Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Thursday,
September 1, 2022, 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 - Thursday, September 1, 2022**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**

H.R. 8704

**Protecting Immigrant Gold Star and Military Families Act**

The bill would protect from deportation the relatives of members of the
Armed Forces and veterans who have not been convicted of a felony or a
significant misdemeanor.

Sponsored by Representative Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) (1

cosponsor- 1 Democrat, 0 Republicans)

08/12/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Gallego

08/12/2022 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 8709

**Prioritizing the Removal of Migrants Act**

The bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize
immigration enforcement actions against immigrants who are subject to a
final order of removal, have been convicted of any criminal offense,
have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits, pose a
risk to public safety or national security, or who are apprehended while
attempting to enter the United States between ports of entry.

Sponsored by Representative Troy Nehls (R-Texas) (2

cosponsors- 2 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

08/12/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Nehls

08/12/2022 Referred to the House Committees on Homeland Security and the
Judiciary

H.R. 8710

**Terrorist Reporting Act of 2022**

The bill would require DHS to submit a report to Congress concerning the
total number of foreign nationals apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol
after crossing the border between ports of entry whose identifying
information is included within the terrorist screening database of the
Homeland Security Act of 2002.

Sponsored by Representative Troy Nehls (R-Texas) (3

cosponsors- 3 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

08/12/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Nehls

08/12/2022 Referred to the House Committees on Homeland Security and the
Judiciary

H.R. 8713

**Stopping Taliban Operatives from Penetrating (STOP) Act**

The bill would overturn a discretionary directive provided to the
Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State entitled
"Exercise of Authority Under Section 212(d)(3)(B)(i) of the Immigration
and Nationality Act." The directive allows DHS and the State Department
to allow people who were employed as civil servants in Afghanistan
between September 27, 1996, and December 22, 2001, to apply for visas to
come to the United States as long as they establish that they did not
voluntarily and knowingly engage in terrorist activities on behalf of
the Taliban.

Sponsored by Representative Thomas Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) (0

cosponsors)

08/12/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Tiffany

08/12/2022 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 8714

**Alien Criminal Expulsion (ACE) Act**

The bill would temporarily halt the issuance of visas for residents of
"recalcitrant" countries - a term used to describe foreign nations
whose governments refuse to accept the return of their citizens.

Sponsored by Representative Thomas Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) (0

cosponsors)

08/12/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Tiffany

08/12/2022 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R.8725

**To provide supplemental appropriations for the Emergency Food and
Shelter Program to provide humanitarian relief for migrants**

The bill would provide an additional $50 million for the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP)
for humanitarian assistance of migrants who have been bused into the
District of Columbia by Texas and Arizona.

Sponsored by Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) (4

cosponsors- 4 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

08/16/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Norton

08/16/2022 Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations

H.R. 8731

**Protect Children's Innocence Act**

Among various other provisions, the bill would deny the issuance of any
type of visa to foreign nationals who have conducted gender-affirming
care on an underage person.

Sponsored by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) (19

cosponsors-19 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

08/19/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Greene

08/19/2022 Referred to the House Committees on Ways and Means, Energy
and Commerce, and Education and Labor

H.R. 8759

**Bureaucrats to the Border Act**

The bill would require any new IRS employee hired as a result of the
funding increase of the Inflation Reduction Act to complete a 30-day
support detail with the DHS Mission Support Force at the border.

Sponsored by Representative Barry Moore (R-Alabama) (4

cosponsors- 4 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

08/30/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Moore

08/30/2022 Referred to the House Committees on Ways and Means, Homeland
Security, and the Judiciary

H.R. 8761

**To add Ireland to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program**

The bill would add Ireland to the E-3 nonimmigrant visa program, which
currently only allows Australian nationals to work in the U.S. in
occupations that require theoretical and practical highly specialized
knowledge and the attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree. This is a
companion bill of S.3869
.

Sponsored by Representative Richard Neal (D-Massachusetts) (1

cosponsor- 1 Republican, 0 Democrats)

08/30/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Neal

08/30/2022 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate and U.S. House of
Representatives will be back in session on Tuesday, September 6, 2022.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS**

There are no immigration-related hearings scheduled for the next week.

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Legal****

****After Publication of DACA Rule, 5th Circuit Requests Additional
Briefings****On August 26, two days after the Department of Homeland
Security released the text of a final rule

codifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the
Fifth Circuit requested

supplemental briefings concerning the impact of the rule on pending
litigation concerning the legality of DACA. The case,

**Texas v. U.S.**,  stems from a July 16, 2021 ruling
 from
District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in which he held that DACA was
unlawful, granted a permanent injunction vacating the original 2012 DACA
memorandum, and prevented USCIS from approving new DACA applications.

