Legislative Bulletin

 

 

 Hello all,

The National Immigration Forum's Legislative Bulletin for Friday, March
3, 2023, is now posted.

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

  All the best,  Alexandra 

** LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN - Friday, March 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.580
<[link removed]>CCP
Visa Ban Act

This bill would bar the issuance of B-1 and B-2 nonimmigrant visas to
members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

Sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) (3
<[link removed]>
cosponsors - 3 Republicans, 0 Democrats)

03/01/2023 Introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio

03/01/2023 Referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary

S. 584
<[link removed]>North
Korean Human Rights Reauthorization Act

This bill would reauthorize the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004
and require the State Department to try to increase the participation of
North Korean refugees in U.S. and South Korean resettlement programs.

Sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) (1
<[link removed]>
cosponsor - 0 Republicans, 1 Democrat)

03/01/2023 Introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marco Rubio

03/01/2023 Referred to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

H.R. 1183
<[link removed]>The
Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act

This bill would heighten the credible fear standard to require that
asylum seekers demonstrate that persecution is more probable than not,
allow the Department of Homeland Security to remove asylum seekers to
third countries absent bilateral agreements, and terminate asylum for
those who return to their home country unless there's a change in
country conditions.

Sponsored by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

02/24/2023 Introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Johnson

02/24/2023 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

**H.R. 1203**
<[link removed]>To
withhold Federal financial assistance from each country that denies or
unreasonably delays the acceptance of nationals of such country who have
been ordered removed from the United States and to prohibit the issuance
of visas to nationals of such country

Sponsored by Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

02/27/2023 Introduced in the House by  Rep. Brian Babin

02/27/2023 Referred to the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and the
Judiciary

H.R. 1223
<[link removed]>Diverting
IRS Resources to the Exigent Crisis Today (DIRECT) Act

This bill would rescind balances from the Internal Revenue Service and
redirect those funds to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Sponsored by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-New York) (1
<[link removed]>
cosponsor-1 Republican, 0 Democrats)

02/27/2023 Introduced in the House by Rep. Claudia Tenney

02/27/2023 Referred to the House Committees on Appropriations and Ways
and Means

**H.R. 1325**
<[link removed]>Asylum
Seeker Work Authorization Act

This bill
<[link removed]>
would shorten waiting periods for asylum seekers to be eligible for work
authorization, allow asylum seekers to apply for authorization once
they've filed an asylum claim, and do away with the two-year renewal
schedule.

Sponsored by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) (0
<[link removed]>
cosponsors)

03/01/2023 Introduced in the House by Rep. Chellie Pingree

03/01/2023 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary

**LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR**The U.S. Senate will be in session from
Monday, March 6 through Thursday, March 9, 2023.

The U.S. House of Representatives will be in session from Tuesday, March
7 through Friday, March 10, 2023.

**UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS****During and After the Fall of Kabul:
Examining the Administration's Emergency Evacuation from Afghanistan**
<[link removed]>

**Date:** Wednesday, March 8 at 10 a.m. ET (House Committee on Foreign
Affairs)

**Location:** 210 Capitol, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**

**Francis Q. Hoang,**Executive Chairman, Allied Airlift 21

** Lt. Col. (Ret.) David Scott Mann,**Founder, Task Force Pineapple

**Force Multipliers: Examining the Need for Additional Resources to
Disrupt Transnational Crime at the Border and Beyond**
<[link removed]>

**Date:** Wednesday, March 8 at 10 a.m. ET (House Committee on Oversight
and Accountability)

**Location:**2247 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

**Witnesses:**TBA

**THEMES IN WASHINGTON THIS WEEK**

****Federal****

**Unaccompanied Migrant Children Experience Labor Exploitation Across
the US**On February 25, a New York Times report
<[link removed]>
uncovered rampant child labor law violations affecting migrant kids
across the country, who - after a clear breakdown of government
operations and oversight - are working hazardous jobs in factories
connected to some of the United States' most common household
brands. 

