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
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.
Legal
Fifth Circuit Hears Case to Determine DACA Rule Legality
On October 10, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments about whether the Biden administration’s attempt to fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program through rulemaking was legal.
The court — which has already ruled against the memorandum that initially created DACA — seemed skeptical that the administration’s rule could fully justify the program meant for people brought to the U.S. as children without authorization, in the face of an ongoing legal challenge from Texas and eight other states.
But the judges seemed to disagree over recent Supreme Court precedent, and whether the Republican-led states challenging the Obama-era immigration policy lacked standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place.
Judge Edith Brown Clement, a George W. Bush appointee, also seemed interested in whether a federal district court ruling blocking new DACA applications nationwide — as is the status quo now — was appropriate. And Judge Stephen Higginson, who was nominated by Barack Obama, pointed out that even as Texas claimed harm from the program, 22 other states had said they benefited from the presence of DACA recipients.
“How could a single judge tell all 22 other states who are so grateful for these people that actually they’ve all got to leave the United States?” Higginson said. “How does a single judge have that authority?”
Hanging in the balance are deportation protections and work authorization for over 500,000 people across the country, who have built lives in the U.S. — for many, the only home country they can remember.
“I live here. I work here. I own a home here,” said María Rocha-Carrillo, a DACA recipient who traveled from New York to sit in the front row of the courtroom as the hearing proceeded.
Federal
On Top of Venezuelans, Biden Administration Will Not Re-Parole Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans
On October 4, news broke that the Biden administration will not extend parole protections for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) who came to the U.S. through recently developed private sponsorship programs, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to seek other legal immigration options or potentially face removal.
The CHNV processes have allowed migrants from the four countries to live and work legally in the U.S. for two years, as long as they have a financial sponsor and pass background checks.
“This two-year period was intended to enable individuals to seek humanitarian relief or other immigration benefits for which they may be eligible, and to work and contribute to the United States,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News.
The legal options available for these parolees may depend on the individual’s situation and nationality. Venezuelans and Haitians may be able to qualify for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), depending on when they arrived in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Cuban Adjustment Act should allow most Cubans to access a green card.
However, around 93,000 Nicaraguans who entered through the CHNV processes face uncertainty and may not have a clear path to remain in the country.
Harris Defends Immigration Record; Trump Continues Vitriolic Rhetoric Toward Migrants
Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris continued to defend the Biden administration’s immigration record in an interview with “60 Minutes,” where she said “solutions are at hand.”
“From day one, literally, we have been offering solutions,” Harris said.
To back up her words, she referred to the sudden and significant decrease in irregular migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border amid increased Mexican enforcement and President Joe Biden’s recent asylum restrictions. Harris has also said she would expand bars to asylum between ports of entry, and she hopes to revive a bipartisan border security bill that failed to pass in Congress earlier this year.
At the same time, the former president and GOP presidential nominee, Donald Trump, continues making disparaging remarks toward noncitizens. A recording from a private fundraising dinner in Aspen, Colorado, in August captured Trump making claims that international leaders are sending criminals and individuals from “mental institutions” to the U.S. He also recently alleged that prisoners from the Democratic Republic of Congo and/or the Republic of Congo are being sent to the U.S., a claim that Congolese officials have vehemently denied.
In an interview on October 7, Trump implied that migrants have “bad genes,” though his campaign later said that his comments referred only to murderers, not the entire migrant population.
U.S. Refugee Program’s FY 2024 Closes With Impressive Number of Resettlements
In Fiscal Year 2024, the U.S. resettled a total of 100,034 refugees — the highest number of annual refugee arrivals since 1994. There have only been eight other times that the U.S. has surpassed 100,000 refugee arrivals since the beginning of the U.S. Refugee Program in 1980.
In September, the U.S. resettled 15,743 refugees, the highest monthly arrival number since the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) started collecting data in 2001, and more than the yearly arrival totals for FY 2020 and FY 2021. In addition, arrivals from Latin America and the Caribbean totaled 25,358 refugees, likely the highest number resettled from that region since the beginning of the U.S. refugee program.
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 and the U.S. House of Representatives are not expected to be in session from Monday, October 14 through Friday, October 18, 2024.
UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS
Here, we round up congressional hearings and markups happening in the field or in Washington.
No relevant hearings or markups have been announced for the week of Monday, October 14, 2024.
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.
There are no relevant reports for the week of Monday, October 7, 2024.
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:
Mass Deportation in the U.S.: Explainer
Going far beyond current policies prioritizing the identification and removal of those with criminal records and/or public safety threats, a sweeping large-scale removal operation would require an enormous mobilization of resources and the execution of wide-ranging enforcement actions across the country, including mass raids and sprawling detention camps.
Arizona Proposition 314, Secure the Border Act: Summary
On November 5, 2024, Arizona voters will decide on Proposition 314, known as the “Secure the Border Act.” This initiative represents a significant effort to increase state and local authorities’ involvement in carrying out immigration enforcement responsibilities, echoing the controversial SB 1070 law passed in 2010 and subsequently mostly struck down by the courts.
Operation Lone Star: Texas’s Logistical and Political Fireball
This paper provides background on some of the most significant practices related to Operation Lone Star, unpacking its consequences for the federal government, Texas’s leadership, cities in the U.S. interior, Texas border communities, and migrants themselves.
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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.