Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
February 26, 2021 is now posted.

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

[link removed]

All the best,

Danilo 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, February 26, 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. 348**

**The U.S. Citizenship Act**

The bill would provide a path to citizenship for the undocumented
population, a border management approach that includes a focus on
addressing root causes of forced migration, a legal immigration reform
platform, a series of humanitarian provisions, and additional
protections for immigrants at the worksite. The House companion bill was
introduced by Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-California).

Sponsored by Senator Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) (25

cosponsors - 25 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

02/22/2021 Introduced in the Senate by Senator Menendez

02/22/2021 Referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

**S. 382**

**The Protection of Kids in Defense (PROKID) Act**

The bill would create an oversight body within the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) to ensure that rights afforded to immigrant
children under the

**Flores Settlement Agreement**and the Trafficking Victims Protection
Reauthorization Act are protected.  The bill would also require a
memorandum of understanding between the body and the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) to facilitate oversight of DHS facilities which
temporarily house immigrant children. The House companion bill was
introduced by Representative Jayapal (D-Washington).

Sponsored by Senator Gillibrand (D-New York) (5

cosponsors - 5 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

02/23/2021 Introduced in the Senate by Senator Gillibrand

02/23/2021 Referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

**S. 433**

**The New Deal for New Americans Act**

This bill would create a National Office on New Americans to promote
immigrant and refugee inclusion and integration, establish a $50
naturalization application fee, create federally funded programs for
English-language learning and workforce development for immigrants and
refugees, and set U.S. refugee admissions at a minimum of 110,000, among
other provisions

Sponsored by Senator Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts) (3

cosponsors - 3 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

02/24/2021 Introduced in the Senate by Senator Markey

02/24/2021 Referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

**H.R. 1120**

**Illicit Arms Trafficking Security Enforcement Act**

The bill would establish a separate security unit within the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) that would reduce the trafficking of weapons
across the border.

Sponsored by Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) (0

cosponsors)

02/18/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Gallagher

02/18/2021 Referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security

**H.R. 1120**

**Empowering Immigration Courts Act**

The bill would provide immigration judges with additional authority to
impose fines on immigrants who do not appear in court or who are held in
contempt.

Sponsored by Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin) (0

cosponsors)

02/18/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Gallagher

02/18/2021 Referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security

**H.R. 1158**

**Refugee Sanitation Facility Safety Act**

The bill would require that international refugee camps that are funded
in part by U.S. foreign aid provide safe and secure access to sanitation
facilities, with an emphasis on facilities for women, girls, and
vulnerable populations.

Sponsored by Representative Grace Meng (D-New York) (28 cosponsors -
27 Democrats, 1 Republicans)

02/18/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Meng

02/18/2021 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs

**H.R. 1177**

**The U.S. Citizenship Act**

The bill would provide a path to citizenship for the undocumented
population, a border management approach that includes a focus on
addressing root causes of forced migration, a legal immigration reform
platform, a series of humanitarian provisions, and additional
protections for immigrants at the worksite. The Senate companion bill
was introduced by Senator Menendez (D-New Jersey).

Sponsored by Representative Sanchez (D-California) (97

cosponsors - 97 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

02/22/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Sanchez

02/22/2021 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

**H.R. 1183**

**The Veteran Deportation Prevention and Reform Act**

The bill would include a number of provisions designed to protect
veterans and their families from removal. The bill would provide a
pathway to citizenship for the spouses and children of members of the
armed services, direct DHS to establish an advisory committee that would
provide recommendations regarding whether to provide relief to veterans
in removal proceedings, direct the Attorney General to rescind certain
removal orders issued to noncitizen veterans, and establish a training
program for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents concerning
how to best handle noncitizen veterans.