The Times investigation described "a new economy of exploitation"
stretching across the country, including 12-year-old roofers,
13-year-old hotel cleaners, and 14-year-old construction workers. Many
of the children are helping to make products that form part of the
supply chain for major retailers.

As these children take on an adult workload, they struggle to keep up
with school, and some of them ultimately drop out. Injuries are also
regular occurrences, with migrant kids having their legs torn off or
spines shattered on the job. 

Many of the exploited migrant children came to the U.S. without a parent
or guardian, which makes them the responsibility of the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) - and more specifically, the Office of
Refugee Resettlement. Yet amid intense political pressure to expedite
the transfer of unaccompanied migrant children to adult sponsors who
could care for them, HHS had started cutting corners for quicker
results. 

"If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become
famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line," HHS
Secretary Xavier Becerra told staffers last summer, pushing for faster
discharges.

Soon, managers were raising flags that labor trafficking seemed to be on
the rise as the Biden administration focused on quick rather than safe
releases. The Times found out about a man in Pennsylvania who applied to
sponsor over 20 kids, including a boy who eventually disappeared. In
Texas, another man was allowed to sponsor 13 children, after convincing
impoverished Guatemalan families to send their kids his way in a
get-rich scheme. 

After the Times article was published, the Biden administration
announced <[link removed]>
a slew of policies to crack down on child labor exploitation, including
an interagency task force, efforts to hold employers accountable,
mandated follow-ups with unaccompanied migrant children who report
safety concerns, expanded post-release services for migrant kids, an
audit of vetting processes for potential sponsors who have already
sponsored a migrant child, and other steps.

**Mexico Reconsiders Fast-Track Asylum Denials Amid US Proposed
Rule**The week of February 20, Mexican officials launched
<[link removed]>
a pilot program to consider expedited asylum denials for migrants
expected to abandon their claims in Mexico and head north instead. 

But after the Biden administration proposed a new rule
<[link removed]>
last week limiting US asylum eligibility for those who do not seek
protection in a third country first, COMAR - Mexico's refugee
assistance agency - is having to reconsider its strategy.

Andrés Ramírez, the head of COMAR, said a large percentage of migrants
are now beginning the asylum process in southern Mexico, only to use a
preliminary document they receive in order to travel to the U.S.-Mexico
border. 

"They are abusing the system," Ramírez told CNN. "That shows us that
many of these people are not really interested in (Mexico's) refugee
system and the asylum procedure."

The pilot program was part of an effort to crack down on this perceived
abuse. But with the Biden administration's new proposed rule, asylum
seekers traveling through a third country would face a rebuttable
presumption of ineligibility unless they met one of several exceptions,
including applying for and being denied asylum elsewhere first. 

Amid this expected policy change within the US, Ramírez now fears that
attempts to fast track asylum denials in Mexico might counterintuitively
encourage even more migration to his country by those trying to end up
stateside. 

"The new policy that was recently announced [by the United States]
changes the whole thing. We need to rethink it," he said.

**Undocumented Immigrants Are Leaving the U.S. in Large Numbers**

** **A March 1 New York Times report
<[link removed]> revealed
that immigrants in the United States have been returning
<[link removed]>
to their home countries at an accelerated pace in recent years, in an
effort to build a more comfortable life, reunify with family, and escape
the former president Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda.

The US's Mexican undocumented population declined dramatically between
2010 and 2020, plummeting from an estimated 6.6 million to 4.4 million
people. Significant drops also occurred among undocumented immigrants
from other countries such as Poland, the Philippines, Peru, South Korea,
and Uruguay. 

"It's a myth that everyone comes here and nobody ever leaves," Robert
Warren, a senior visiting fellow at the Center for Migration Studies,
told the New York Times
<[link removed]>.
"There's a lot of people leaving the country, and they're leaving
voluntarily." 

**USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for Second Half of Fiscal Year 2022**On March
2, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported
<[link removed]>
that the agency had received a sufficient number of petitions needed to
reach the congressionally mandated 33,000 H-2B visa regular cap for the
second half of fiscal year (FY) 2023. The H-2B visa
<[link removed]> is a
nonimmigrant work visa that allows U.S. employers to hire temporary
nonagricultural foreign workers.

