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Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
November 11, 2022, is now posted.

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


All the best,

Arturo 

**LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, November 11, 2022**BILLS INTRODUCED AND
CONSIDERED <#bills-introduced-and-considered>LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR
<#legislative-floor-calendar>

UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS <#upcoming-hearings-and-markups>

THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK <#Themes-In-Washington-This-week>

GOVERNMENT REPORTS <#government-reports>

SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES
<#spotlight-on-national-immigration-forum-resources>

**BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED**H.R. 9261
<[link removed]>

**Exception for Certain Bars to Admissibility Relating to Previous
Unlawful Entry as Children Act**The bill would exclude foreign nationals
under 11 years of age from the ten-year ban to re-enter the United
States. The ten-year ban applies to individuals who have accrued more
than a year of unlawful presence in the United States. If they leave the
country, they are unable to re-enter for ten years.

Sponsored by Representative Al Green (D-Texas) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

11/03/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Green

11/03/2022 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 9265
<[link removed]>

**Justice for Victims of Open Borders Act of 2022**The bill would reform
grant disbursements through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) so that
states must prioritize victims of violent crimes committed by
undocumented immigrants.

Sponsored by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) (3
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 3 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

11/03/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Green

11/03/2022 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 9274
<[link removed]>

**Ritchie Boys Congressional Gold Medal Act**The bill would require the
Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of
the Senate to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the "Ritchie Boys,"
a group of 15,200 military intelligence service officers who played a
pivotal role in helping the Allied Powers win World War II.
Approximately 2,200 of the Ritchie Boys were Jewish refugees from
Germany and Austria.

Sponsored by Representative David Trone (D-Maryland) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

11/03/2022 Introduced in the House by Representative Trone

11/03/2022 Referred to the House Committees on Financial Services and
House Administration

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of
Representatives will be in session the week of Monday, November 14,
2022.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS****Hearing: Medical Mistreatment of
Women in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention**
<[link removed]>

**Date:** Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at 2:30 pm E.T. (Senate Committee
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs)

**Location:** 342 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**

**Karina Cisneros Preciado**, Former Detainee at Irwin County Detention
Center

**Margaret G. Mueller, MD**, Associate Professor, Obstetrics and
Gynecology

**,**Northwestern Medicine

**Peter H. Cherouny, MD**, Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics, Gynecology,
and Reproductive Services

**,**University of Vermont College of Medicine

**Stewart D. Smith, DHSc**, Assistant Director, U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement Health Service Corps

**,**U.S. Department of Homeland Security

**Pamela Hearn, MD,**Medical Director

**,**LaSalle Corrections

**The Honorable Joseph V. Cuffari,**PhD, Inspector General, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

****Midterm Election Results Spark Opportunities for Bipartisan
Immigration Solutions****On November 8, millions
<[link removed]>
of Americans participated in the midterm elections
<[link removed]> to vote
for 470 seats in the U.S. Congress - 35 Senate seats and all 435 House
seats - 12 governorships and hundreds of state legislature seats.
Votes are still being counted, and the outcome of the elections
concerning control of the House and Senate remain unclear as of November
11.The election results sparked reactions from members of Congress from
both sides of the aisle, including several comments that touched on
immigration reform. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), in a November 10 Op-Ed
<[link removed]>
for the Wall Street Journal recapping the results, recognized the
importance of tackling inflation - the top concern for voters, per
polls
<[link removed]>
- by "increasing legal immigration and expanding the number of work
visas in sectors that face worker shortages." He also noted that the
U.S. needs "at least a million legal immigrants per year to keep the
population from declining." In addition, Senator Romney pointed out that
besides increasing immigration, the country needs to fix the problems at
the border through a bipartisan deal. Similarly, as results were coming
in on November 8, Senator Lindsay Graham (R-North Carolina) expressed
<[link removed]> his desire to work with
the Biden administration to find solutions at the border.

In Texas, Arizona, and Florida - states whose governors have
controversially defied
<[link removed]>
federal authority over immigration enforcement laws, notably
transporting migrants across states - the elections for governor saw
Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) reelected
<[link removed]> for
four more years
<[link removed]>.
In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey (R-Arizona) was unable to run for
reelection due to term limits, and the race for his replacement remains
too close to call.

The election cycle contineus. However, immigration advocates
<[link removed]>
and employers
<[link removed]>
across fields are calling for some targeted reforms to get through
Congress in the upcoming lame-duck session. Among the measures that they
hope to see through before the end of the year, solutions for Dreamers
<[link removed]>,
immigrant farmworkers
<[link removed]>,
and Afghan
<[link removed]>
evacuees top their list.

