact Sheet: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals**
This
resource provides information about the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) policy. It also describes how DACA recipients strengthen
the United States and why Dreamers are still in need of a permanent
solution.

* * *

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

 

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