Immigration in the News 3/8/2021
Setback in the Supreme Court for deportees, Becerra faces resistance, Abbott scapegoats immigrants in Texas
Commentary
Evidence continues to pile up that piecemeal immigration reform will be the only option for Democrats. The failure to garner even a single Republican vote for the new COVID relief bill is widely being interpreted as evidence that there is little to no possibility of a bipartisan consensus on more divisive issues going forward, particularly as it relates to immigration. A DREAM act or something like it may in fact be the only progress that this Congress will make. Despite the modest progress that this represents in the big picture it would still change hundreds of thousands of lives. As someone who has met many of these DACA recipients first-hand, I strongly urge any readers of this newsletter who have the ability to do so to put their support strongly behind any DACA effort that makes it to a vote in Congress. These folks really cannot wait any longer.
Becerra is facing scrutiny in his role as HHS nominee for immigration-related reasons despite that fact that HHS has no primary role in immigration policy as it stands. It’s a good illustration of how deep rooted the immigration issue has become. Pandemic-era health policy, in particular, has been weaponized by both sides of the political aisle, so perhaps it is not surprising that it is now being wielded indirectly to further seemingly unrelated policy goals. The Texas Governor’s comments and fear-mongering related to illegal immigrants and COVID is probably a good example of the border-state GOP playbook for the next year or two until the pandemic fades from memory. It’s a prime opportunity for Mayorkas to turn the tables and institute CDC recommended reforms to “immigrant processing centers” and back off detentions. We will see how they play it.
Finally, the Department of State did a fairly lengthy Q and A this week on their efforts to get back to business, I recommend reading it in full for anyone interested. It’s not exactly earth-shattering but there are some good questions answered there.
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:
Biden’s immigration bill
HHS nominee Becerra faces resistance
Supreme Court setback on fighting deportation
Undocumented Immigrants
Department of Homeland Security/Department of State
Refugee and Asylum Policy
President Biden’s Immigration Executive Actions: A Recap
In his first weeks in office, President Biden issued several executive actions focused on reevaluating and unwinding the panoply of protectionist immigration policies former President Trump set in place through executive branch action. Some actions, like the Task Force on the Reunification of Families, focus on repairing past harms. Others, like Biden’s executive order on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), are largely symbolic and serve as a clear repudiation of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda. While the executive actions are a meaningful first step, their scope is limited for a number of reasons.
Great piece for playing catch-up on the actions taken so far by this administration.
Biden’s immigration bill
Biden officials visited U.S.-Mexico border Saturday amid migrant influx
“They discussed capacity needs given the number of unaccompanied children and families arriving at our border, the complex challenges with rebuilding our gutted border infrastructure and immigration system, as well as improvements that must be made in order to restore safe and efficient procedures to process, shelter, and place unaccompanied children with family or sponsors,” the White House said.
Psaki: We don't take immigration advice from Trump
When they come here, all we're talking about here is ensuring that they are treated safely. They are not trafficked. They are not sent back on a unsafe journey. That's what we're talking about. When they come, when these kids come in, it doesn't mean they are insured that they get to stay. They go through the processing system that everyone goes through, but we want to ensure that that is done by treating them humanely and with respect. Many of them will be sent back home eventually, but we're talking about how we treat them as they come in the country.
Democrats eye reconciliation for immigration
At the very least, it’s politically savvy to force Republicans to openly deny a pathway to citizenship for the millions of so-called Dreamers, young people living in the U.S. illegally who were brought here as children — as it’s a proposal that enjoys wide popularity.
Biden’s Plan to Remake Immigration System Faces Bipartisan Pressure
So far, the administration has tried to strike a balance. It has ended most Trump-era policies such as the Migrant Protection Protocols, which returned asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico while their cases were being considered. But it has kept one tool: a pandemic-era public-health emergency that allows border-patrol agents to immediately return most migrants who enter the U.S. illegally, without detaining them or allowing them to ask for asylum.
Poll: Immigration is America's most-polarizing issue
The survey bolstered Morning Consult polling out last month that found Biden's immigration moves were some of his least popular early executive actions, largely due to strong opposition from Republican respondents.