In addition to raising substantive concerns over DACA, Judge Hanen
reasoned

in part that when the program was established in 2012, it had failed to
follow formal notice and comment rulemaking processes under the
Administrative Procedures Act. The Biden administration formalized DACA
via notice and comment rulemaking to fortify it against these procedural
concerns. In defense of DACA, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro
Mayorkas stated that now that DACA is codified in the Code of Federal
Regulations, the Biden administration is "hopeful that the court will
allow DACA to stand."

The Fifth Circuit held an initial hearing

on the case on July 6. Following the promulgation of the rule, the court
requested supplemental briefings by September 1 from both the Biden
administration and the state of Texas on the impact of the rule on the
concerns raised by Judge Hanen and on whether the case now needs to be
retried at the district level.

The case could impact over 611,000
 DACA recipients
who rely on the program, and many others who may be eligible for
protection. The additional briefings are expected

by noon on September 1, and the Fifth Circuit could rule on the case
shortly after.

****Biden Administration Requests Supreme Court Not to Take Citizenship
Case from American Samoa****On August 29, Solicitor General Elizabeth
Prelogar requested the Supreme Court to deny

certiorari to an appeal against a Tenth Circuit ruling that found that
the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment does not confer
United States citizenship on individuals born in American Samoa.

The case, Fitisemanu v. U.S.
,
stems from a lawsuit against the federal government by three individuals
born in American Samoa who live in Utah. The district court ruled in
2019 in favor of the petitioners, reasoning

that "because American Samoa is under the full sovereignty of the United
States, it forms part of the United States for purposes of the
Citizenship Clause." The decision was appealed by the federal government
and reversed by the Tenth Circuit. The Tenth Circuit upheld a federal
law that grants American nationality, but not citizenship, to
individuals born in American Samoa. The court argued

that "Congress has always wielded plenary authority over the citizenship
status of unincorporated territories, a practice that itself harked back
to territorial administration in the nineteenth century." It noted

that "residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and
the U.S. Virgin Islands each enjoy birthright citizenship by an act of
Congress, not automatically by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment."

The lawsuit - which has been supported

by the American Bar Association - would extend

full citizenship to the 3.6 million Americans born in territories. In
its request to deny certiorari, the Biden administration added

that while American Samoans do not have U.S. citizenship by birth, they
can naturalize as U.S. citizens after moving to any State. Hence, in the
administration's view
,
the naturalization procedure eliminates all the disadvantages that
American Samoans have on account of their status as noncitizen nationals
of the United States.

****Federal****

****Administration to End Use of Rapid Humanitarian Process to Welcome
Afghan Evacuees****According to a September 1 report
,
the Biden administration is planning to discontinue the use of
humanitarian parole for Afghans who remain at risk following the fall of
Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. The administration's decision-
which comes as the U.S. transitions its ongoing evacuation efforts from
the existing Operation Allies Welcome phase to a new "Operation Enduring
Welcome" phase - will include a larger focus on more permanent
protective pathways like the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) and refugee
resettlement processes.

Humanitarian parole
is
a tool that allows certain individuals to stay and work in the U.S.
without a visa. It is granted for urgent humanitarian reasons and can be
a much faster process than existing humanitarian processes like the SIV
and refugee pathways, both of which are heavily backlogged and can take
years to complete. A special humanitarian parole program was used

to allow over 70,000 Afghan evacuees to resettle in the U.S. in the fall
of 2021, although it provides only two years of protection and no path
to permanent status in the U.S.

After the evacuation, with hundreds of thousands of Afghans left behind
and at risk, more than 50,000

Afghans spent a collective $20 million

on humanitarian parole applications, hoping they too could find a path
to protection in the U.S. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS), the agency responsible for adjudicating the
applications, has so far processed fewer than 10,000.

According to the CBS report
,
starting October 1, parole will only be used in "a very small number of
cases" that present "exigent circumstances." Instead, the U.S. seeks to
expedite SIV and refugee processing for Afghans and claims

it is processing some cases in less than 30 days.

****Poll Shows Support for Immigration Reforms to Slow Down Inflation
and Prevent Scarcity of Food****An August 31 Ohio Capitol Journal report

highlighted the correlation between the increase
in U.S. food
prices and the labor shortages in the agricultural and food processing
sectors. While the report recognizes that the root cause of inflation is
multifactorial - such as disruption of exports of grain, fertilizer,
and fuel due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as supply chain
challenges brought on by the Covid pandemic - it noted that labor
shortages had accentuated the increase of food prices. The piece also
noted that Ohio's food banks are expected

to run out of supplies this winter due in part to the scarcity of labor
in the agricultural industry.

