Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
January 8, 2021 is now posted.

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

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All the best,

Danilo 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, January 8, 2021**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**S. 2174

**The Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act**

The bill would authorize the Attorney General to provide grants to
various entities to report, process, and identify missing persons and
unidentified remains. It would also provide for the implementation of up
to 170 self-powered "rescue beacons" in isolated border regions to
prevent migrant deaths.

Sponsored by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) (3
 cosponsors
- 2 Democrats, 1 Republican)

07/18/2019 Introduced by Senator Cornyn in the U.S. Senate

07/18/2019 Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

11/17/2020 Passed the Senate by Unanimous Consent

11/18/2020 Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 8772
 by
Representative Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas)

11/18/2020 Referred to the House Committees on Homeland Security and the
Judiciary

12/16/2020 Amended and Passed the House under Suspension of the Rules

12/18/2020 Senate Agreed to House Amendments by Unanimous Consent

12/31/2020 Signed by the President into Law

**H.R. 133**

**Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021**

The bill is a combined COVID-19 relief and appropriations bill. It
contains approximately $900 billion in pandemic relief funding and $1.4
trillion in appropriations for government spending in 2021. Concerning
immigration, the $600 stimulus checks provided in the COVID-19 relief
portion of the bill will include mixed status families in which a U.S.
citizen files jointly with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
(ITIN) filer. The appropriations portion of the bill includes $1.375
billion for the construction of a "barrier system" on the Southwest
border. The bill also includes $2.8 billion to fund Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention of 34,000 people a day and $61
million for additional immigration judges.

Sponsored by Representative Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) (4

cosponsors - 3 Democrats, 1 Republican)

01/03/2019 Introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative
Cuellar

01/10/2019 Passed in the House under Suspension of the Rules

01/15/2020 Amended and Passed in the Senate by Unanimous Consent

12/21/2020 House Agrees to Part of the Amendments Resolving Differences
by a Vote of 327-85 , and Part of
the Amendments Resolving Differences by a Vote of 359-53
.

12/21/2020 Senate Agrees to Amendments Resolving Differences by a Vote
of 92-6
.

12/27/2020 Signed by the President into Law

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate is not currently scheduled
to be in session the week of January 11, 2020.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session the week of January
11, 2020.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS**There are no immigration-related
hearings and markups currently scheduled in the U.S. Senate or the U.S.
House of Representatives.

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

****Mixed-Status Families Included in Stimulus Relief****Some
mixed-status families are eligible

for stimulus checks provided by the latest coronavirus relief package,
which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Trump on
December 27. Households where U.S. citizens or green card holders filed
jointly with an undocumented spouse are now eligible to receive $600 in
direct aid and additional $600 checks for their dependents. The new
clause will also allow mixed-status families to retroactively receive
stimulus payments of $1,200 per household and $500 per child which had
originally been allocated by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security (CARES) Act in late March.

The CARES Act had excluded mixed-status families from accessing relief,
and a bipartisan group of Senators, led by

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), pushed for mixed-status families to be
included in the latest round of checks and to receive retroactive
payments. With this expansion of relief, an additional 5 million
individuals

will be able to receive aid.

Not all mixed-status families will have access to relief. Undocumented
immigrants and households with children who are U.S. citizens but
neither parent has a Social Security number will still be ineligible for
stimulus payments.

Approximately 16.2 million people

in total live in mixed status families in the United States.

****Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act Signed into Law****On
December 31, President Trump signed into a law a bipartisan bill that
aims to help prevent migrant deaths on the Southwest border and to help
border counties and nonprofit organizations locate and identify missing
migrants. The Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains
Act
(MPURA) was spearheaded in the Senate by Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas)
and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (D-California). The bill
authorizes the attorney general to provide grants to various entities to
report, process, and identify missing persons and unidentified remains
at the border. It also provides for the implementation of up to 170
self-powered "rescue beacons," used by U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) to
rescue migrants in distress.

U.S. Border Patrol has reported

7,505 migrant deaths on the border since 1998, most due to dehydration,
drowning, and exposure to extreme heat. After record heat in the summer
of 2020, a tracking project run by the Pima County Medical Examiner's
Office and the nonprofit Humane Borders recorded

a 10-year high in Arizona border deaths. The bodies of migrants lost
during attempted border crossings become increasingly difficult to
identify

after exposure to the desert for prolonged periods.

The bill garnered support from both parties, as well as immigration
advocates, law enforcement and forensic science groups. Senator Cornyn
said

of the effort, "this bipartisan legislation addresses one of the most
prevalent and tragic crises we face along our border."

****Asylum Seekers Protest Migration Protection Protocols****On December
30, as many as 200 Cuban asylum-seekers initiated
 a
protest at the United States border between El Paso, Texas, and the
northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez. The migrants expressed
frustration toward the Trump administration's Migration Protection
Protocols (MPP), also known as "Remain in Mexico," which has forced
thousands of asylum seekers to wait in often dangerous conditions in
Mexico while their claims are processed in the U.S.

