Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday, April
9, 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, April 9, 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**There were no immigration-related
bills introduced or considered the week of Monday, April 5, 2021.

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate will be in session the
week of Monday, April 12, 2021.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session from Tuesday, April
13, 2021 to Friday, April 16, 2021.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS**There are no immigration-related
hearings or markups currently scheduled for the week of Monday, April
12, 2021.

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

****March Border Numbers Reveal Rise in Migration, New Information on
Processing of Children, Families, and Single Adults****On April 8, U.S.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released official data
on
the number of migrants the agency had apprehended or encountered at the
Southwest border in March. The data showed an increase in overall
encounters of unauthorized migrants, rising from 100,441 in February to
172,331 in March. Of the 172,331 encounters, CBP reported that 72,672
were families and unaccompanied children, an increase from February but
still below a previous peak

in May 2019. The number of arriving unaccompanied children rose from
9,457 to 18,890, remaining about 11% of overall encounters but
representing the highest monthly total on record.

CBP reported

that the overall numbers for March were inflated by high recidivism
rates, or a number of single adult migrants making multiple attempts to
cross into the United States in quick succession. According to CBP,
approximately 50,000

of the total encounters represented repeat crossers who had been
summarily returned before trying to reenter. High recidivism rates have
been a feature of monthly CBP data releases since March 2020, when the
Trump administration issued a rule

that gave CBP the authority to immediately expel or deport anyone who
attempts to cross the border without authorization, including asylum
seekers and families. These "Title 42" expulsions carry fewer penalties
than traditional processing for repeat attempts of unauthorized entry,
and have resulted in recidivism rates rising dramatically. The March
2021 recidivism rate - 28% - was four times the average rate found
in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, when CBP reported just 7%
of
encounters were repeat crossers.

While the increasing number of unaccompanied children (UACs) continues
to pose challenges to the Biden administration's border response, the
administration has made progress in more expeditiously moving children
out of CBP custody. When children at the border are determined to be
unaccompanied, they are required by law to be transferred within 72
hours from CBP holding cells to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
shelters. The increase in arriving UACs resulted in ORR shelters
reaching capacity and children getting backed up in severely overcrowded

CBP holding centers. As of April 8, the administration has opened at
least 10
emergency housing sites under HHS, comprised of eight "Emergency Intake
Sites" and two "Influx Care Facilities." The week of April 5, HHS
reported
that for the first time in several weeks, the total number of children
in CBP custody declined as more children were transferred to emergency
housing sites.

While the majority of all migrant arrivals continue to be expelled under
Title 42, approximately two thirds of arriving families were not
expelled and instead allowed to stay in the U.S. to pursue their asylum
claims in immigration court. The criteria for why some families are
admitted and others are expelled remains unclear
,
but relevant factors appear to include vulnerability of the family, age
of the children, location along the border, and the capacity of nearby
processing facilities in the U.S. and Mexico. According to an April 2
report
,
some Border Patrol officials have said there has also been a recent
increase in reported "got aways," or migrants who were observed to have
crossed without authorization but were not apprehended. CBP has
collected "got away" data since 2006, but has not published it because
the data collected is unreliable
.

****Democrats Consider Including Immigration in Reconciliation
Efforts****Democratic Members of Congress are reportedly discussing

using a potential upcoming budget reconciliation bill as a vehicle for
passing immigration reforms. The budget reconciliation process would
allow Democrats and the Biden administration to avoid a Senate
filibuster and pass legislation with a simple majority, but only
provisions that affect government spending or revenues can be included
in the reconciliation process.

On including immigration reforms in a reconciliation package, House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said

that, "we think we can make a case about the budget impacts of
immigration in our country, and we are going to try to do that." Senator
Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), who recently introduced a comprehensive
immigration bill based on a proposal by President Biden, said that he
would "not foreclose any tool that will ultimately allow Democrats to
give a pathway to citizenship to as many undocumented immigrants as
possible."

Although a recent ruling

by the Senate parliamentarian appears to permit multiple uses of the
reconciliation process each fiscal year, it remains unclear which
specific reform provisions Democrats will include in reconciliation
proposals. The possible move has also received pushback from those on
both sides of the aisle. Republicans have largely opposed

any attempt to bypass the filibuster in the current Congress, and on
April 7, Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) also criticized

further attempts to use budget reconciliation and called for reforms to
pass in a bipartisan manner.

The report comes after two immigration bills passed the House of
Representatives with bipartisan support in March. The American Dream and
Promise Act

would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and Temporary
Protected Status (TPS) holders, and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act

would streamline and reform the H-2A agricultural guestworker program,
provide a pathway to legal status for undocumented farmworkers, and
require agriculture employers to implement a reformed "E-Verify" program
to ensure workers are authorized. The fate of both bills in the Senate
remains unclear.

****Customs and Border Protection Rolls Out New Case Management
Corps****On April 2, CBP graduated

39 individuals as the first class of Border Patrol processing
coordinators. The non-law enforcement personnel will work inside Border
Patrol stations and facilities to care for and process newly arrived
migrants. CBP plans to graduate 300 additional processing coordinators
each year for at least the next four years. The use of processing
coordinators at the border has received broad support, as they will
likely both improve conditions for immigrant detainees - including
children and families - and allow CBP enforcement personnel to focus
on securing the border.

Immigration advocates have applauded the move, but noted

that the chief priority should still be getting children quickly out of
Border Patrol custody and into ORR care.

****Cass Sunstein to Lead Immigration Regulatory Rollbacks****According
to an April 7 report
,
President Biden has assigned Cass Sunstein, former Harvard Law School
professor and administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA) under the Obama administration, to oversee the rollback
of numerous restrictive immigration policies and regulations that were
implemented by the Trump administration.