****Biden Administration Extends TPS for Current Haitian, Salvadoran,
Nicaraguan, Sudanese, Honduran, and Nepalese Beneficiaries****On
November 10, the Biden administration announced
<[link removed]>
the extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for beneficiaries of
Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras, and Nepal through June
30, 2024. The extension - set for November 16 - was announced
<[link removed]> 15 days
after negotiations between the Biden administration and attorneys for
TPS holders in the case Ramos v. Nielsen
<[link removed]> ended without
resolution on October 25. The failed negotiations
<[link removed]>
threatened to leave over 337,000 TPS holders, including those with U.S.
citizen children, to potential deportation by December 31, when TPS for
these countries was set to expire. However, the extension means their
status will no longer expire at the end of the year.The announcement was
unlike typical TPS extensions, and instead refrred to as a "litigation
compliance notice" that extends TPS "while the injunction in

**Ramos**and

**Bhattarrai** remains in effect." The extension will only apply to
those affected by the lawsuit, meaning some Haitian and Sudanese TPS
recipients who received protection after recent Biden administration
redesignations are not eligible.

The case Ramos v. Nielsen has its origins
<[link removed]>
in 2018, when the Trump administration attempted to end TPS for several
countries, arguing that the emergencies that motivated their original
designations had ended and the countries no longer warranted renewals of
the protective status. TPS holders sued the administration in 2018, and
a California federal district judge blocked the termination, holding it
unlawful. But three judges on the 9th Circuit reversed this decision in
2020, prompting plaintiffs to request a rehearing in front of additional
9th Circuit judges.

The Department of Homeland Security can designate
<[link removed]> a
country for TPS if the country faces a severe ongoing emergency such as
a natural disaster or war. If migrants from that country were already
physically present in the U.S. before the designation date, TPS grants
them short-term protection from deportation (usually 12-18 months). 15
countries are currently designated for TPS, with some designations
having been continuously renewed since the 1990s.

****High-Ranking Biden Administration Officials Travel to Havana to
Discuss Solutions For Migration Crisis****On November 9, Assistant
Secretary for Consular Affairs, Rena Bitter, and Immigration Services
Director, Ur Jaddou, traveled
<[link removed]>
to Cuba to speak with Cuban officials about the current migration crisis
stemming from the island nation. The primary goal
<[link removed]>
of this meeting was to discuss the full resumption of immigrant visa
processing in January 2023, as well as the recent resumption of the
Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program
<[link removed]>
(CFRP). As the success of each of these programs would require the
American Embassy to reopen in Havana to handle processing, the meeting
also served as an attempt to repair relations between the United States
and Cuba to better handle the crisis.In fiscal year 2022, over 220,000
Cubans were detained at the U.S. border with Mexico, far more than the
previous record for Cuban encounters. Moreover, since October 1, roughly
1,600 Cubans were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in attempts to
travel by sea. Sea travel in particular, has been a point of tension as
of late due to a recent incident
<[link removed]>
in Bahía Honda where a U.S. Coast Guard ship allegedly rammed into a
makeshift speedboat, killing 7 passengers, including a 2-year-old child.
The administration's hope is that reopening the embassy and resuming
both visa processing and the CFRP will lead to a safer, more secure
pathway for Cubans to relocate into the United States.

****600 Migrants Released in El Paso as Busing Stops and Holding
Facilities Reach Capacity****Between November 4 and 6, 600 migrants were
provisionally released
<[link removed]>
from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody in El Paso, Texas.
These migrants originated mostly from Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and
Ecuador. Notably missing from the mix was Venezuela, as Venezuelans are
now subject to immediate expulsion
<[link removed]>
to Mexico under Title 42. According to CBP, the migrants were released
to Tornado Bus Company in downtown El Paso. The station agreed
<[link removed]>
to arrange transportation for those with the funds to purchase their own
fares. For migrants without the money to leave El Paso, the city was
previously chartering buses to New York and Chicago - separate from
the busing efforts of Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas). El Paso bused over
10,000 migrants to New York, coordinating the arrivals with the New York
City Mayor's Office beforehand. However, the city ended
<[link removed]>
this busing program on October 20 due to lack of federal funding. It is
currently waiting on a $7 million reimbursement from the federal
government for this program.Migrants without the money to leave El Paso
and now without the opportunity to board a taxpayer-funded bus to New
York or Chicago are left to federal holding facilities and local
shelters. But government and nonprofit facilities alike are at capacity
<[link removed]>,
forcing some of the migrants to sleep on the street.

