Welcome to the National Immigration Forum’s weekly bulletin! Every Friday, our policy team rounds up key developments around immigration policy in Washington and across the country. The bulletin includes items on the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, as well as some coverage at the state and local levels.
Here’s a breakdown of the bulletin’s sections:
DEVELOPMENTS IN IMMIGRATION THIS WEEK
BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED
SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES
A note: Barring major news, the Bulletin is taking a holiday break for the next few weeks. We will return in January.
DEVELOPMENTS IN IMMIGRATION THIS WEEK
Immigration policy is a dynamic field subject to constant change. Here, we summarize some of the most important recent developments in immigration policy on the federal, legal, state, and local levels.
Content warning: This section sometimes includes events and information that can prove disturbing.
Federal
Holiday Recess for Senators Cut Short to Provide More Time for Border-Ukraine Deal
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is keeping his chamber’s lawmakers in Washington next week to “get the job done” on a supplemental national security spending bill that Republicans have said must include border policy concessions in exchange for Ukraine aid.
The continued push to reach an agreement comes as the Biden administration has taken on an increasingly active role in the Senate negotiations, with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas now involved in Hill outreach.
The White House has reportedly put significant border and immigration policy changes on the table, including the creation of a new legal authority to quickly expel would-be asylum seekers much like under the Title 42 public health order as well as the mandatory detention of certain migrants.
In response, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have warned that such aggressive, enforcement-only procedures “would break the border” and “be completely counterproductive.”
Depending on the scope of mandatory detention, for example, a former DHS official told NBC News, “ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] would have to detain families instead of detaining a single adult male accused of rape.”
Likewise, members of Congress — especially Latino lawmakers who have been categorically shut out from the negotiations — are sounding the alarm about how harmful some of the policy proposals could be. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) has said that border changes harkening back to Trump-era practices would “make the problem worse.
“Mass detention. Gutting asylum system. Title 42 on steroids,” he said. “It’s unconscionable. That’s not the way to fix the immigration system. We know it won’t work.”
Nevertheless, some legislators are heralding progress on the negotiations, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) — one of the primary negotiators — saying, “I can see the deal.”
“We have a lot to go to get there,” she said. “But I can see it.”
USCIS Hits H-1B Visa Cap for FY 2024
On December 13, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealed that employers had filed enough petitions to reach the agency’s H-1B visa cap, including a ceiling of 65,000 regular visas and an additional 20,000 visas for people who meet an advanced degree exemption.
The announcement follows a tumultuous year for the H-1B visa lottery, with over 780,000 employer registrations. Yet many of those were for workers who benefited from multiple registrations, underscoring how the demand for and limited supply of these employment-based temporary visas have in turn encouraged efforts to rig the system.
USCIS will still take cap-exempt petitions, including those for current H-1B professionals who have already been counted against the ceiling.
Legal
District Judge Green-Lights Settlement Barring ‘Zero Tolerance’-Style Family Separations for Eight Years
On December 8, United States District Judge Dana M. Sabraw approved a settlement reached between the Justice Department and migrant families, which forbids family separations like the ones under the Trump-era “Zero Tolerance” policy for at least eight years and provides support for affected parents and children.
Sabraw condemned the previous administration’s practice of separating families to prosecute parents for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization, deeming it “one of the most shameful chapters in the history of our country.”
Now, the settlement gives once-separated families a second chance at applying for legal immigration pathways to the U.S., including asylum, and it provides them with access to housing assistance, medical care, counseling, and other services to help them cope with the cruelty and harm of separation.
In the meantime, Sabraw set the expectation that attorneys should continue identifying separated families. “This settlement does everything it can to keep that focus,” he said. “It shouldn’t stop until every child is found.”
“This settlement brings much needed help to these brutalized children but there remains significant work to ensure that every family is now reunited and to monitor that no future administration tries to circumvent the agreement and reenact the same horrific policy,” echoed the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, who represented the migrant families.
Under the settlement, kids can still be taken from their parents or legal guardians under narrow, exceptional circumstances, such as when the adult threatens the child’s safety, or when a medical emergency occurs.
Despite widespread, bipartisan condemnation of family separation as a deterrence mechanism at the U.S.-Mexico border, the former president, Donald Trump, has seemingly flirted with a return to the policy if he wins re-election next year.
“When you hear that you’re going to be separated from your family, you don’t come,” Trump said — citing no evidence to back his assertion — in an interview published last month. “When you think you’re going to come into the United States with your family, you come.”
Yet even in the months immediately after the realities of the “Zero Tolerance” policy shook the American public, migrant apprehensions at the U.S.’s southern border surged to the highest annual level in over a decade at the time, according to the Pew Research Center. The majority of those encounters were with families.
State and Local
Illinois Scraps Massive Chicago Shelter Complex After Heavy Metals, Toxic Chemicals Discovered
Officials in Illinois are moving away from plans to erect mass tent shelters for newcomers after mercury, arsenic, cyanide, PCBs, and other harmful contaminants were found at one of the proposed sites — and after the number of migrants camping at local police stations and the airport declined significantly.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) stopped construction and development on one of the camps in Brighton Park after the city provided a report that detailed serious heavy metal and toxic chemical hazards onsite (Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration (D) insisted migrants could have safely lived there with some clean-up).
