Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
September 10, 2021 is now posted.

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

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All the best,

Arturo 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, September 10, 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 CONSIDEREDH.R. 5159

**Afghanistan Transparency Act**

The bill would direct the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the
Director of National Intelligence, to submit to the appropriate
congressional committees an annual report on the situation in
Afghanistan. Such report would address, among many other topics,
contingency plans related to the continued evacuation of Afghans who
hold special immigrant visa (SIV) status.

Sponsored by Representative Jason Crow (D-Colorado) (3

Cosponsors- 2 Democrats, 1 Republican)

09/03/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Crow

09/03/2021 Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services

H.R. 5168

**Welcoming Evacuees Coming from Overseas to Mitigate Effects of
Displacement (WELCOMED) Act of 2021**

The bill would provide Afghan evacuees - including parolees - with
the same benefits provided to refugees upon their arrival in the U.S. It
would make them eligible for reception and placement services that would
equip them with the basic money and resources to resettle themselves and
their families into the United States.

Sponsored by Representative Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) (37

Cosponsors- 34 Democrats, 3 Republicans)

09/03/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Moulton

09/03/2021 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 5174

**To establish the National Commission on United States Involvement in
Afghanistan**

Sponsored by Representative Elise Stefanik (R-New York) (1

Cosponsor- 1 Republican, 0 Democrats)

09/03/2021 Introduced in the House by Representative Stefanik

09/03/2021 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs

LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDARThe U.S. Senate will be in session from
Monday, September 13, through Wednesday, September 15, 2021.

The U.S. House of Representatives will not hold votes, but it will be in
session for committee work from Monday, September 13, through Tuesday,
September 14, 2021.

UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS**House Judiciary Committee Markup:
Legislative proposals to comply with the reconciliation directive
included in section 2002 of the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for
Fiscal Year 2022 (S. Con. Res. 14)**

**Date:**  Monday, September 13, 2021, 10:00 am (House Committee on the
Judiciary)

**Location:** Congressional Auditorium (CVC-200)

**Hearing to Examine the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan**

**Date:**  Tuesday, September 14, 2021, at 10:00 am E.T. (Senate
Committee on Foreign Relations)

**Location:** 106/VTC Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**The Honorable Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State

THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK

**Federal**

****Congressional Democrats Continue Reconciliation Process, Immigration
Reforms Face Parliamentarian****The week of September 6, shortly after
passing a $3.5 trillion budget resolution
,
House committees began hammering out the details and legislative text
of the omnibus spending bill according to allocations provided in the
budget resolution. House Democrats have agreed to a non-binding deadline
of September 15 for committees to draft and mark up the
legislative text. Democrats, however, must be careful when writing the
legislative text, as according to the rules of the reconciliation
process, all provisions must be budget-related. A determination of
whether planned immigration reforms can be included will fall on the
Senate parliamentarian, who is the chamber's nonpartisan rules referee.

In that regard, on September 10, Democrats and Republicans met with the
Senate parliamentarian

to hear dueling arguments over whether Democrats can include provisions
for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status
(TPS) holders, undocumented farmworkers, and other essential workers. A
final decision from the parliamentarian is not expected imminently, but
the arguments come as the Senate prepares to return from recess next
week.

If the parliamentarian green lights the provisions, House Democrats will
aim to pass the entire bill on party lines by September 27. That is the
deadline that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set for the House to turn to a
vote on the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that the Senate
passed in August. The deadline came as a compromise

with nine moderate Democrats, who argued that the House should have
first considered the bipartisan infrastructure bill before dealing with
the more partisan reconciliation effort.

Once the House approves the spending bill, it will go back to the
consideration of the Senate, where Democrats are hoping to continue the
reconciliation process and pass the omnibus package into law.
Reconciliation

is a process that allows the Senate to move the bill forward with a
simple majority and bypass a potential Republican filibuster. Prospects
for Senate passage are becoming more complicated for Democrats, as
Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) recently came forward

to say that he would not support a $3.5 trillion spending package.
According to an Axios report
,
Manchin is open to supporting at most $1.5 trillion of the spending
bill. That scenario would require Democrats to make concessions on at
least part of the ambitious spending package.

