Legislative Bulletin

 

 

Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday,
February 3, 2023, 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, February 3, 2023**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**

S. 160
<[link removed]>

**Sarah's Law**

The bill would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to
take into custody certain immigrants who have been charged in the United
States with a crime that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury
of another person. This is a companion bill of H.R. 661
<[link removed]>.

Sponsored by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) (11
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 11 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

01/31/2023 Introduced in the Senate by Senator Ernst

01/31/2023 Referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 382
<[link removed]>

**Pandemic is Over Act**

The bill would terminate the public health emergency declared with
respect to Covid-19. The end of the public health emergency is also
likely to result in the end of the use of Title 42 expulsions at the
border.

Sponsored by Representative Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) (44
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 44 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

01/17/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Guthrie

01/17/2023 Referred to the House Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions

01/31/2023 Passed the House of Representatives by a 220-210 vote
<[link removed]>.

H.R. 402
<[link removed]>

**Protect Communities from a Porous Border Act of 2023**

The bill would provide for mandatory detention of undocumented
immigrants who appear in domestic and international criminal databases.
It would also require the federal government to notify governors before
releasing undocumented immigrants into their states. The bill would also
provide governors with the ultimate authority to reject undocumented
immigrants from being released into their states.

Sponsored by Representative Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

01/20/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Arrington

01/20/2023 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 489
<[link removed]>

**To provide that the notice titled "Designating Aliens for Expedited
Removal" shall be given the full force and effect of law**

Sponsored by Representative Jefferson Van Drew (R-New Jersey) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

01/24/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Van Drew

01/24/2023 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 552
<[link removed]>

**No Tax Dollars for the United Nation's Immigration Invasion Act**

The bill would prohibit the U.S. government from funding the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Sponsored by Representative Lance Gooden (R-Texas) (13
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 13 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

01/26/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Gooden

01/26/2023 Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs

H.R. 588
<[link removed]>

**Border Construction Materials Transfer Act of 2022**

The bill would require the federal government to transfer to the states
of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, without reimbursement,
any unused material associated with the construction of barriers along
the Southwest border.

Sponsored by Representative James Baird (R-Indiana) (4
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 4 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

01/27/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Baird

01/27/2023 Referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security

H.R. 596
<[link removed]>

**To amend the Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010 to authorize certain
polygraph waiver authority**

Sponsored by Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) (4
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 4 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

01/27/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Crenshaw

01/27/2023 Referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security

H.R. 614
<[link removed]>

**To amend the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2005 to provide
for the inclusion of certain workers in the exemption from numerical
limitations on H-2B**

**workers**

Sponsored by Representative Robert Wittman (R-Virginia) (o
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

01/27/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Wittman

01/27/2023 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 666
<[link removed]>

**Access to Counsel Act**

The bill would ensure that U.S. citizens, green card holders, and other
individuals with legal status are able to consult with an attorney,
relative, or other interested parties to seek assistance if they are
detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for more than an hour at
ports of entry, including airports.

Sponsored by Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) (42
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 42 Democrats, 0 Republicans)

01/31/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Jayapal

01/31/2023 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

H.R. 672
<[link removed]>

**Border Security Investment Act**

The bill would place a 37% transaction fee on remittance transfers to
the top five nations of origin for undocumented immigration in the
United States.

Sponsored by Representative Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) (12
<[link removed]>
cosponsors- 12 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

02/01/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Moran

02/01/2023 Referred to the House Committees on Financial Services and
Homeland Security

H.R. 688
<[link removed]>

**Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Visa Disclosure Act**

The bill would require F, J, or M student visa-holders and their
families to disclose to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
whether they have received funds from the Government of the People's
Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or any
entity owned or controlled by either the PRC or the CCP.

Sponsored by Representative Gregory Steube (R-Florida) (1
<[link removed]>
cosponsor- 1 Republican, 0 Democrats)

01/31/2023 Introduced in the House by Representative Steube

01/31/2023 Referred to the House Committees on the Judiciary

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**

The U.S. Senate will be in session from Tuesday, February 7, through
Friday, February 10, 2023.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session from Monday,
February 6, through Thursday, February 9, 2023.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS**

**On The Front Lines of the Border Crisis: A Hearing with Chief Patrol
Agents**
<[link removed]>

**Date:** Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 10:00 am E.T. (House Committee
on Oversight and Accountability)