****U.S. Commemorates Veterans, Including Noncitizens****On November 7,
President Biden proclaimed
<[link removed]>
November 11 as Veterans Day to recognize the valor, courage, and
sacrifice of the men and women who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces,
including immigrants and foreign born citizens. In commemoration of the
holiday, the Biden administration held
<[link removed]>
50 naturalization ceremonies across the country where more than 3,900
naturalization candidates, including members of the U.S military,
veterans, and their families took the Oath of Allegiance.According to
recent data, over 700,000
<[link removed]> foreign-born
veterans live in the United States, out of which 94,000
<[link removed]>
do not have U.S. citizenship. Unfortunately, many of those noncitizen
veterans face deportation. While the numbers of removal proceedings are
not clear, a 2019 Government Accountability Office report found that 250
<[link removed]> noncitizen veterans were
under deportation threat between 2013 and 2018 - 92 of them were
ultimately deported. In addition, it is estimated that as many as 2,000
veterans have been deported
<[link removed]>
over time.

Recent estimations suggest that there are about 45,000
<[link removed]> immigrants
actively serving in the military. To join the U.S. military, noncitizens
<[link removed]>
must be permanent residents - green card holders - have permission
to work in the United States, have obtained a high school diploma, and
speak English. Currently, there are a number of bills
<[link removed]>
in Congress aimed at protecting noncitizen veterans from deportation.
Also, the Biden administration has begun efforts to help
<[link removed]>
deported veterans and their families.

****USCIS Announces Online Filing for Asylum Applications****On November
9, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced
<[link removed]>
the expansion of online filing for asylum applications. According to
USCIS Director Ur Jaddou, the new measure aims to minimize the reliance
on paper records and make the agency's operations more efficient and
effective. The measure comes amid a record-high backlog of almost 9
million pending cases of USCIS according to the latest report
<[link removed]>
by the agency.According to the announcement, during fiscal year 2021,
USCIS received
<[link removed]>
more than 8.8 million requests for immigration benefits, out of which
1.21 million were filed online. That number represents a 2.3% increase
from the 1.18 million filed in FY 2020.

****DHS Announces List of Countries Eligible for H-2A and H-2B Visa
Programs****On November 9, the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) announced
<[link removed]>
the list of countries whose nationals are eligible to participate in the
H-2A and H-2B visa programs in the coming year. The list of 88 countries
now includes the Kingdom of Eswatini - this year's only addition.The
H-2A program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the
United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs. The H-2B, on the
other hand, permits employers to hire nonimmigrants to perform temporary
nonagricultural services in the United States.

****State and Local****

****Massachusetts Voters Keep Recent Law that Allows Undocumented
Immigrants to Obtain Driver's License**

** ****On November 8, Massachusetts voters voted
<[link removed]>
to keep a new law that allows undocumented immigrants to obtain state
driver's licenses. The law, titled the Work and Family Mobility Act
<[link removed]>, was passed in
June after the Democrat-controlled Massachusetts House and Senate
overrode a veto by Governor Charlie Baker (R-Massachusetts). In a last
effort to repeal the law, some Republican lawmakers submitted the law to
a referendum, but voters decided
<[link removed]>
to uphold it 54% to 46%.Under the new law, undocumented immigrants can
apply for a driver's license using a foreign passport or consular
identification document, combined with one of five additional documents.
The law prohibits registrars at the Registry of Motor Vehicles from
inquiring about an applicant's immigration status and authorizes them to
verify the identity and date of birth of an applicant using those
documents. The new law, which will take effect July 1, 2023, is expected
to benefit over 200,000
<[link removed]> undocumented
immigrants. Massachusetts now joins 16 other states and the District of
Columbia in allowing undocumented immigrants to access driver's
licenses.

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**There were no immigration-related government
reports the week of November 7, 2022.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Explainer:
Venezuela Parole Program and Title 42 Expansion**
<[link removed]>This
explainer describes the elements, policies, likely impact, and some
concerns of the Venezuela Parole Program and Title 42 expansion to
Venezuelans.**Fact Sheet: Changes in Migrant Demographics at the
Southwest Border**
<[link removed]>The
fact sheet describes and visualizes the changing dynamics at the border
- particularly concerning the increasing number of Cubans,
Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and Colombians. It also discusses the policy
implications of these changes.America's Worker Shortages in the
Agriculture and Food Industries: Direct Impact on Food Waste and
Inflation
<[link removed]>The
paper explains how the labor deficit in the sector is increasing food
waste and inflation. The paper also recognizes that inflation is a
global phenomenon where immigration reform in the United States is not a
panacea. It argues, however, that labor reforms such as the Farm
Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA), would provide stability in the
agricultural sector, prevent the offshoring of food production, and
reduce food waste from unharvested crops in American farms, consequently
helping to alleviate food inflation.* * *

*This Bulletin is not intended to be comprehensive. Please contact
Arturo Castellanos-Canales, National Immigration Forum Senior 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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