Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
September 9, 2022, is now posted.

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

All the best,

Arturo 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, September 9, 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**There were no new immigration-related
bills introduced in Congress this week.

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**

The U.S. Senate will be in session the week of September 12, 2022.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session from Tuesday,
September 13, through Friday, September 16, 2022.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS**

Hearing: To examine flatlining care, focusing on why immigrants are
crucial to bolstering our health care workforce

**Date:** Wednesday, September 14, 2022, at 10:00 am E.T. (Senate
Judiciary Committee)

**Location:** 226 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:** TBD

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

****Refugee Resettlement Decreases as FY 2022 Nears its End****Refugee
resettlement data released
on September 6 by
the State Department revealed that the administration resettled a total
of 2,229 refugees in August, marking a 14% decrease from the 2,589
resettled in July and reversing the upward trend from the previous three
months. Entering the final month of FY 2022, this decrease puts the
administration on pace to resettle a total of only 21,730 refugees, not
even 20% of the 125,000 ceiling set last September. The severe
discrepancy between the ceiling and low actual resettlement totals
motivated 11 U.S. senators and 385 elected officials to send President
Biden two separate

letter

**s** expressing concern over the slow pace of refugee resettlement and
urging the President to prioritize improving the U.S. Refugee Admissions
Program.

The decreased numbers from August can be attributed to decreases in
resettlement from a number of countries of origin, including the Congo,
which experienced a sharp 40% drop from 1,182 to 712. Moreover,
resettlement numbers continue to be extraordinarily low for Uyghur
refugees, as there have only been 3 admissions over the entire span of
FY 2022. However, despite the overall drop, admissions for refugees
originating in the Americas increased by 48% from 197 to 293.

Even as the administration is reportedly considering to transition away
from humanitarian parole for Afghans at risk, only 218 total Afghans
were resettled via the refugee admissions process in August. Notably,
however, there was a 69% increase in Afghan SIV arrivals

between July and August, with August totals reaching 1,802.

****Biden Administration Announces Expectation to Use All
Employment-Based Green Cards in FY 2022****On September 8, U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced

that it expects to use all the 281,507 employment-based green cards made
available under statute before the 2022 fiscal year (FY) ends on
September 30. According to the agency, as of August 31, USCIS had
already used 263,510

employment-based immigrant visas. USCIS also highlighted

that the agency remained committed to taking every viable policy and
procedural action to maximize the use of all available visas for the
remainder of this year and in FY 2023. The announcement represented a
positive improvement compared to last year when over 80,000

employment-based green cards went unused.

Every year, the U.S. sets aside a specific number of available green
cards for individuals from all around the world. However, over the
years, various administrative complications

have left hundreds of thousands of employment-based green cards
unissued. Thus far, employment-based green cards that go unused by the
end of a fiscal year go to waste.

According to a September 8 Wall Street Journal report
,
USCIS director Ur Jaddou said that one of her priorities for the year
had been to avoid wasting a single employment-based green card. For that
purpose, she said that the agency had to change several of its
processes. "We know so many people have been waiting and so many people
have been nervous about another loss-of-visa situation, and those are
real people," Jaddou stated.

****Biden Administration Restores Historic Meaning of "Public
Charge"****On September 8, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
issued afinal rule
restoring
the 20-year-old meaning of "public charge" in the context of
adjudicating eligibility for visas and green cards. This rule fully
unravels the Trump administration's prior attempt to increase noncitizen
ineligibility for certain visas and green cards.

The Immigration and Nationality Act provides
that a noncitizen who
primarily depends on the U.S. government for subsistence may be deemed a
public charge and denied a green card or admission to the U.S. Since
1999
,
non-cash assistance like Medicaid or food stamps was not considered when
making public charge inadmissibility determinations. But in 2019, the
Trump administration enacted a controversial rule increasing the list of
benefits, including non-cash assistance, that could be considered when
adjudicating inadmissibility. As a result, some noncitizens and
mixed-status families did not take advantage

of certain benefits they were entitled to for fear of immigration
consequences. This rule was vacated

in 2020.

DHS's new rule codifies the pre-2019 criteria for public charge
determinations, limiting the number of public benefits that can weigh
against green card and certain visa applications. The rule will take
effect on December 23, 2022.

****Immigration Courts Backlog Reaches Record-High 1.8 Million Pending
Cases****According to a recent report
by Syracuse
University's Transactional Records Access Clearing House, the U.S.
immigration court backlog reached 1,861,180 pending cases in July -
the largest backlog on record. The latest numbers represent a
considerable increase from the 1,596,193 cases reported
in December 2021.

The immigration courts - which fall under the Department of Justice
- have been increasingly overburdened

over the years as more cases are added to the docket than can be
addressed. According to a September 6 New York Times report
,
over one million asylum seekers have been processed into the United
States during the Biden administration. According to the report, these
asylum seekers will have to wait seven years

on average before a decision on their case is reached because of the
nation's clogged immigration courts.

****1,395 Asylum Seekers Have Been Processed Under New Asylum Rule After
First Three Months of Implementation****On September 1, the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) released

data of the first three months of implementation of a new asylum rule
 intended
to improve and expedite the processing of asylum claims at the border.
The rule - first implemented

in select locations along the border on May 31 - allows U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum officers to
adjudicate asylum applications of certain recent border-crossers.
Under the rule, asylum seekers at the border who pass initial
Credible Fear Interviews (CFIs) are placed in non-adversarial,
expedited asylum adjudication processes conducted
by asylum officers.