Since the program started in early 2019, approximately 69,000 migrants
have been sent back to wait in makeshift camps and lodging in Mexico's
northern border regions, which rank among the most dangerous in the
country. A January 6 Human Rights Watch report
 details
the dangers many asylum seekers have faced while waiting in MPP,
including widespread crime, violence, and physical and emotional harm. A
previous report documented
over 1,300
cases of murder, rape, kidnapping, and other violent assaults
experienced by those forced to return to Mexico.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has indefinitely
paused

the processing of asylum seekers who have been returned to Mexico under
MPP. Many have now been waiting for months in cramped conditions,
without access to basic hygiene resources, while the pandemic continues
to spread.

The incoming Biden administration has pledged
 to
roll back MPP, but incoming domestic policy advisor Susan Rice said in a
recent interview

that reversing Trump administration restrictions at the border may take
months.

****Administration Touts Border Barrier Efforts as Fate of Future
Construction Remains Unclear****In a press call on January 5, acting
commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Mark Morgan touted

the Trump administration's construction of 450 miles of barriers along
the U.S.-Mexico border. The construction has come in spite of ongoing
legal challenges, including a case questioning the legality of the
diversion of military funds to be used for barrier construction that has
been taken up

by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Acting commissioner Morgan noted

that $16 billion in total had either been spent or allocated towards the
construction effort, with plans already in place to construct 350
additional miles of fencing. Approximately $10.5 billion of that funding
has been diverted

from Department of Defense accounts, including funds allocated

for military pay and pensions and the construction of schools near U.S.
army bases.

On December 27, President Trump passed into law a budget for Fiscal Year
(FY) 2021 which included

an additional $1.375 billion for a border "barrier system." Texas
Democrat and vice chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security
Subcommittee Henry Cuellar said that "there is no definition of barrier
systems," and that the incoming Biden administration will have leeway to
use the funds for purposes other than wall construction.

In the January 5 press call, commissioner Morgan confirmed

that the Trump administration has moved quickly to award large border
wall contracts to private construction companies, potentially
complicating any incoming Biden administration attempt to use the funds
in another manner.

****ICE Confirms Unprecedented Number of Deportations of Immigrant
Family Members in FY 2020****On December 23, U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported

it had deported 14,500 migrant family members during fiscal year (FY)
2020, a record number. Despite a reduction in the number of individuals
entering the United States due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these
deportations surpassed the total of 10,000

family member deportations conducted over the past three years combined.

The ICE report also revealed that deportations of unaccompanied minors
and adults dropped by 30 percent

this fiscal year. However, those deportation numbers do not include the
nearly 200,000 "expulsions"

of migrants this year under a pandemic-era CDC rule

that was made effective in late March, a policy which enabled border
officials to remove immigrants within hours of their arrival on U.S.
soil, bypassing

standard immigration proceedings and preventing asylum seekers from
requesting protection.

****Biden Plans to Nominate Merrick Garland as Attorney
General****According to multiple news reports
,
President-elect Biden will nominate Merrick Garland to lead the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) to serve as Attorney General in his
administration. A former federal prosecutor and Justice Department
official, Garland served as the Chief Judge of the United States Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 2013 until February 2020.
Although Senate Republicans declined to take action on his nomination to
the U.S. Supreme Court nomination in 2016, Garland's expected
nomination as attorney general has received bipartisan support, with
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) calling
 it
a "sound choice." The attorney general leads the DOJ, which
is responsible
 for
administering immigration courts and adjudicating immigration cases
through the interpretation and administration of federal immigration
laws.

****Legal****

****First New DACA Applications Approved in Wake of Court
Decision  ****For the first time in several years, new Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) applications have been approved by the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As of January 4, 171 new
applicants
 have been
given DACA protections since December 7, and 2,713 initial
applications have been submitted.

The agency began accepting new DACA applications on December
7, following a November ruling
 by
a federal judge in New York which set aside limitations placed on the
program in a July 28 DHS memorandum
.
The memorandum, issued by acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf, barred new
DACA applications and limited existing recipients to renewing their
protections for one year.

The New York judge invalidated the memorandum on the basis that Wolf was
improperly appointed to his position and restored DACA to its status
before September 2017, providing access to protection to hundreds of
thousands of eligible individuals
 and restoring
the length of protections to two years.

Despite the New York decision and last summer's U.S. Supreme Court
decision allowing DACA to survive in June, the fate of Dreamers remains
unsettled without a legislative solution. In a separate lawsuit in the
Southern District of Texas, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen indicated

that he may be inclined to strike down the program in the next few
weeks. In 2015, Hanen halted

a different Obama administration deferred action program
that
would have protected the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent
residents. A ruling on the Texas case is expected to be issued
imminently.