Immigration Bill Shows Need To End Employment-Based Immigrant Backlog
Since 1990, when Congress set the annual limit on employment-based immigrants at 140,000 (and 65,000 H-1B temporary visas), changes in technology have accelerated the demand for high-skilled technical labor. Congress established the current employment-based limits before the internet became a part of daily life. It also predates the iPhone, the iPad, YouTube, e-commerce, Netflix, Google, cloud computing and thousands of innovative companies and technologies that have come into existence and fueled the demand for high-skilled labor.
I think it’s safe to say at this point that the “path to citizenship” for all undocumented immigrants is dead on arrival. Sad to say but those are the signals I have been seeing since the bill’s introduction. Narrower bills regarding DACA or essential workers may still be in the cards.
HHS nominee Becerra faces resistance
Biden Allies See Urgency in Confirming Xavier Becerra As Immigration Woes Deepen
While the Department of Homeland Security is typically looked at on immigration matters, the Biden administration has made HHS-run shelters central to the response it hopes includes temporary detention before processing into the United States with relatives to await court dates. That decision led to criticism of President Joe Biden on the left and right, putting a spotlight on the work ahead for Becerra upon his confirmation.
Immigration hawks raise concerns about HHS pick Becerra's push for ‘open borders’
"In California, Becerra was among those leading the effort to divert state resources to provide publicly subsidized health care coverage to illegal aliens, even as countless other urgent needs were neglected," Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) President Dan Stein said in a statement this week urging senators to vote no.
"As secretary of HHS, it is almost certain that Becerra will divert much-needed assets to accommodate the needs of a growing number of illegal aliens, and away from Americans affected by the COVID pandemic," he said.
This smacks of panic on the Dem side. They feel like the border situation is going to deteriorate rapidly which will give Repubs ammo to oppose this nomination. Not a good sign.
Supreme Court setback on fighting deportation
Justices reject immigrant’s bid to seek relief from deportation
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued its opinion in Pereida v. Wilkinson, a case about whether an immigrant living in the country without authorization can seek relief from deportation for a minor crime. The court ruled 5-3 that because the noncitizen bears the burden to prove he is eligible for relief, he cannot carry that burden when his criminal record is unclear as to whether he was convicted of a crime that disqualifies him from relief. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for the court. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent in which Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined. Justice Amy Coney Barrett did not participate in the case because the oral argument occurred before she joined the court.
Supreme Court Makes It Harder For Undocumented Immigrants To Fight Deportation
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for a long time to fight deportation. The court's 5-to-3 ruling came in the case of a man who had lived in the U.S. for 25 years but who had used a fake Social Security card to get a job as a janitor.
Clemente Pereida was fined $100 under Nebraska state law after he pleaded no contest to the crime of "attempted criminal impersonation." The lower courts ruled the conviction was enough to trigger his deportation because it was a crime of "moral turpitude" under state law.
Haven’t had time to dissect the ultimate implications of this ruling, but it is surely a bad outcome for those who have ambiguous criminal records or other issues that have landed them in immigration court. The less the onus is put on the State to establish the basis for what they are proposing (usually removal), the harder it is for the immigrant to make their case. Given the power imbalance that is already present in these cases, it stands to reason that this case will serve as a precedent for many practices that will disadvantage immigrants in their legal proceedings.
Undocumented immigrants
Senate rejects Cruz effort to block stimulus checks for undocumented immigrants
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) slammed the measure while accusing Cruz of exaggerating the flow of stimulus payments to undocumented immigrants. He pointed out that the pending $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill treats payments to families with undocumented immigrant members the same way as the $900 billion relief bill passed by the GOP-controlled Senate in December and signed into law by former President Trump.
Texas Gov. Abbott blames Covid spread on immigrants, criticizes Biden’s ‘Neanderthal’ comment
While the Republican governor didn’t provide specifics, Telemundo reported on Tuesday that some migrants released by Border Patrol in the Texas city of Brownsville subsequently tested positive for Covid-19. Since the city began testing on Jan. 25, 108 migrants have tested positive for Covid-19, which is 6.3% of all those who took a test, according to the report.