Sponsored by Representative Mark Takano (D-California) (8 cosponsors -
8 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

02/18/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Takano

02/18/2021 Referred to the House Committees on Veteran Affairs, Armed
Services, and the Judiciary

**H.R. 1238**

**The Protection of Kids in Defense (PROKID) Act**

The bill would create an oversight body within the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) to ensure that rights afforded to immigrant
children under the

**Flores Settlement Agreement**and the Trafficking Victims Protection
Reauthorization Act are protected.  The bill would also require a
memorandum of understanding between the body and the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) to facilitate oversight of DHS facilities which
temporarily house immigrant children. The Senate companion bill was
introduced by Senator Gillibrand (D-New York).

Sponsored by Representative Jayapal (D-Washington) (0 cosponsors)

02/23/2021 Introduced in the Senate by Senator Gillibrand

02/23/2021 Referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. ___

**Citizenship for Essential Workers Act**

The bill would create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers
in America who have determined to be "essential" by the Department of
Homeland Security. The bill would provide a pathway to status for an
estimated 5 million undocumented workers. The Senate companion bill is
sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-California).

Sponsored by Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) (1 cosponsor - 1
Democrat, 0 Republicans)

02/26/2021 announced by Representative Castro

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate will be in session the
week of Monday, March 1, 2021.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session from Monday, March
1, 2021 to Thursday, March 4, 2021.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS****Health and Safety Protections for
Meatpacking, Poultry, and Agricultural Workers**

**Date:**Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 10:00 AM ET (House Appropriations
Committee)

**Location:**TBA

**Witnesses:**

Deborah Berkowitz, Worker Safety and Health Program Director, National
Employment Law Project

Dulce Casteñeda, Founding Member, Children of Smithfield

Iris Figueroa, Director of Economic and Environmental Justice,
Farmworker Justice

Carmen Rottenberg, Managing Director, Groundswell Group

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

****Administration Revokes Immigration Ban, Leaves Temporary Worker Ban
in Place****On January 24, President Biden revoked

one of the Trump administration's June and July proclamations
suspending immigration from outside of the U.S. The Biden administration
revoked Presidential Proclamation 10014
,
which had suspended the entry of a number of immigration categories,
including diversity visas and certain family visas. Presidential
Proclamation 10052

remains in place, which suspends entry for those on a number of
temporary nonimmigrant visa categories. Those restrictions are currently
set to expire on March 31.

The Biden administration proclamation

states that the legal immigration ban "harms the United States,
including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens
and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here. It also
harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around
the world."

While the State Department will begin again to process petitions for all
green card categories, reduced processing due to the Covid-19 pandemic
and the long delay in categories affected by the ban mean that there are
likely to be long delays

in scheduling interviews and processing and issuing visas.

Business groups

and immigration advocates

celebrated the revocation of the legal immigration ban, but called for
the rescission of the nonimmigrant guestworker ban as well. On February
5, over 170 business and immigration advocacy groups had sent a letter

to the Biden administration expressing concern over both sets of
restrictions.

****U.S. Opens Overflow Facility for Unaccompanied Children****On
February 22, the U.S. reopened

a temporary facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, designed to house 700
unaccompanied migrant children (UACs) arriving at the U.S.-Mexico
border. The administration opened the facility because Office of Refugee
Resettlement (ORR) permanent shelters - designed and staffed to
provide age-appropriate care to migrant children - are operating at
significantly reduced capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic. With the
number of UACs arriving at the border rising to pre-pandemic levels,
over 90% of beds in ORR shelters are filled.

With fewer beds available in ORR shelters, an increasing number

of UACs have been held for extended periods in CBP facilities that are
not meant to house minors. By law, children can only be housed in CBP
facilities for 72 hours before they must be transferred to ORR custody,
but recent reports found that some children are being held for over a
week at some CBP stations.

The emergency Carrizo Springs facility is not state licensed and not
required to meet the same standards set for ORR shelters, which have
caused some immigration advocates to raise concerns

about its reopening. A White House spokesperson stated

that reopening the facility was a "tough choice," and argued that
without the facility the administration would be forced to choose
between either sending children back to their home countries or
releasing them to sponsors that have not yet been fully vetted.

