Immigration in the News 2/22/2021
The immigration bill is revealed, ICE contract stopped at 11th hour, asylees begin to enter the United States at the border
Commentary
Well, the bill text is out there. It contains a lot of good changes, and in general establishes a goal post that is very much to the left of a “compromise” plan or something along those lines. What will be the ultimate fate of this bill? The cynical have already dismissed it as an “open border wish-list”, and those who are sympathetic see it as an ambitious, but not fully comprehensive plan.
The ICE contract was struck down, so it’s a tempest in a teapot scenario as it stands. Elections have consequences, and the rearguard action to hamstring Biden is a failure as the Biden people seize the reins of government currently.
The MPP plan is over, the bilateral agreements are withdrawn. Asylees are being processed as the border and those in the queue are being admitted as shown below. What is the future of this program? How can the United States confront the massive numbers of people who claim asylum under the guidelines that currently exist? Now that the anti-immigration regime of the last admin has been swept aside we will have to reckon once again with the fact that there are no easy answers to some of these questions.
There are also some comments below regarding specific stories of interest or recommendations. Going forward if there are any stories you would like to see featured here please reach out via email at immiwonk@gmail.com or shoot us a DM on Twitter at @immiwonk. Thanks for reading!
Big Topics this Week:
U.S. Citizenship Act 2021
New Mexican Ambassador to U.S.
Undocumented Immigrants
Department of Homeland Security/Department of State
Refugee and Asylum Policy
I would love to have a job where I could spend the time putting together a great summary like this, but alas it is not to be. Therefore please read Mr. Siskind’s excellent summary for those who do not want to read 300 pages but need more detail than a 1000 word news article can provide.
US Citizenship Act 2021
Biden, Hill Democrats plan to unveil immigration reform bill this week
The legislative text of the “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” will reflect the immigration priorities that President Joe Biden unveiled on his first day in office. His proposal includes an earned pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, expands the refugee resettlement program and deploys more technology to the Southern border. There are additional protections that are being considered in the legislation, such as asylum processing in home countries for minors, expanded benefits for DREAMers and ending the public charge rule.
Biden supporters cheered the move as another campaign promise fulfilled, but in headlines across Central America, where deepening economic hardship has many considering a trip north, the announcement appeared to confirm the new sales pitch of smuggling guides: Donald Trump and his cruel policies are gone, and the United States is easing border controls.
Democrats Consider Piecemeal Approach to Immigration Bills
Democrats in Congress and progressive advocates are coalescing around a strategy to try to pass immigration bills piecemeal, as the Biden administration looks for ways to enact a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants without a permanent legal status.
As President Biden’s comprehensive immigration bill—which he outlined on his first day in office—is set to formally be introduced in Congress on Thursday, Democrats are pursuing several tracks at once, aiming to see if the comprehensive bill gains any traction while simultaneously pushing other bills to offer legal pathways to narrower immigrant populations.
These early executive actions are fundamentally reactive and restricted to the powers the president can wield without Congress. Those actions also institute policies that last only as long as the president in power desires. What they cannot do is make the overall immigration system fair, efficient, responsive to labor market demand, and reflective of the majority of Americans’ values.
Democrats consider piecemeal approach to immigration reform
“The biggest thing here is that we’re going to get something across the finish line, because not doing so is not an option.”
The broad legislation — which includes a pathway to citizenship, but not much in the way of the enhanced border security that’s typically offered to win Republican votes — faces long odds with Democrats holding only a slender majority in Congress.
Even before the new bill was unveiled, Democrats were reigning in expectations for their final result. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said that any final Senate bill likely “will not reach the same levels” as Biden’s proposal.
Company CEOs, College Execs Push for Immigration Overhaul
From Harvard’s president to an executive in Boston’s booming biotech industry, dozens of New England business, higher education and political leaders on Friday urged Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, following the introduction of President Joe Biden’s wide-ranging immigration bill this week.
Speakers at the New England Business Immigration Summit, which was held virtually, highlighted federal immigration measures they argued would help the region and nation's economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden faces pressure as US sets new course on immigration
The larger debate is lost on Osorio, who came to Tijuana because he heard Biden wants to help people like him. He says he intended to seek asylum based on the dangers he faced as an environmental activist protesting illegal logging in Honduras.
But because he can't seek asylum at the official border crossing in San Diego, other migrants told him about a place he could try to cross illegally. He said if he encountered the Border Patrol, he would ask for asylum and see what happens.
“They already told us more or less how to do it,” Osorio said. “We're going to take a look.”
GOP Sens. Romney, Cotton to propose minimum wage hike coupled with immigration enforcement
As Democrats try to plot a way forward to raise the minimum wage to $15-an-hour, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced Tuesday that he's working on a separate bill to increase the long stagnant minimum wage while “ensuring businesses cannot hire illegal immigrants.”
Romney said he's working on the bill with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and it also includes a provision for the minimum wage to "increase automatically with inflation."
Biden’s immigration plan is a good step, but it demands scrutiny
The inability to travel freely creates a disastrous cycle of debt and smuggling, as multiple generations remain separated by the border. For these people, amnesty would mean family reunification. Far from creating a universal free pass to migrants to enter the United States, it might do the opposite: It could facilitate the right not to migrate for people who simply want to visit their loved ones and pay their bills in Honduras or Guatemala.
White House and Texas lawmakers talk policy reform, its effects on the Borderland
“Border communities know better than anybody else the relationships you have with the other side of the border,” said Pili Tobar, White House communications director.
President Joe Biden’s new immigration bill is making its way through Congress. If passed, the administration said it will be able to fulfill one of its priorities to restore places like El Paso that have been at the center of controversial immigration policies.