**Location:** 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Announced Witnesses:**

**Gloria Chavez**, Chief Patrol Agent, Rio Grande Valley Sector U.S.
Customs and Border Protection

**John Modlin**, Chief Patrol Agent, Tucson Sector, U.S. Customs and
Border Protection

**President Biden's 2023 State of the Union Address**
<[link removed]>

**Date:**Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at 9:00 pm E.T.

**Location:**House Chamber, United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

****Report: January Border Encounters Decline as Homeland Security
Secretary Touts Parole Program****On February 1, CBS News reported
<[link removed]>
that encounters of migrants along the Southwest border have fallen
dramatically in January after the Biden administration implemented a
series of border policy initiatives on January 5. The report noted that
U.S. Border Patrol recorded approximately 130,000 encounters along the
border in the month of January, an approximate 41% drop from the 221,181
USBP encounters in December.

On January 30, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas argued
<[link removed]>
that the recently-announced parole program that allows up to 30,000
Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans per month to come to the
United States is in part responsible for the reduced border encounters.
He noted that CBP encounters with individuals from the countries
impacted by the program have declined by 97%. He also questioned
<[link removed]>
the legal challenge from 20 Republican-led states against the program
<[link removed]>.
"Why these states would oppose an enforcement program that is proving
successful is beyond my comprehension," Mayorkas said.

President Biden announced
<[link removed]>
the parole program in early January as a safer, more orderly
alternative for people fleeing instability and violence in the
hemisphere to come to the United States. The parole initiative allows
prospective migrants with financial sponsors in the U.S. to apply for
and receive two-year grants of parole, which offer entry into the U.S.
(via air travel), protection from deportation, and access to work
authorization. . As of January 27, over 7,500 migrants had been
approved
<[link removed]> to
come to the U.S. under the newly expanded program.

The parole program was implemented alongside an expansion of Title 42
expulsions of migrants from the countries listed and a series of
additional border policy intiatives
<[link removed]>.

In the lawsuit, the 20 states led by Texas argue
<[link removed]>
that the parole program was issued in violation of the Administrative
Procedure Act, alleging the administration "unlawfully failed to engage
in notice-and-comment rulemaking." It also argued that the program "is
not for urgent humanitarian reasons and advances no significant public
benefit" as required by law. The U.S. has used humanitarian parole
<[link removed]> to
welcome groups of vulnerable migrants for decades. No similar lawsuits
were filed when the Biden administration utilized similar authorities to
provide parole protections to Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.

****House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing About the Biden
Administration's Policies at the Border****On February 1, the 118th
Congress held its first
<[link removed]> of
what promise to be many committee hearings on security and migration at
the US-Mexico border as the House's Republican majority advances a
doubtful narrative
<[link removed]>connecting
the fentanyl crisis stateside to migrants and asylum seekers at the
nation's southwest boundary.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) used his first hearing as chairman of the
influential House Judiciary Committee to decry what he and his
Republican colleagues dubbed "The Biden Border Crisis - Part One."
Witnesses included Brandon Dunn
<[link removed]>,
who recently lost his 15-year-old son Noah to fentanyl overdose; Mark
Dannels
<[link removed]>,
sheriff of Arizona's Cochise County; and Ricardo Samaniego, county judge
for El Paso, Texas.

A fourth witness, Terrell County Judge Dale Lynn Carruthers, was
ultimately unable to appear, waylaid by a deadly ice storm in Texas
<[link removed]>.

Dunn gave powerful testimony
<[link removed]>
about the devastating and too often lethal consequences of fentanyl for
young Americans while emphasizing that "it's a border issue, it's
not an immigration issue <[link removed]>."
According to Cato Institute
<[link removed]>,
that's what the data indicate as well - overwhelmingly, fentanyl is
being smuggled into the US by Americans for Americans at legal crossings
instead of between ports of entry.

During the hearing, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon
<[link removed]> (D-Pennsylvania)
warned her colleagues on the dais against any attempts to "conflate the
issues of migrants seeking legal asylum through our legal processes with
the very real scourge of fentanyl trafficking."

"By falsely suggesting that migrant families seeking asylum are the
source of the fentanyl epidemic, we can't even start to craft policy
measures that could actually address either of these issues," Scanlon
said.

Meanwhile, some committee members - especially on the Democratic side
-  called for bipartisan cooperation to create more orderly legal
processes for forcibly displaced people and immigrants. Rep. Deborah
Ross (D-North Carolina) emphasized the need to support migrant
farmworkers who bolster our agricultural industry, high-tech
professionals struggling with visa issues, and documented Dreamers who
came to the US legally with their parents yet still face deportation
once they turn 21 years old.