The report cited an August 30 poll

released by the National Immigration Forum and Americans for Prosperity,
showing that Americans across the political spectrum support immigration
reform that lowers food costs. According to the poll, nearly 4 in 5 of
American adults (77%) want Democrats and Republicans to work together
this year on immigration reforms that could reduce food prices, address
labor shortages and reduce pressures at the border.

The report and the poll came as a bipartisan group of Senators is close
to agreeing

on revised language for the Farm Workforce Modernization Act
,
a bill that provides an earned pathway to legal status for undocumented
farmworkers, alterations to the H-2A seasonal agriculture visa, and
enhanced immigration enforcement for the agriculture industry. The bill
passed the House with bipartisan support in 2021.

****Brazilian Immigrant Dies in ICE Custody and Two Kids Die Attempting
to Cross the Rio Grande****On August 26, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) reported

the death of a 23-year-old Brazilian national in its custody. While the
official cause of the death remains unknown, an August 27 report

by the Albuquerque Journal reported that human rights advocates have
attributed it to a suicide attempt after months in "abhorrent
conditions." The Brazilian national had been in ICE custody since April
23 at the Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF) in Estancia, New
Mexico, while he awaited his immigration proceedings. The death happened
only five months after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office
of Inspector General (OIG) recommended

the immediate relocation of all U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) detainees located at the TCDF citing staffing shortages that have
led to "excessive and avoidable unsanitary conditions."

Also, on August 22, two kids, aged three and five years old, drowned

at Rio Grande while attempting to cross into the United States from
Mexico. The tragedy comes amid an increase in migrant deaths along the
U.S.-Mexico border. In 2021, the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) documented
 a
record 728 deaths on the border. Hundreds more deaths have already been
recorded in 2022. This year, as of July 19, U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) had reported 609

migrant deaths - a record high. According to a recent report
 from the Government
Accountability Office (GAO), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
agents tend to undercount
 immigrant
deaths, with the number of people dying likely twice as high as has been
reported.

****State & Local****

****Texas and Arizona Continue and Expand Controversial Migrant Busing
Programs****On August 26, Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) stated

that his government had bused 8,900

migrants out of Texas since April - 7,400 migrants to Washington, DC,
and over 1,500 migrants to New York City. An August 31 CNN report

revealed that the controversial program had cost over $12.7 million
dollars according to documents obtained through an open records request
to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). In other words,
the 8,900 immigrants have been transported to D.C. and New York City at
a cost of $1,427 per migrant to Texas taxpayers. In addition, on
September 1, Texas' government expanded the program and sent

the first bus of migrants to Chicago.

Similarly, Arizona's Governor Doug Ducey (R-Arizona) has spent
around $3.5
million to transport migrants to Washington, D.C. According to Governor
Ducey, 43 buses have departed from Arizona to Washington D.C. carrying
1,574
migrants, who are primarily from Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.

The controversial busing initiatives have strained resources

in New York City and Washington, D.C. On August 16, Representative
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) introduced

an emergency appropriations bill to provide an additional $50 million
for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Food and Shelter
Program (EFSP) for humanitarian assistance of migrants who have been
bused into the District of Columbia by Texas and Arizona. Also,
according to a New York-based coalition of immigrant rights, the city
needs over $40 million for medical services, interpreters, legal
assistance, and resettlement services. The ESFP already provides
significant resources to shelters and nonprofits in border regions
working to welcome arriving migrants and asylum seekers.

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**

**United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD); "****Concluding observations on the combined tenth to twelfth
reports of the United States of America**

**"; August 30, 2022.**In its concluding observations of the United
States' compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, CERD expressed concern over the
use of excessive force by Border Protection officers against racial and
ethnic minorities. CERD also urged the United States to end enforcement
programs that promote racial profiling of immigrants.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM
RESOURCES****The Current State of DACA: Challenges Await in Litigation and Rulemaking**
This
explainer describes the current state of the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, discussing the ongoing attempts to
scale back or
end the program in the courts and the current administration's
attempts to preserve the program.

**Explainer: Dedicated Docket for Immigrant Families Arriving at the
Southwest Border**
The
ultimate goal of the Dedicated Docket for Immigrant Families Arriving at
the Southwest Border is to decrease the amount of time it takes for
migrant family units to receive adjudications on their cases while
simultaneously ensuring due process. Despite the well-intentioned goal,
the explainer also looks at the significant challenges in its first year
of implementation.

**What Makes a Border Secure? Building a Healthier Border Dialogue**
This
paper creates an actionable border security framework based on the best
and most appropriate available metrics and data. It surveys previous and
ongoing attempts to describe and quantify border security, and it
proposes a series of policy recommendations to create a healthier
dialogue around securing our border, including an expanded role for the
DHS Office of Immigration Statistics and the creation and publication of
new border metrics.

* * *

*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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