The 13 people killed Tuesday were among dozens of undocumented migrants who entered the country through a hole in the border fence with Mexico, according to the US Border Patrol. In all, 44 people had reached US soil through a 10-foot breach in the fence near Interstate 8.
Surveillance footage showed two separate vehicles leaving the area where the fence was breached in failed human smuggling attempts.
One vehicle, a maroon Ford Expedition that can typically safely seat up to eight people, was packed with 25 migrants -- its rear seats removed. The other SUV later caught fire, and 19 migrants who fled the vehicle were taken into custody in the nearby brush.
US: ‘New’ Dream Act Not Full Reform
“Congress should be focused on ensuring that all immigrant youth who call the US home no longer have to live in fear of an uncertain future,” said Nicole Austin-Hillery, executive director of the US Program at Human Rights Watch. “But the bill contains harsh and unnecessary provisions based on youth offenses that would amplify the racial injustices in the criminal legal system and make the bill less inclusive than what the Biden administration and Senator Lindsay Graham have proposed.”
Texas Sheriffs' Regional Alliance discuss the impacts of Biden administration immigration policy
"The end of January, we have seen a great increase in human trafficking here in Refugio County," Refugio County Sheriff Pinky Gonzales said. "We have dealt with stolen vehicles being used to smuggle in these illegals stolen guns and weapons in the vehicles."
"It's clear to us that the current administration has no vision to help us with the criminality that's coming across that border," Lavaca County Sheriff Micah Harmon said. "They're ignoring us. They're not paying attention to what we're telling them is happening, and what is going to happen."
What the Horrific Crash on the Border Says About U.S. Immigration Policy
There are plenty of ways for migrants to be killed trying to come to the United States. People suffocate in locked tractor trailers, die of heat or cold in the Arizona desert, or drown off the California shore. Migrants die in crashes while being chased by the Border Patrol, a phenomenon that ProPublica and the Times investigated in 2019. Even when they’re not being pursued — as they weren’t in this case — vehicles overstuffed with people can be hard to steer and dangerous to drive, which may have been the case here.
America’s immigrant essential workers need a path to legal status | Column
Florida, which has more immigrants than any other state, is often cast into the spotlight on immigration policy. More than one in five Florida residents and one in four Florida workers is an immigrant. They account for 42.4% percent of the state’s workers in travel and accommodation, contributing to Florida’s vital tourism industry that is only just reviving, especially with “an uptick of people driving” to the state, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. In Florida, reform is critical.
When immigrants exploit their own
Last week, the U.S. Labor Department nailed Tank Noodle, a popular spot for Vietnamese food on Chicago’s North Side, for wage theft. The agency announced Tank Noodle Inc. has agreed to pay nearly $700,000 in back wages to 60 employees.
A Labor Department investigation “found the employer owed some workers more than $10,000 each in back wages and identified numerous violations” of a federal law governing minimum wage and overtime requirements, according to a March 3 press release from the agency.
There was quite a bit of coverage of the ugly crash in California. The whole industry surrounding illegal immigration is filled with exploitation and tragedy. Even the most prosaic stories involve decades of separation, lost memories, and heartbreak. We have NAFTA (or the USMCA), we have ensconced in law that the relationship between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico is open and free. Why can’t we find a way to represent that in our immigration policy? At the very least the NAFTA zone should be an open-travel zone like the Schengen countries.
DHS/DOS
Deported Veterans to Biden: Bring Us Home!
As of 2018, the United States had 94,000 noncitizen military veterans. Ocon is one of at least 92 to be deported between 2013 and 2018, according to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies.
The majority—78 percent, according to federal data—were removed because of criminal convictions. Under the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act, “aggravated felonies” are a basis for automatic deportation.
Justice Department asks Supreme Court to dismiss 'sanctuary city immigration suits
The Trump administration was at odds with many major cities over federal detainer requests, issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, asking police and sheriff's offices to hold jail inmates for up to 48 hours after they had completed their sentences. The requests applied to people in the U.S. illegally who had been convicted of committing local crimes and could be deported after they were released.