Sunstein joined the Biden administration in February as a senior
counselor at the Department of Homeland Security. At the time, DHS
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "Cass is the nation's foremost
regulatory expert, and we are privileged to have him on our team to help
us address a wide range of complex challenges." According to some
estimates, there are as many as 1,000

immigration regulations implemented under the Trump administration that
Sunstein and his team at DHS may consider rolling back.

Sunstein drew criticism

from some immigration advocates during his tenure in the Obama
administration, where he was accused of holding up progressive
regulatory priorities through employing extensive review processes.

****Biden to Restart Limited Border Wall Construction to Fill Existing
Gaps****According to an April 5 Washington Times report
,
the Biden administration is considering restarting limited construction
of border barriers at certain locations along the Southern border.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
reportedly that DHS was considering addressing some "gaps in the wall"
and that CBP had submitted a plan for additional barrier construction.

In late January, CBP had officially notified its contractors to stop all
border barrier construction projects following President Biden's
January 20 executive order
,
which terminated the national emergency declared at the southern border
by the Trump administration and directed the end of all border wall
construction. The executive order further called for the Department of
Defense, DHS, and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to come up
with a plan within 60 days to redirect available funds that had
previously been allocated for the construction of border barriers.

The sudden pause in construction left notable gaps in certain locations
along the border, including an area in Cochise County, Arizona, where
the sheriff has reported

a marked increase in unauthorized crossings.

According to a March 23 report
, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) is reviewing the legality of the
administration's pause on the construction of border barriers. The
report came after a group of 40 Senate Republicans sent a letter to GAO
accusing the Biden administration of refusing to spend congressionally
appropriated funds on border wall construction.

****Legal****

****Court Filing: 61 Migrant Children Reunited
with Parents, Leaving 445 Still Separated****According to an April 7
court filing, 61 families who were separated at the border as the result
of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" border policy have been
reunited

since February. The filing further notes that approximately 445 children
remain separated from their parents out of an estimated 4,500
separations that occurred as a result of "zero tolerance" and other
Trump-era policies.

Most of the reunifications have been
coordinated by a steering committee

established as part of an ongoing court case arising from the Trump-era
border policies. The committee consists of a group of lawyers and
immigrant rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) and the Women's Refugee Commission (WRC). On February 2,
President Biden also established a task force housed in the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) to assist with reuniting the separated
families. According to an April 7 report
,
the Biden administration is combing through thousands of additional
files to determine whether more children were separated than was
previously known.

Lee Gelernt of the ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project said

that the steering committee and the Biden administration still "have
enormous work yet to do [to] fix the terrible abuses of the Trump
administration's family separation practice."

****Texas and Louisiana Sue Government for Deportation Holds****On April
6, the states of Texas and Louisiana filed a lawsuit

against the federal government alleging that immigration authorities
have failed to deport immigrants who have been convicted of crimes since
President Biden took office. The lawsuit blames the Biden administration
for dropping or no longer using detainer requests, which ask for local
law enforcement officials to involve themselves in federal immigration
enforcement functions, including by holding individuals in prison or
detention after their release date so they can be placed in deportation
proceedings. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the
Department of Justice (DOJ) have not commented on the lawsuit.

Immigration detainers

are requests from federal immigration authorities to state and local law
enforcement officials to hold foreign nationals in their custody for up
to 48 hours after they would otherwise have been released. Detainers are
not mandatory under federal law - they are requests that state and
local authorities can choose to comply with or decline to honor. Many
jurisdictions opt not to honor detainers, citing the exposure to civil
liability for wrongfully holding someone past their release time, as
well as concerns
 that
requiring local law enforcement to play a role in certain federal
immigration enforcement activities can undermine public safety and
community trust.

****State and Local****

****California Vaccinates Essential Immigrant Farmworkers****According
to an April 3 report
,
California has launched a large-scale campaign to vaccinate its many
immigrant farmworkers. The campaign involves establishing 20 mobile
vaccination sites that will vaccinate workers on the job in the fields.
Farms across the country experienced large-scale outbreaks of COVID-19
over the past year, with a recent estimate finding that about 9,000
total farmworkers died due to the virus. California is one of many
states to have recognized farmworkers as part of its essential workforce
and make them vaccine eligible.

According to some estimates, as many as 70%

of the approximately three million farmworkers in the U.S. are
undocumented immigrants.

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**

**Congressional Research Service (CRS):****Child Migrants at the Border:
The Flores Settlement Agreement and Other Legal Developments**

**; April 1, 2021**This "In Focus" report is about the Flores Settlement
Agreement and how it relates to the treatment of migrant children. The
Flores Agreement sets standards of care for detaining, releasing, and
overall treatment of both accompanied and unaccompanied minors in the
immigration system.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****What's
Happening at the Southern Border, Explained**
This
explainer breaks down what is happening at the U.S.-Mexico border,
analyzing CBP data on recent apprehensions, describing the impact and
use of Title 42 expulsions as well as the treatment of arriving UACs. It
also provides additional context on reports of increased migration to
the U.S. and the treatment of migrant families seeking entry at the
border.

**Fact Sheet: Family Separation at the U.S.-Mexico Border**
This
fact sheet provides an updated overview of the issue of family
separation at the U.S.-Mexico border, including information on the U.S.
Department of Justice's (DOJ) former "zero-tolerance policy" that
entailed prosecuting all individuals crossing the border between ports
of entry without authorization.

**Why American Farms Need Immigration Reform**
This
op-ed describes the urgent need for agriculture-based immigration
reform. It discusses the reasons behind the current agricultural labor
shortage, the benefits of reforming the H-2A guestworker program, and
the need to provide an earned pathway to permanent status for current
undocumented farmworkers.

* * *

*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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