BIPARTISANSHIP? — In an analysis for CNN, Ron Brownstein underscores how President Biden’s immigration reform strategy differs from those of the last two presidents who attempted comprehensive reform, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While Bush and Obama "engaged in extended bipartisan negotiations that ultimately failed to produce a law," Brownstein writes that the new administration is taking a different tack. "My goal is to see if there are some legitimate players on the Republican side who want to invest a little capital and are serious," said Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), the chief Senate sponsor of Biden’s proposed immigration legislation. "If the answer to that is yes, I would take weeks with them. I am not going to take months with them." Our take: Let’s give bipartisanship a chance. The fact that two bipartisan immigration bills passed last month, along with the broad support for bipartisan solutions, may offer some hope.

MAYORKAS — Our friend and colleague Linda Chavez, a former Reagan White House official and senior fellow here at the Forum, wrote a great piece for The xxxxxx on why Alejandro Mayorkas, if confirmed to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would be the best person to help Biden tackle immigration in a bipartisan way. "Immigration should not be a partisan issue," Chavez writes. "Ours is a country that has been built—from before its founding—by people born elsewhere. It wasn’t that long ago that Republican presidents and elected leaders embraced the Statue of Liberty as the symbol of American freedom and opportunity." The Mayorkas nomination was voted out of the Homeland Security Committee yesterday — watch this space. 

NEW DHS STAFF — The Biden administration’s new hires at DHS reflect a desire to reverse many of Trump’s hardline immigration restrictions, Priscilla Alvarez reports for CNN. Many incoming DHS staffers have extensive backgrounds in immigrant rights, immigration law and refugee resettlement. "The Biden immigration team is stocked with seasoned professionals who understand the nuances of immigration enforcement," said John Sandweg, who served at DHS under Obama. Peter Boogard, another Obama DHS official and current communications director at FWD.us, voiced a similar sentiment: "It will have a substantial difference in the ability of the department to execute because people understand what's going on."  

TPS OR DED — Efforts to pass legislation granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans have been revitalized, reports Carmen Sesin of NBC News. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), one of the senators who introduced the new bill, pointed out that unlike Deferred Enforced Departure, which Trump granted to Venezuelans during his final days in office, TPS "is based in statute and is legal immigration status." TPS would give around 200,000 Venezuelans an opportunity to live and work legally in the U.S. — a win not just for our communities and economy, but a move that reflects our values by providing safety and opportunity for Venezuelans who have fled "a crumbling economy and a humanitarian crisis under socialist leader Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez."  

PRIVATE PRISONS I — What do Diomede, Alaska, and El Paso, Texas — 3,461 miles apart — have in common? Well, many of the tribal community residents of Diomede are shareholders of the Bering Straits Native Corporation (BSNC) — and many are unaware that the company staffs a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in El Paso, reports René Kladzyk of El Paso Matters. BSNC's opaque structure, combined with Diomede’s physical remoteness and technological limitations, mean many shareholders are unaware that the dividends they receive are partly derived from labor done at the ICE facility. It’s a connection that’s upsetting for some shareholders given the share of ICE detainees who are indigenous (recent studies put the number at one in five). "It’s almost like indigenous on indigenous — I don’t wanna say abuse, but mistreatment, and that’s just wrong," said one BSNC shareholder. "If Bering Straits is listening, I want them to know that there are many shareholders who disagree with this, we want it shut down." Kladzyk notes that President Biden has promised to end federal government use of private prisons, but "whether that has any implications for federal oversight on Alaska Native corporations who contract with ICE is unclear." This is an in-depth piece that’s well worth your time.  

PRIVATE PRISONS II — On the campaign trail, President Biden promised to end the federal government’s use of private prisons and "make clear that the federal government should not use private facilities for any detention, including detention of undocumented immigrants," report Laura Barrón-López, Tyler Pager and Sam Stein for POLITICO. Yesterday, the administration "acted on the first part of that promise — issuing an executive order to end the use of private prisons by the Department of Justice." But no word yet on if, or when, the order would extend to private immigrant detention facilities. "[The administration has] now directed DOJ to phase out the use of private prisons, meaning there is a recognition that no one should be profiting off the caging of human beings," said Community Change Action President Lorella Praeli. "It’s a vision that’s incomplete if it does not tackle ICE detention."