****Biden Administration Begins Admitting Asylum Seekers in Matamoros
Camp Turned Back by Migrant Protection Protocols****On February 24, the
Biden administration began admitting

asylum seekers in the Matamoros, Mexico camp across the border from
Brownsville, Texas. The asylum seekers in Matamoros had been returned to
Mexico under the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), which required
them to wait in areas near the border while their asylum hearings
continued in the U.S. The U.S. began admitting the 25,000 asylum seekers
with active cases under MPP on February 19, beginning with the San
Ysidro port of entry near San Diego but expanding to ports near
Brownsville on February 24 and El Paso on February 26.

The administration has worked with the Mexican government, the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and other international organizations
to process the asylum seekers and test for Covid-19 prior to entry into
the U.S. UNHCR has launched an online registration portal
for asylum-seekers with cases pending to
sign up for a date to cross the border. The U.S. is admitting about 25
individuals

per day, with plans to admit 300 people per day once the program is
fully operational at San Ysidro, Brownsville, and El Paso.

****USCIS Returns to 2008 Version of the Citizenship Test ****On
February 22, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) announced
 that
it will be reverting to the 2008 version of the civics test required
during the U.S. citizenship process, scrapping changes made by the
Trump administration in 2020. Those changes included removing
questions, adding new questions, modifying answers to existing
questions, expanding the question pool from 100 to
128, and increasing the total number of questions applicants would be
asked and have to answer correctly from 6 out of 10 to 12 out of 20,
among other changes. USCIS stated

that these alterations "may inadvertently create potential barriers" to
citizenship.

USCIS will offer both versions of the test until April 19 for applicants
who have been preparing to take the 2020 version.

****Parents of 105 Separated Children Located****On February 24, a
committee of lawyers appointed by a federal judge in California to
reunite immigrant parents and children who were separated during the
Trump administration announced that they have found the parents

of 105 children since January 14. According to the committee, 506
children remain separated from their parents. This committee is
independent from an interagency task force established by the Biden
administration to identify children separated from their families at the
U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump presidency between January 20, 2017
and January 20, 2021 and facilitate the reunification of those families.

It has been difficult for the lawyers to find the children's parents,
and the committee believes that the parents of over 300 children were
deported. Some of these parents may have agreed to be deported

in order to allow their children to remain in the U.S. and claim asylum.

****Legal****

****Judge Bans Enforcement of DHS Deportation Moratorium ****On
February 23, a federal judge in the Southern District of Texas issued a
preliminary injunction

blocking the Biden administration's 100-day deportation moratorium
, finding
that it likely violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs
on the state of Texas. The preliminary injunction does not require
deportations to resume at their previous rate and would still allow the
Department of Homeland Security to make changes to deportation
priorities. The moratorium, originally issued on January 20, was
initially temporarily suspended
 by
the judge following the filing of a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton.

****Federal Lawsuit Alleges Bail Bond Corporation Mislead Detained
Immigrants****On February 22, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
(CFPB) filed a lawsuit

against a company for misleading detained immigrants into paying
thousands of dollars under false pretenses. The suit alleges

that the company, Libre by Nexus, had been "preying on vulnerable
[immigrants]" by convincing them to wear fake electronic tracking
bracelets and then charging them thousands of dollars for the
trackers' removal. According to the suit, the company has targeted
immigrants in federal detention since 2014, offering to pay their bond
as they await trial while charging a monthly fee of $420

for their services. The suit alleges that immigrants were led to believe
these payments would be put towards their original bond payment, while
instead they accumulated thousands of dollars of debt to the company.
The suit further alleges that Libre by Nexus threatened to "re-detain or
deport [immigrants] for non-payment," when in fact, the corporation had
no authority to do so.

A CFPB official told reporters

Monday that the suit demonstrates that "financial scams that target
immigrants and increase the ethnic and racial divide in America will not
be tolerated."