As initially passed by the Senate and the House, the budget
resolution allocates
 $107
billion to the Judiciary Committee, which Democrats are hoping to use to
provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) holders, undocumented farmworkers, and other essential
workers. Democrats are also planning to allocate approximately $10
billion for smart and effective border security measures focused on
infrastructure at legal entry points.

****Biden Administration Asks Congress for Additional Funding for Afghan
Resettlement****On September 7, the Biden Administration requested

Congress to appropriate $6.4 billion in additional funding to support
the ongoing efforts to resettle close to 100,000 Afghans forced to flee
their country in the past weeks. A majority of this funding would go to
support

ongoing resettlement operations - both in third country sites and
within the U.S. - with the goal of bringing tens of thousands of
Afghans to the U.S. before the end of the year through Operation Allies
Welcome
.
The requested funding would be spread out among agencies within the
State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for humanitarian
assistance, health checks, and resettlement.

The request

also includes several provisions ensuring the effective resettlement of
at-risk Afghans who are arriving under a process called humanitarian
parole. Parolees are ineligible for many benefits provided to refugees
and do not have a clear path to permanent status. As other pathways to
protection such as Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) status and refugee
status are backlogged, as many as 70,000 Afghans may be paroled into the
U.S. The Biden administration funding request would authorize

parolees to receive the same federal benefits as refugees and would
allow them to adjust to permanent status within one year.

This call for additional funding comes in addition to grassroots
momentum that has sprung up

in past weeks - cutting across political and ideological
divides - to help recently arrived Afghans. Massive influxes in
donations ranging from clothes to household supplies have arrived at
refugee agencies and nonprofits around the country.

****Third Whistleblower Complaint Documents Abuses of Unaccompanied
Migrant Children at Texas Emergency Facility****On September 8, the
Government Accountability Project filed
 its
third whistleblower complaint concerning abuses against unaccompanied
minors at the Fort Bliss Emergency Intake Site (EIS) in Texas. Similar
to the previous two
,
the third whistleblower complaint documents gross mismanagement and
details multiple violations of health, safety, and child welfare laws,
regulations, and policies. The listed violations include threatening
children with deportation, delaying children's request to see the
mental health team, providing them with "skin lightening" lotion (in
lieu of moisturizer) which can cause burnt and blistered skin, leaving
lights on in tents for 24 hours, and denying permission to use the
bathroom during the day. The newest complaint also highlights that the
children regularly "appear to be lost" in the system without contact
from a case worker.

A review
 into
the conditions of Fort Bliss was already announced on August
2 following two other whistleblower complaints
 from
July 7 and July 28. Fort Bliss is run by the Office of
Refugee Resettlement (ORR), an office within the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS). The migrant minors at this facility were put
under the care and management of Servpro, a contractor
 for
the HHS. Advocates have noted that Servpro and other companies
contracted by HHS have no prior record of childcare or with work that
requires Spanish language skills.

In addition to concerns within HHS custody, data recently released
through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request has exposed concerns
regarding children who have been released by HHS to sponsors. According
to the data, the federal government has lost contact
 with one-in-three
migrant children released from its custody. HHS is required to conduct
follow-up calls thirty days after each release to ensure children are
properly cared for, but between January and May, the agency found that
more than 4,000 minors were unreachable. According to an August 19
Bloomberg report
,
the U.S. government is already investigating the potential release of
dozens of migrant children by HHS into the hands of labor traffickers.

****VP Harris Meets with Mexican Officials to Discuss Root Causes of
Migration****On September 9, a U.S. delegation led by Vice President
Kamala Harris hosted

the annual US-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue with their Mexican
counterparts. During the meeting, participants discussed the economic
and social priorities to foster regional prosperity and tackle the root
causes of migration from Central America. Among the commitments of the
meeting, both delegations agreed to deepen

the collaboration between the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID) and its Mexican counterpart, the Mexican Agency for
International Cooperation and Development (AMEXCID) to address the
development challenges of the Northern Triangle, including building new
value chains and helping bring agricultural goods to market, as well as
attracting further investment.

The meeting took place amid atypical migration from Central American
moving through Mexico to the U.S.-Mexico border. The high migration
levels have pressured Mexican President López Obrador to renew his
effort to persuade the United States to commit funding to social
projects he has implemented in southern Mexico that he says could be
expanded to Central America. He said

he sent a letter this week to President Biden stressing that people
participating in the programs should also be offered work visas in the
United States, arguing that Biden will need the labor force to carry out
his ambitious infrastructure plan.