After the first three months of implementation, 1,395

asylum seekers have been processed. The released data shows that 477
migrants were found to have a credible fear claim (CFC), 432 failed to
prove a CFC and were placed in expedited removal proceedings, 466 cases
were still pending, and 8 cases were dismissed and placed in traditional
immigration proceedings. Of the 185 cases with initial outcomes listed
in the data, 24 were granted asylum, 52 were denied at the first
instance and referred to an immigration judge, and 100 remain pending.

The administration plans to roll out the rule to more and more locations
at the border.  It is designed to help alleviate the immigration court
case backlog and reduce the wait time for migrants to have their cases
heard. However, the rapid timeline of the new process has led some
advocates to raise concerns

that asylum seekers will be unable to retain meaningful access to legal
representation.

****Biden Administration Opens Renewal Process for TPS Beneficiaries
from Venezuela****On September 7, the Biden administration posted

a Federal Register notice officially extending Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) for Venezuela for 18 months and describing how
beneficiaries can re-register to retain their status and renew their
Employment Authorization Documents. The notice was posted almost two
months after the Biden Administration announced it intended to extend
 TPS
for Venezuela. The 18-month extension - effective from September 10,
2022 - will permit around 343,000 current Venezuelan TPS holders to
retain their status through March 10, 2024. However, the extension was
not accompanied by a redesignation, meaning the over 150,000

Venezuelans who arrived in the U.S. after March 8, 2021, will not be
eligible for TPS.

TPS

is granted by DHS to eligible foreign-born individuals who are unable to
return home safely due to violence or other circumstances in their home
country.

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**

**U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service; "****The
H-2A Temporary Agricultural Worker Program in 2020**

**;" August 2022.**The H-2A Agricultural Guest Worker program allows
U.S. agricultural employers who anticipate labor shortages to hire
foreign workers on a temporary or seasonal basis. This report
analyzes-by State, industry, and type of employer- the job offers of
U.S. agricultural employers who sought U.S. Department of Labor
certification in fiscal year 2020. The number of jobs certified to be
filled with H-2A workers increased from around 75,000 in FY 2010 to
around 275,000 in FY 2020. Six States accounted for 55 percent of H-2A
jobs certified: Florida (14 percent), Georgia (10 percent), Washington
(10 percent), California (9 percent), North Carolina (8 percent), and
Louisiana (4 percent).

**Congressional Research Service (CRS); "****An Overview of the
Statutory Bars to Asylum: Limitations on Applying for Asylum**

**"; September 7, 2022.**Asylum is a humanitarian form of relief
available to aliens who face persecution in their native countries (or
last place of residence if stateless). INA § 208, however, bars some
asylum seekers from asylum. These restrictions fall into two categories:
(1) limitations on the ability to apply for asylum and (2) limitations
on the ability to be granted asylum. This CRS legal sidebar discusses
statutory bars to applying for asylum in the United States.

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

**"; September 1, 2022.**This CRS brief provides an introduction to the
immigration detention framework. The Immigration and Nationality Act
(INA) authorizes- and in some cases requires-the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) to detain non-U.S. nationals who are subject to
removal from the United States. This detention scheme is multifaceted,
with rules that turn on several factors, such as whether the individual
is seeking admission or has been lawfully admitted into the country;
whether the individual has engaged in certain proscribed conduct; and
whether the individual has been issued a final order of removal.

**Congressional Research Service (CRS); "****Are Temporary Protected
Status Recipients Eligible to Adjust Status?**

**"; September 1, 2022.**This CRS Legal Sidebar provides a brief
overview of the adjustment of status framework and TPS. It examines the
federal jurisprudence regarding TPS recipients' eligibility for
adjustment, DHS's related guidance, and legislative proposals on TPS.

**Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General
(DHS-OIG); "****DHS Encountered Obstacles to Screen, Vet, and Inspect
All Evacuees during the Recent Afghanistan Crisis**

**;" September 6, 2022**This DHS-OIG report presents the results of an
audit to determine the extent to which DHS screened, vetted, and
inspected evacuees arriving as part of Operation Allies Welcome (OAW).
After the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the United States
welcomed more than 79,000 Afghan evacuees between July 2021 and January
2022. The report notes challenges faced by the agencies administering
the vetting process for evacuees, and highlights two evacuees who were
determined to be security risks who were subsequently deported.

**Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General
(DHS-OIG); "****USCIS Should Improve Controls to Restrict Unauthorized
Access to Its Systems and Information**

**;" September 6, 2022**This DHS-OIG report highlights that U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) failed to apply the
information technology (IT) access controls needed to restrict
unnecessary access to its systems, networks, and information. USCIS did
not consistently manage or remove access for its personnel once they
departed positions and did not have a process to adequately verify
access after personnel transferred offices within USCIS. Also, USCIS did
not take all necessary steps to ensure privileged user access was
appropriate and did not adequately manage and monitor service account
access. These deficiencies stemmed from insufficient internal controls
and day-to-day oversight to ensure access controls are administered
appropriately and effectively to prevent unauthorized access.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Bill Summary:
Support Our Afghan Allies Act**
This
bill seeks to improve pathways to protection for Afghans left behind
after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. The bill was included as an
amendment to the House National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which
passed in July.

**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.

**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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