****State and Local****

****Utah State Legislature Passes Law Allowing Noncitizens to Become
Police Officers****On February 17, in a 65-4 vote, the Utah House of
Representatives passed a bill
allowing certain
noncitizens to become police officers. This bill stipulates

that eligible noncitizens must be lawful residents, have been in the
United States for at least five years, and have employment
authorization. The bill originally required that noncitizens be green
card holders in order to be eligible, but this provision was later
removed via amendment. The bill will now go to the Utah Senate for
agreement before heading to Governor Spencer Cox's desk.

State Representative Paul Ray (R-Utah-13), who sponsored the bill in the
Utah House, noted that allowing noncitizens to become police officers
would help resolve

a "huge shortage" in Utah police departments.

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**Government Accountability Office (GAO): ICE Can
Further Enhance Its Planning and Oversight of State and Local Agreements
; Publicly Released February
26, 2021This GAO report tracked the use of the 287(g) program, which
allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter into
agreements with local law enforcement agencies to assist in the
enforcement of federal immigration laws. The report found that ICE has
implemented many of the agreements with limited plans for oversight or
management in place, and that it has not instituted adequate measures to
assess the program's performance.

**Congressional Research Service (CRS): ****Is Mandatory Detention of
Unlawful Entrants Seeking Asylum Constitutional**

**?; Updated January 27, 2021**This report examines the
constitutionality of mandatory detention for foreign nationals who
entered the country without authorization to seek asylum. Discussing
recent developments in federal case law, this CRS Legal Sidebar
discusses the interplay between legal limits on mandatory detention for
asylum seekers and the limited constitutional protections held by those
apprehended at the border making unlawful entries. Following a recent
Supreme Court decision in 

**DHS v. Thuraissigiam**, unlawful entrants with asylum claims are being
detained as they await formal removal proceedings without the
opportunity for a bond hearing.

**Congressional Research Service (CRS):****The Trump Administration's
"Zero Tolerance" Immigration Enforcement Policy**

**;**

**Updated February 2, 2021**This report provides an overview of the
Trump administration's "zero tolerance policy" implemented in May
2018. The policy was intended to reduce illegal border crossings and
fraudulent asylum claims. Under the policy, the Department of Justice
prosecuted without exceptions all adult foreign nationals who crossed
the border without authorization, which resulted in thousands of migrant
children being separated from their parents. The zero tolerance policy
was eventually walked back by Trump in the summer of 2018 and formally
rescinded by the Biden administration in January 2021.

**Congressional Research Service (CRS):****The Law of Immigration
Detention: A Brief Introduction**

**; Updated February 17, 2021**This "In Focus" from the Congressional
Research Service is an overview of immigration detention. The legal
framework for detention comes from the Immigration and Nationality Act,
which authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to detain foreign
nationals who are subject to formal removal from the country.

**Government Accountability Office (GAO):****Actions Are Needed to
Address the Cost and Readiness Implications of Continued DOD Support to
U.S. Customs and Border Protection**

**; February 23, 2021**This GAO report concerns requests made by the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the use of Department of
Defense (DOD) personnel and other support at the Southwest border. The
report evaluates four requests for assistance made by DHS to DOD, all
four of which were accepted. The report found that DOD did not properly
evaluate the requests before agreeing to them, noting that they used
unreliable cost estimates and did not adequately evaluate the impact of
the requests on other DOD priorities.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****President
Trump's Proclamations Suspending Immigration**
This
resource explains President Trump's June 22 proclamation extending and
expanding on immigration restrictions initially implemented in April. It
describes which categories of immigrants are affected and which are
exempt, discusses the additional measures included in the proclamation,
and provides information about which groups of immigrants face the most
immediate harm.

**The U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021**
This
summary describes the expansive immigration bill Democrats in the House
and Senate introduced following a framework that was initially sent to
Congress by President Biden upon taking office.

**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.

* * *

*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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