****Legal****

****Biden Administration Announces a 15-Month Automatic Extension of
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Several Countries****On September
10, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced

a fifteen-month extension

of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 320,000
individuals from El
Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan until December
31, 2022. Protections for each of those countries were set to expire on
October 4, 2021.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is granted to eligible foreign-born
individuals living in the US who are unable to return home safely due to
violence or other circumstances in their home country. The new extension
- which does not require any additional payment or re-registration -
comes as a result of the preliminary injunction

orders from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
California in

**Ramos v. Nielsen**and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District
of New York in

**Saget v. Trump.**

****Biden Administration Appeals DACA Ruling****On September 10, the
Department of Justice appealed

a U.S. District Judge ruling

that declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program
illegal. DACA
is a
policy that protects over 699,000 undocumented immigrants who were
brought into the U.S. as children to stay in the country.

The appeal was filed before the conservative-leaning Fifth Circuit Court
of Appeals in a case that could eventually reach the Supreme Court. In a
2015 ruling on a different, Obama administration deferred action program
that would have protected the parents of U.S. citizens and lawful
permanent residents (DAPA), the Fifth Circuit affirmed the District
Judge's decision to vacate the memorandum which had created the program.
In that case, the Supreme Court split along ideological lines, with four
conservative justices ruling against DAPA and four liberal justices
arguing in favor. Two conservative justices have joined the Court since
then.

Parallel to the appeal, the Biden Administration has noted that the
Department of Homeland Security is in the process of issuing a proposed
rule

to preserve DACA in compliance with Judge Hanen's ruling. President
Biden, however, has expressed that regardless of the Administration's
efforts, "only Congress can ensure a permanent solution by granting a
path to citizenship for Dreamers that will provide the certainty and
stability that these young people need and deserve."

GOVERNMENT REPORTS

**Congressional Research Service (CRS): ****Unaccompanied Alien
Children: An Overview**

**, September 1, 2021**This CRS report provides an overview of
unaccompanied migrant children (UAC) apprehension levels, examines
current policy on the treatment, care, and custody of UACs, and
describes the responsibilities of each federal agency involved in the
apprehension and custody of UACs. The report also reviews administrative
and congressional attempts from fiscal year (FY) 2015 to the present to
address the increase in UACs coming to the United States.

**Department of Homeland Security - Office of the Inspector General
(OIG):****ICE's Management of COVID-19 in Its Detention Facilities
Provides Lessons Learned for Future Pandemic Responses**

**, September 7, 2021**This report analyzes U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement's (ICE) policies and practices related to Covid-19
management and prevention in its detention facilities. The DHS Office of
the Inspector General (OIG) found that even though ICE took some
measures to prevent the pandemic's spread in its facilities, the agency
struggled to properly manage the health and safety of detainees. DHS OIG
found that staff and detainees did not consistently wear face masks or
socially distance. The report also highlights that testing of both
detainees and staff was insufficient, and that some facilities did not
consistently manage medical sick calls.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Fact Sheet:
Pathways to Protection for Afghans at Risk**
This
resource provides a comparison between the SIV status, the P2 refugee
program, and Humanitarian Parole. It also summarizes the eligibility
requirements for each pathway and notes the different application
timelines and vetting procedures. The fact sheet also describes what we
know about the numbers resettled so far under each pathway and what
benefits they receive.

**Explainer: Humanitarian Parole and the Afghan Evacuation**
This
resource explains what parole is, describes the eligibility requirements
and vetting procedures currently in place for Afghan parolees, and
discusses what benefits parolees receive when they arrive in the US The
explainer also discusses the options available for those at risk who
have been left behind in Afghanistan, as humanitarian parole can also be
accessed by those who are able to escape on their own to third
countries.

**Explainer: What's Happening at the U.S.-Mexico Border**
This
regularly updated explainer breaks down what is happening at the
US-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, and providing additional context on reports
of increased migration to the US and releases of migrant families into
the interior. The explainer also includes a Facebook live discussion
covering recent developments at the border.

* * *

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

 

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