USCIS also announced that the agency would start receiving petitions on
March 14 for the supplemental 64,700 H-2B visas announced
<[link removed]>
in December. Of the supplemental visas, 44,700 will be available for
returning H-2B workers, and the remaining 20,000 will be reserved for
nationals of Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

****Legal****

**Immigrant Workers Win Legal Victory After 2018 Meatpacking Plant
Raid**Immigrant workers at a Tennessee meatpacking plant that was raided
in 2018 have reached
<[link removed]>
an over $1 million settlement in what is likely the first class
settlement regarding immigration raids at a work site. 

The lawsuit, brought by representatives from the National Immigration
Law Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center, claimed federal agents
used racial profiling and excessive force that violated the workers'
rights.  

Armed agents with the Department of Homeland Security and the Internal
Revenue Service rushed into the rural Tennessee plant in April 2018 and
rounded up nearly 100 immigrants. 

The immigration enforcement operation followed an I.R.S. tax
investigation that had found evidence that the company owner was evading
taxes by paying workers in cash. A search warrant authorized entry into
the plant but did not allow for the arrest of any workers. 

The settlement reached in the US District Court for the Eastern District
of Tennessee will not automatically allow workers to remain in the US.
However, advocacy organizations will now try to obtain immigration
relief and lawful permanent residency for class members in the
lawsuit. 

"The outcome is particularly important because federal agents were held
accountable for overreaching and racial profiling," Cornell Law School
professor Stephen Yale-Loehr told the New York Times. 

Class members will receive $550,000, or $5,700 each, while six named
plaintiffs will receive $475,000 under the Federal Tort Claims Act. 

**Florida Governor DeSantis and Team File Motion to Dismiss Martha's
Vineyard Lawsuit**Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) and other Florida
officials are arguing
<[link removed]>
that a Massachusetts federal court lacks jurisdiction over a lawsuit
involving two flights they chartered last year that brought 49 migrants
from San Antonio to Martha's Vineyard in what critics have called a
political stunt that verges on human trafficking. 

The case, brought by some of the affected migrants and an advocacy
group, concerns claims that the planes' passengers were induced by
fraud and misrepresentation to take the flights. According to the
lawsuit - which Florida officials are now seeking to dismiss
- migrants were lured with false promises of jobs, housing, and other
help in Boston and Washington, D.C.

Defendants also cited a form in an effort to prove the migrants had been
told they were in fact going to Massachusetts - but that form's
language does not portray Martha's Vineyard specifically as the
plane's destination, the Wall Street Journal reported.

** **

**GOVERNMENT REPORTS**

**U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO);****DHS Financial
Management: Actions needed to Improve Systems Modernization and Address
Coast Guard Audit Issues**
<[link removed]>

**; February 28, 2023**This report explores the Department of Homeland
Security's financial systems modernization programs, including related
efforts at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

**U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General
(OIG);****Violations of ICE Detention Standards at Richwood Correctional
Center in Monroe, Louisiana**
<[link removed]>

**; February 28, 2023**This report details standards violations at
Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana, including problems
with facility conditions, staff-detainee communications, legal
visitations, etc. 

**SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES****Alternative
Pathways for Arrivals at the Border**
<[link removed]>The
paper seeks to put the challenges we face at the southwest border in the
broader context of growing displacement in the hemisphere, describing
how many come to the border because there is no other real alternative
- no "right way" to come.

**Journey to the U.S. Southern Border**
<[link removed]>This
interactive resource will allow you to experience a virtual journey
where you'll face the challenges a migrant family could encounter when
making the journey to the U.S. - and consider what choices you would
make.

**What's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border?**
<[link removed]>This
resource provides a breakdown of the latest border-related headlines,
including the expansion of Title 42, the Biden administration's new
border plan, and shelters reaching maximum capacity.

* * *

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

 

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