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.
Federal
Trump Announces Plans for ‘Operation Aurora,’ Relying on Same Law Used for Japanese Internments
On October 11, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced that, if re-elected to the White House, he would implement what he’s calling “Operation Aurora” — an effort to round up, detain, or deport immigrants with alleged ties to gangs that would rely on the same law used to justify the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
At a rally in Aurora, Colorado, a city of 400,000 that Trump has falsely claimed has been overrun by Venezuelan gang activity, Trump said he would deploy the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to send federal agents after undocumented immigrants with gang connections. Trump also suggested that migrants who kill a U.S. citizen or law enforcement officer should face the death penalty.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump said. “We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them out of our country.”
He falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris had “imported” migrants from “the dungeons of the third world” — a continuation of his increasingly vitriolic speech demonizing immigrants and people of color.
But even as Trump’s rhetoric toward migrants and asylum seekers has grown darker, details of his plans for the sweeping immigration crackdown that he has promised remain unclear. One example, highlighted by the New York Times: he has proposed hiring 10,000 new Border Patrol agents, despite the agency’s chronic issues with recruitment.
“We were about 1,200 down when I was there, and we still had a great deal of difficulty filling the existing slots,” said Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner under Barack Obama. “The 10,000 would be really a difficult number.”
Migration Through Darién Gap Increases Dramatically in September
In September, migrant crossings of the treacherous Darién Gap that bridges South and Central America increased by 51% compared to the month before, although foot traffic remained low compared to other times over the last year and a half.
Venezuelans largely drove the relative uptick, representing around 80% of the 25,111 migrants documented as crossing the Darién last month. They made the decision to migrate amid extreme political repression and government-instigated violence at home, where Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro refuses to concede defeat in elections that the opposition candidate appears to have won by a landslide.
“The reactivation of the most violent mechanisms of the State’s repressive apparatus led to serious human rights violations and crimes, in what constituted one of the country’s most acute crises in recent years,” according to a new United Nations report.
The Venezuelan election results have also meant that — while Panama and the U.S. are teaming up for some U.S.-funded Panamanian deportation flights to countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, and India — Panama’s break in diplomatic relations with the Maduro regime protects Venezuelans from facing removal. A similar situation exists in the U.S., where officials can’t repatriate Venezuelans to their home country but have been returning some to Mexico, despite them not having any real ties there.
Biden Administration Expands Temporary Protections for Lebanese Nationals in the U.S.
On October 17, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation — on top of a previously announced Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) grant — for Lebanon, allowing roughly 11,000 Lebanese nationals to qualify for deportation protections and work authorization amid ongoing instability at home.
People from Lebanon who arrived in the U.S. by October 16 will now be able to apply for TPS and receive an 18-month permission to remain stateside “while the United States is in discussions to achieve a diplomatic resolution for lasting stability and security across the Israel-Lebanon border,” according to a DHS release.
DHS is also providing relief for around 1,740 Lebanese students in the U.S., so they can access work authorization, lower their course load, and work more hours during the school year.
New USCIS Guidance Should Speed Up Green Cards for Some Employment-Based Immigrants
On October 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) set new policy guidance that may make it easier for would-be employment-based immigrants to qualify for an EB-1 visa.
The EB-1 visa category grants permanent residence to individuals with “extraordinary ability,” including those with exceptional achievements, international recognition in their field of expertise, or experience as a multinational manager or executive. EB-1 visa applicants must provide evidence of these accomplishments.
Now, changes to USCIS’s Policy Manual clarify that the agency will consider an individual’s receipt of team awards as evidence of extraordinary ability. This change aligns with norms in the scientific, arts, and business communities, where team awards demonstrate “excellence in the field of endeavor.” USCIS also clarified how it considers eligibility claims relating to memberships in associations and participation in non-artistic exhibitions, and it removed language in its manual suggesting that “published material must demonstrate the value of the person’s work and contributions to satisfy the published material criterion.”
“Individually, each change is minor and probably only affects a few hundred cases yearly,” Lynden Melmed of BAL told Forbes. “But when we step back and look at the work over the past two years, adjudicators and applicants have much greater clarity regarding eligibility for the EB-1 visa category.”
Legal
GOP-Led States Argue Against Rule Expanding Obamacare to DACA Recipients
On October 15, a coalition of states argued in federal court to stop or delay a rule allowing some undocumented immigrants to receive health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Attorneys argued on behalf of nineteen states, including Kansas, North Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
Insurance under the ACA is available for both U.S. citizens and lawfully present noncitizens, although the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) initially ruled that recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program are excluded from that “lawfully present” definition. As a result, DACA recipients have endured unmet healthcare challenges for years, unable to access affordable insurance and care.
Under this new rule, certain undocumented immigrants will be able to enroll through the ACA, including DACA recipients, those granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, children seeking asylum, and applicants who are adjusting to Lawful Permanent Resident status.
The states that are arguing against this ruling say that the Department of Health and Human Services does not have a statutory basis for changing the definition of who is lawfully present, among other arguments, including costs to the states and immigration worries.
An attorney representing the U.S. government, Christopher Eiswerth, said the agency expanded the definition because it “determined it should treat all deferred action recipients equally.” The Biden administration has said that health care is a right, not a privilege.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor noted that the states would need to present more data demonstrating that the rule would harm their finances. The litigation remains ongoing.
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 21 through Friday, October 25, 2024.
UPCOMING HEARINGS AND MARKUPS
Here, we round up congressional hearings and markups happening in the field or in Washington.
The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: Wisconsin Perspectives
Date: Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 9:00 a.m. CDT (House Judiciary)
Location: Milwaukee Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Room 190, 517 E. Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, WI
Witnesses:
The Honorable Dale J. Schmidt, Sheriff, Dodge County, WI
Mr. Jacob J. Curtis, General Counsel and Director of Center for Investigative Oversight, Institute for Reforming Government
Rick Rachwal, Co-Founder and Vice-President of the Board, Love, Logan Foundation
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 14, 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:
Explainer: Immigrants and Housing
This explainer examines how immigration shapes housing demand, prices, and supply while also highlighting its broader economic and social impacts on communities and the American economy at large.
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.