El Paso has seen first-hand the effects of family separation policies, migrants caged under bridges, and local families unable to travel to and fro.
Piecemeal seems to be the consensus. The current comprehensive bill will be the framework, and the individual bills that pass will be the end result. That’s fine for most of this but I worry about the tent-pole “path to citizenship” provision.
New Mexican Ambassador to U.S.
Comisiones del Senado ratifican a Esteban Moctezuma como embajador de México en Estados Unidos
Esteban Moctezuma Barragán was unanimously ratified as Ambassador of Mexico to the United States by the United Committees of Foreign Relations and North America of the Senate of the Republic .
Not a lot to say here because I don’t have a deep background in Mexican politics, but it is worth noting that he is a former PRI politician who has no real diplomatic experience. AMLO’s relationship with the United States has been all over the place so it’s not clear how he will adapt to a nominally more friendly administration in the U.S.
Undocumented Immigrants
Immigration Hard-Liner Files Reveal 40-Year Bid Behind Trump's Census Obsession
Many opponents of that citizenship question argued it was originally intended to depress census participation. Under federal law, no government agency or court can use personal information collected by the Census Bureau against anyone. But a long history of distrust of the census has made many noncitizens, Latinos, Asian Americans, and other historically undercounted groups wary of telling the government their household's citizenship status.
Anti-Immigrant Vitriol Complicates Vaccine Rollout in Southern States
The confluence of those aggressive attitudes and a highly contagious virus has prompted concerns in some states that lackluster vaccination of people in the country without legal permission will short-circuit efforts to achieve herd immunity for the broader community.
“We will never get on top of this pandemic if the undocumented are left out,” said Dr. Sharon Davis, chief medical officer at Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic in Dallas, which serves 28,000 patients, the majority of them in the country without authorization.
Beyond The 'Lunchbox Moment' Scenes In Fiction About Immigrants
SAXENA: So the lunchbox moment is something that a lot of children of immigrants, people of color have experienced going to school with a lunch that is essentially non-white food. It is the food of the culture of your family.
CHANG: Yeah. Like, my mom used to make me this shredded, dried pork sandwich.
SAXENA: Right? And that is very different from Lunchables. That's very different from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I think for a lot of people, it can be this moment of realizing, oh, my God, I'm different. other people consider me to be different and also feeling deep shame about your culture and your heritage.
Small section this week but some great articles. The census, the immigrant experience at school, and the vaccine distribution issues are all indicative of a deeper discussion regarding the immigrant experience in America.
DHS and DOS
“Illegal Alien” Will No Longer Be Used In Many US Government Communications
"This change is designed to encourage more inclusive language in the agency’s outreach efforts, internal documents and in overall communication with stakeholders, partners, and the general public," Joe Sowers, USCIS spokesperson, said in a statement.
Ban on New Foreign Workers Left U.S. Jobs Unfilled, Even in Covid Downturn
In April, as the pandemic set in, the Trump administration temporarily banned would-be green-card holders from moving to the U.S. for jobs and permanent residency. In June, Mr. Trump expanded the ban to include most temporary work visas, except for agricultural workers, citing health risks and a rising U.S. unemployment rate. President Biden hasn’t announced his plans for the work visa ban, which runs through March.
Injured migrants say Border Patrol sent them back to Mexico after they fell off Trump’s wall
“I couldn’t even get up, so I crawled inside the migra vehicle,” said Gomez, after falling off the wall in late January. At one point, he says he was told he was going to be taken to a U.S. hospital, but instead was dropped off at the border crossing nearly 90 miles from where he fell off the wall near El Paso. His ankles are broken ankles and he cannot walk.
CNBC interviewed half a dozen F-1 visa holders across the countryaffected by OPT processing delays, including a cybersecurity engineer, a postdoctoral fellow studying Covid in an infectious diseases laboratory and a breast cancer researcher.
All expressed anxiety and frustration as they’ve been left with no income and no health insurance while they wait for their applications to be processed with job offers and legal status on the line.
Visa changes face tougher road in immigration overhaul efforts
Beyond Biden’s personal views on business immigration, the topic is one that doesn’t divide cleanly on party lines, instead splintering the Democratic Party’s pro-union factions and gathering lawmaker support based on their location.
As a result, experts say that piecemeal immigration overhaul focusing on immigration through the lens of the coronavirus pandemic — such as increasing visas for foreign doctors in underserved areas of the U.S. or immigration benefits for essential workers — may be more politically viable than one massive bill that needs 60 votes in the Senate.
Biden administration nixes last-minute Trump deal giving ICE union 'veto power' over policy
"As part of routine process and provided for by statute, the department conducted a review of the terms of the agreement and determined that it was not negotiated in the interest of DHS and has been disapproved because it is not in accordance with applicable law," a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told CBS News on Tuesday.
For those who follow us weekly, the last article will be somewhat of a relief. The highly unusual ICE bargaining agreement was bizarre but it seems that the current admin was able to head it off in time. It will probably be seen as a curious anomaly for labor relations lawyers but beyond that not much of interest.
Refugee and Asylum Policy
Biden to slowly allow 25,000 people seeking asylum into US
The first wave of an estimated 25,000 asylum-seekers with active cases in the “Remain in Mexico” program will be allowed into the United States on Feb. 19, authorities said. They plan to start slowly, with two border crossings each processing up to 300 people a day and a third crossing taking fewer numbers.
President Joe Biden’s administration declined to publicly identify the three crossings out of fear it may encourage a rush of people, but U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, said officials told him that they are Brownsville and El Paso in Texas, and San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing.
The entry of the first group of asylum seekers marks the end of the MPP era, but what comes next? The fastest growing segment of asylum seekers are Central American countries like Honduras and Guatemala. What will the United States do to ensure that these people resettle successfully?