"It really is incumbent on all of us to work together to solve this
problem," Ross said.

****Biden Administration to Lift Covid-19 Health Emergency, Spelling
Likely End of Title 42 Expulsions****On January 30, the White House
announced
<[link removed]>
that it would terminate the Covid-19 public health emergency on May 11,
three years after it was first declared in 2020. Among the most notable
effects
<[link removed]>
of ending the state of emergency would be the termination
<[link removed]>
of Title 42, a pandemic-era order that has been used to rapidly expel
arriving migrants to Mexico or their countries of origin without
providing them the opportunity to seek asylum.

The use of Title 42 at the border has and continues to be predicated on
the public health emergency. In Statement of Administrative Policy, the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wrote that "the end of the public
health emergency will end the Title 42 policy at the
border...immediately." The administration has been preparing
<[link removed]> for the
end of Title 42 since at least April 1, 2022, but the policy has thus
far been kept in place by various court orders.

On January 31, one day after the White House announcement, the House of
Representatives passed
<[link removed]>
a Republican-led bill, the Pandemic is Over Act
<[link removed]>,
to end the Covid-19 public health emergency immediately instead of
waiting until May. The White House expressed
<[link removed]>
opposition to the bill arguing that an abrupt end to the emergency
orders would "create
<[link removed]>
wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system."
The bill is now under consideration
<[link removed]>
in the Senate, where Democrats have a majority, and it is not expected
to pass.

****USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for Additional Returning Workers for First
Half of FY 2023****On January 31, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services (USCIS) announced
<[link removed]>
it had received enough petitions to fill the 18,216 supplemental H-2B
visas for returning workers that had been added to the existing ceiling
for the first half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023.

In the announcement, USCIS encouraged
<[link removed]>
employers still in need of labor to file for workers from the Haiti, El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, as that supplemental allocation has
not yet been reached. The agency said that out of the 20,000 visas set
aside for nationals of these countries, USCIS has only received 4,260
petitions.

The H-2B visa
<[link removed]> program is
used by a wide range of U.S. employers who have temporary work needs,
including those in the landscaping, forestry, tourism, hospitality, food
processing, and construction industries. In order to be approved by the
Department of Labor, prospective H-2B employers must prove that no U.S.
workers are available to take the job, and they must offer wages
comparable to what U.S. workers might be paid.

****H-1B Registration Period for FY 2024 Will Open on March 1****On
January 27, USCIS announced
<[link removed]>
that the initial H-1B registration period for Fiscal Year 2024 will open
at 12:00 pm ET on March 1 and will run through 12:00 pm ET on March 17,
2023. During this period, prospective petitioners must submit their
registrations using USCIS's online H-1B registration system
<[link removed]>. The agency said
<[link removed]>
that if it receives more than the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B
visa regular cap as well as the additional 20,000 H-1B visas reserved
for graduates with advanced degrees, the agency will select the
registrations randomly. Applications generally exceed
<[link removed]>
the number available H-1B visas within days. For FY 2022, USCIS received
a record-high 308,613
<[link removed]>
applications.

The H-1B visa
<[link removed]>
is a nonimmigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign
workers for specialty jobs that require a bachelor's degree in a wide
variety of fields.

****Legal****

****Nine GOP-Led States File Motion to End DACA****On January 31, Texas
<[link removed]>,
joined by eight other GOP-led states, filed a motion in federal court
asking U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen to strike down the Biden
administration's 2021 rule fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals
<[link removed]>
(DACA) and to end DACA protections entirely over a two-year phase-out
period. Specifically, the states requested
<[link removed]>
that the federal government not approve any new DACA applications and
not approve any DACA renewal applications beginning in two years.

DACA was created
<[link removed]>
by the Obama administration in 2012 and allows undocumented individuals
brought to the United States as children to apply for deferred action,
protecting them from removal and affording them work authorization. DACA
applicants are required <[link removed]> to pass background
checks and prove that they arrived in the U.S. as minors under sixteen
years of age before June 2007. Over 600,000 individuals currently
benefit from DACA. However, DACA does not provide recipients with a path
to permanent legalization. Due to legal challenges and various
administrative actions by the Trump administration, few new applicants
have been able to have their DACA applications approved since 2017.