Then, earlier this week, a mayoral spokesman said Chicago was pressing pause on plans to develop a different tent shelter location in Morgan Park, citing successful efforts to provide housing for migrants elsewhere.
“We haven’t retired the idea, but as of right now we’re in much better shape than a few months ago,” the spokesperson said. “We’re doing this without the need for base camps.”
Meanwhile, churches and faith-based organizations are leading the charge to create new shelter space in the Chicago area and connect migrants with work.
“We have a lot of good folks in the city of Chicago that are looking to be helpful,” said John Zayas, Grace and Peace Church’s pastor. “And so we’re excited about the opportunity.”
Arizona Port of Entry Closed Amid Increase in Nearby Border Crossings
On December 4, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations indefinitely shuttered an international crossing in the remote community of Lukeville, Arizona, to surge all personnel to help Border Patrol respond to migrants who are entering the U.S. without authorization.
The temporary suspension of operations at the legal port of entry has had devastating consequences for locals. Eric Alegria, who owns a restaurant in Ajo, Arizona, hasn’t been able to see his 6-year-old son in Mexico because of the closure. Lucia Gutierrez had to choose between attending her job in Ajo and looking after her sick elderly father in Mexico (and though she has so far staved off unemployment through remote work, that’s a short-term solution at best). At eight months pregnant, Stephanie Fierro may not even get to see her husband — a Mexican citizen — before her due date, as she’s stuck in Why, Arizona, for her paycheck.
Others are unable to make it across the border for school, health care, or other basics. And meanwhile, businesses have seen a dramatic decline in traffic, given that the area has lost its main draw as a route for tourists to cross the U.S.’s southern border and reach the Mexican resorts in Puerto Peñasco.
Conditions for migrants are also dire, as they cross into remote, dirt-covered areas of Arizona. Hungry and cold, some of them are waiting hours or days for Border Patrol to finally take them into custody.
In a statement, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and Sens. Mark Kelly (D) and Kyrsten Sinema (I) called the Lukeville port of entry closure “an unacceptable outcome that further destabilizes our border, risks the safety of our communities, and damages our economy by disrupting trade and tourism.”
Likewise, at the San Ysidro port of entry just outside of San Diego, officials have closed down a legal pedestrian crossing — PedWest — for the foreseeable future and redirected resources for migrant apprehensions. The indefinite suspension comes even as residents on both sides of the border would usually be crossing for holiday shopping and family visits, and local officials have urged the federal government to reconsider.
BILLS INTRODUCED AND CONSIDERED
It can be challenging to keep up with the constant barrage of proposed legislation in Congress. So, every week, we round up new bills. This list includes federal legislative proposals that have recently been introduced and that are relevant to immigration policy.
Please follow this link to find new relevant bills, as well as proposed legislation from past weeks.
LEGISLATIVE FLOOR CALENDAR
The U.S. Senate will unexpectedly be in session next week.
The U.S. House of Representatives is not expected to be in session from Monday, December 18, through Friday, December 22, 2023.
UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS
Here, we round up congressional hearings and markups happening in the field or in Washington.
There are no relevant hearings or markups announced for the week of Monday, December 18.
GOVERNMENT REPORTS
Reports by bodies such as the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General provide invaluable information on immigration policy and practice. Here, we give brief summaries of new immigration-related reports, with links to the resources themselves in case you want to learn more.
No relevant reports have been published this week.
SPOTLIGHT ON NATIONAL IMMIGRATION FORUM RESOURCES
The Forum is constantly publishing new policy-focused resources that engage with some of the most topical issues around immigration today. Here are a few that are particularly relevant this week:
Environmental Migration: Finding Solutions for the 21st Century
This new paper explores environmental migration as a potential method of adaptation. First, it analyzes environmental migration as a phenomenon, focused on some of the nuances that make weather- and climate-related forces complicated yet influential factors in the decision to move. Then, it considers existing international mechanisms and U.S. laws that could potentially relate to environmental migration. It briefly discusses how immigrant and diasporic communities are especially vulnerable to environmental harms, even after they have already migrated. Finally, it concludes with policy recommendations on how the U.S. (and other countries) could effectively respond to environmental migration in the 21st century.
Parole in Place: A Possibility for Administrative Protection
This paper explores parole in place as a potential tool to provide undocumented people with access to temporary protections in the United States.
Bill Analysis: The Secure the Border Act of 2023
H.R. 2 would severely restrict the right to seek asylum in the U.S., curtail other existing lawful pathways, place unnecessary pressure on border communities, intensify labor shortages faced by small businesses and essential industries, establish new criminal penalties, and make other significant changes to U.S. immigration law.
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*This Bulletin is not intended to be comprehensive. Please contact Alexandra Villarreal, Senior Policy and Advocacy Associate at the National Immigration Forum, with comments and suggestions of additional items to be included. Alexandra can be reached at avillarreal@immigrationforum.org. Thank you.