****Court Rules President Has Authority to Ban Immigrants Without
Approved Health Insurance****On December 31, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit upheld
 a presidential
proclamation

that bars the entry of immigrants without proof of "approved" health
insurance or the ability to pay out-of-pocket for medical care. In a 2-1
decision
,
the court ruled that the uninsured ban is within the president's
authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act. In a previous
lower court decision in November 2019, a federal judge had blocked
 the
ban from going into effect.

According to legal experts
,
the Ninth Circuit's ruling will not immediately go into effect.
Challengers to the uninsured ban have 45 days to petition for an

**en banc** rehearing from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit. With a January 20 inauguration date, the Biden administration
will have assumed office before the 45-day period expires and will have
the authority to withdraw the ban once in office.

The uninsured ban would deny visas to immigrants who would otherwise be
eligible for them, including the spouses, adult children, parents and
siblings of U.S. citizens and the spouses of lawful permanent residents
(LPRs). To be eligible for entry under the ban, an individual must have
access to health insurance upon entering the U.S. either provided
through an employment or purchased individually without the use of
certain Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

Immigration advocates argue
 that
the ban unfairly targets low-income immigrants and could reduce
 legal
immigration by up to two-thirds.

****State and Local****

****California Immigrants Return to Mexico in Response to Restrictionist
Policies, Pandemic****According to a December 31 report

in The Guardian, a growing number of Mexican immigrants living in
California are making the decision to return to Mexico. The report
citied researchers who have estimated that the immigrant population of
California dropped by more than 6% in the past year, largely as a result
of the COVID-19 pandemic along with U.S. policies restricting
immigration. The researchers similarly found that the total U.S.
immigrant population dropped by 2.6% 2020, the largest decline in 20
years

California immigrants are more likely than native-born Americans to be
working on the frontlines of the pandemic as essential workers.
Undocumented immigrants make up over 75% of farmworkers in the
California and immigrants constitute a significant portion of the
state's delivery drivers, physicians, and grocery store clerks. Many
California immigrants did not have access to stimulus checks and other
public benefits designed to provide relief to those struggling to
survive the health and economic devastation of the pandemic. Others were
reluctant to take advantage even of the services that were available to
them due to concerns over the Trump administration's "public charge
" rule, which gives
the government the ability to deny permanent residency to immigrants who
have relied on certain benefits.

According

to one family who left California and returned to Mexico, "in comparison
to what it was in the U.S., the situation for us in Mexico right now is
much better."

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**Office of the inspector general (OIG): ICE Needs
to Address Prolonged Administrative Segregation and Other Violations at
the Imperial Regional Detention Facility
;
December 18, 2020. In this report, the Department of Homeland
Security's Office of the Inspector General reveals that the Imperial
Regional Detention Facility (IRDF) in Calexico, CA has violated multiple
standards for detention. These violations threaten the health, safety,
and rights of the detainees. The report explains how detainees were held
in administrative segregation for 22 or 23 hours per day, and two
detainees were isolated for over 300 days. Some areas in the IRDF were
in poor structural condition, and routine medical checks were
insufficient as to determine proper care for detainees. Furthermore, the
investigation found that medical grievances and responses were not
properly documented.

Congressional Research Service (CRS): U.S. Customs and Border
Protection's Powers and Limitations: A Brief Primer
;

**December 9, 2020**This report is an explainer on the powers and
limitations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). CBP enforces
federal customs and immigration laws at the border and at ports of
entry. Two agencies within CBP, the Office of Field Operations and the
U.S. Border Patrol, are respectively responsible for conducting
inspections and enforcing immigration laws at ports of entry, and for
apprehending foreign nationals and preventing the smuggling of illicit
goods into the country.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Bill Analysis:
The Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act**
This
resource summarizes and provides context for the Missing Persons and
Unidentified Remains Act, which would take steps to prevent migrant
deaths on the Southwest border and help border counties and nonprofit
organizations locate and identify missing migrants.

**Fact Sheet: Mixed Status Families and COVID-19 Economic Relief**
This
fact sheet provides information and demographic details about mixed
status families living in the U.S. It provides information on tax
payments by families filing joint tax returns listing both U.S. citizens
with Social Security Numbers and family members who have Individual
Taxpayer Identification Numbers. The fact sheet also explains why some
undocumented spouses may be unable to obtain legal status, and how these
families have been excluded from some COVID-19 relief legislation.

**Where Did the Trump Administration Get $13.7 Billion to Build Barriers
on the U.S.-Mexico Border?**
This
infographic focuses on the Trump administration's effort to fund the
construction of barriers on the Southwest border. The infographic
describes the various sources of funding used by the administration and
the amount of new and replacement barriers that have been constructed. *
* * *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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