This litigation began in 2018
<[link removed]>,
but was largely on hold as the Supreme Court considered a separate
lawsuit
<[link removed]>
challenging the Trump administration's attempt to end DACA in 2017.
While the Supreme Court ultimately allowed DACA to survive in that case,
this Texas-led litigation resumed, addressing a separate issue
concerning whether DACA itself was unlawful.

On July 16, 2021, Judge Hanen ruled that DACA was unlawful, but stayed
the impact of the decision on current recipients, including allowing DHS
to continue processing renewal applications. The Biden administration
subsequently appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit. The Biden administration also engaged in
notice-and-comment rulemaking and issued a final rule to address
procedural concerns raised by Hanen and fortify DACA in October 2022.

Shortly after the final rule was issued, the Fifth Circuit upheld
<[link removed]>
Judge Hanen's ruling that the Obama-era 2012 DACA policy was unlawful,
but remanded the issue of the legality of the new DACA rule to Judge
Hanen. The Fifth Circuit also continued to stay the impact of the
decision for current DACA recipients, allowing recipients to keep and
renew their protections for the time being.

The Texas motion
<[link removed]>
argues that the final rule is unlawful because it is essentially the
same policy promulgated by the Obama administration in 2012, which has
already been ruled to be unlawful. Texas and the plaintiff states have
requested that Hanen issue a permanent injunction halting the new DACA
rule and phasing it out over the next two years. A decision by Judge
Hanen is expected in April, with subsequent appeals expected.

****State & Local****

****Operation Lone Star in Texas Has Cost $4.4 Billion in Almost Two
Years****A January 26 Houston Chronicle report
<[link removed]>
highlighted that Texas' controversial Operation Lone Star (OLS) has cost
$4.4 billion over the first two years. OLS is an immigration and border
enforcement strategy that Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) launched
<[link removed]>
in March 2021 that utilizes state resources to attempt to deter and
restrict arriving migrants. In addition, with the new legislative
session underway in Texas, Republican lawmakers tentatively earmarked
more than $4.6 billion
<[link removed]>
for border security in the state over the next two years.

Since its inception, OLS has run into multiple legal
<[link removed]> challenges
as border management and enforcement fall chiefly within the
jurisdiction and responsibility of the Federal government.   According
to the most recent data, as part of OLS, Governor Abbott has spearheaded
the busing of over 16,000 migrants
<[link removed]> to
Washington, D.C. (9,000 people), New York City (4,900 people), Chicago
(1,500 people), and Philadelphia (600 people) since last April. In
addition, several sources have reported
<[link removed]>
the presence of over 500 Texas National Guard Troops along the banks of
the Rio Grande using concertina wire to attempt to block the path of
migrants attempting to reach El Paso, Texas.

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**

**Congressional Research Service (CRS);****Immigration-Related Criminal
Offenses** <[link removed]>

**; January 31, 2023**This CRS report provides an overview of
immigration-related crimes, which comprise a significant portion of the
federal criminal caseload, accounting for 29.6% of all cases in Fiscal
Year 2021. Immigration-related crimes generally cover three categories
of conduct: (1) improper entry and reentry; (2) smuggling, transporting,
and harboring immigrants; and (3) immigration-related fraud.

**U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center for Countering Human
Trafficking;****FY 2022 Annual Report**
<[link removed]>

**; January 31, 2022**This DHS report provides an overview of the
accomplishments and advancements made in 2022 towards countering human
trafficking in the United States. The report highlights that in FY 2022
DHS assisted 765 human trafficking victims, granted immigration
protections to more than 22,500 victims and their families, and made
3,655 trafficking-related arrests.

**U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS);****FY 2023-2026
Strategic Plan**
<[link removed]>

**; January 27, 2022**This USCIS report provides a roadmap of the
agency's strategies and priorities through 2026.

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Explainer: The
Biden Administration's January 2023 Border Plan**
<[link removed]>This
explainer describes the various elements of the border plan announced
and implemented by the Biden administration on January 5. It also
discusses concerns associated with the plan and some of the plan's
initial impacts over the last couple weeks.

**Explainer: Title 42 and What Comes Next at the Border**
<[link removed]>This
recently-updated explainer provides information about the Title 42
border policy and its impact on the border.

Explainer: Private Sponsorship Programs for Refugees
<[link removed]>This explainer describes
the elements and history of private sponsorship initiatives for
refugees. It also describes the success cases of the Canadian and
Australian private sponsorship models.

* * *

*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 [email protected].
Thank you.

 

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