Bay County Commissioner files defamation lawsuit after Netflix releases “Immigration Nation”
The docu-series alleges that Hamm’s private company, Winterfell Construction, didn’t pay immigrant workers for work they had done. The 100-page lawsuit states that not only were the allegations made against Hamm false but that the filmmakers knew they were false when they released the docu-series. Since thenn, the lawsuit states Hamm has received death threats and there’s been a push over social media to “cancel” the commissioner.
Mexico’s increasingly complicated immigration policy (dilemma)
President Lopez Obrador nimbly dealt with the issue of actual undocumented and would-be documented Mexican workers in the U.S. in last week’s teleconference with his counterpart President Biden.
In what was basically Bracero 2.0, he simply proposed reestablishing a 1950s regulated guest worker program, similar to that in today’s Canada which has apparently successfully put into effect inspection safeguards to prevent the abuses that eventually sank the original Bracero 1.0.
Everything coming out of the press secretary’s [Jen Psaki's] mouth is a spin and a blatant lie. The dangerous part is the journey. Right now, in the middle of the global pandemic, they’re traveling through [coronavirus] hotspots in Mexico, traveling in groups, which I call active mobile petri dishes. When they get to the border, they’re kept in overcrowded, unsanitary houses.
In court filing, ICE says it is effectively ending use of family detention
In a federal court filing Friday night, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it is transitioning family detention centers to short-term facilities that will release families after no more than 72 hours.
ICE's disclosure, made in the Flores lawsuit brought more than a decade ago on behalf of immigrant children, effectively suggests that the agency is ending family detention, a policy started under the Obama administration in 2014.
Let me tell you a little bit about where we are in the current status of immigrant visa processing. Last week’s recission of Presidential Proclamation 10014 means that there are no general restrictions remaining on issuing immigrant visas. However, many immigrant visa applicants are subject to presidential proclamations remaining in place that restrict issuance of visas, including for those who have been in certain countries during the preceding 14 days before entry or attempted entry to the United States. There are, of course, exceptions to these restrictions for spouses and children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.
While Presidential Proclamation 10014 is no longer in effect, there are still restrictions in place on visa issuance and entry into the United States for individuals physically present in those countries, which are China, Iran, Brazil, UK, Ireland, South Africa, and the 26 countries of the Schengen Area.
A lot of Fox News noise here, but it’s useful for gauging the conversation on the more right-leaning side of the spectrum. Deported veterans are an important subject that it would be nice to see some leadership on, and as much as I liked “Immigration Nation” it’s important that even our best documentaries stick to the facts. The idea that ICE is potentially ending family deportation is probably worth much more coverage than it received this week but that news was late-breaking so we will see how it develops going forward.
Refugee and Asylum
US to open more beds for immigrant children as numbers rise
Biden ended a practice under former President Donald Trump of expelling unaccompanied children under a public-health declaration enacted during the pandemic, though his administration continues to expel immigrant families and adults. Some former Trump administration officials have accused Biden of inspiring immigrants to try to enter the U.S. illegally, even though the numbers under Biden have not approached their peak under Trump.
Asylum Seekers Are Allowed Into U.S. For Their Day In Immigration Court
There are some 25,000 migrants scattered up and down the border between Matamoros and Tijuana. Many have been waiting well over a year to press their asylum cases in the U.S. Happy experiences like Sandras have created high expectations and anxiety among the others left behind. U.S. immigration agents are admitting some asylum-seekers who've been stuck in border towns under a Trump-era program known as "Remain in Mexico," but they're doing so slowly. So far, they've not yet gotten to 400 Cubans enrolled in that program who've been waiting in Reynosa, just across the river from Hidalgo, Texas. They're crowded into apartments and doing odd jobs around town.
There was an interview on “Full Measure” this week with a small town sheriff struggling with the influx of immigrants released into their community. He pointed out a “bus stop” for those hoping to catch a Grey Hound bus inland which was basically a small bench next to a convenience store. He said that groups of 30-40 immigrants who are released from immigration custody may have to wait 2-3 days at that bench just to catch a bus they may not be able to pay for. Think about that.