SUMMARY
Executive Order Continues to Raise Questions
After President Trump issued an executive order Wednesday asserting his policies would “maintain family unity,” his administration is still facing questions over the ultimate impact of the order, which replaces family separation with increased family incarceration despite the fact that alternatives to detention have proved extremely effective.
The status of the “zero tolerance” policy under which first-time unauthorized border crossers are criminally charged also has caused confusion, with the executive order and subsequent statements from the Department of Justice reiterating that the policy remained in place, but federal officials issuing conflicting information as to whether the policy will continue. Additionally, logistical questions remain over whether, how and when the families already separated will be reunited, when the executive order to detain families together will take effect, how it can be implemented, whether there is enough funding to implement it, and whether there is legal authority to support it.
While the White House claimed on Friday that about 500 children separated from their families have been reunited, thousands remain separated from their parents. Prominent conservatives and faith leaders across the country have urged President Trump to prioritize compassionate policies that secure the border while keeping families together.
Immigration Bill Slated for House Vote
After House Republican leaders postponed a scheduled vote on the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018 (BSIRA) because of a lack of support, the bill is slated for a vote this week. The vote comes after the House rejected Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s (R-Virginia) restrictionist Securing America’s Future Act on Thursday by a 231-193 vote.
The BSIRA would provide a path to citizenship for some Dreamers, remove protections for migrant children and allow them to be incarcerated for longer periods of time, reduce legal immigration, add border measures (including funding of almost $25 billion), increase interior immigration enforcement, and make it more difficult for asylum seekers to make their claims. GOP lawmakers are also considering adding provisions for mandatory E-Verify requirements and a new visa program for temporary workers in the agricultural industry, which would complicate the bill’s prospects; E-Verify without broader reforms to the legal immigration system could further restrict the workforce unless. Immigration restrictionists, meanwhile, reportedly are concerned that there is no provision eliminating the ability of Dreamers to sponsor their parents for an immigration visa.
Without additional revisions, the bill is unlikely to garner Democratic support. Republicans are also drafting narrower legislation that would prevent family separation by allowing migrant children to be detained with their families, potentially indefinitely, which could come to a vote later this week.
Travel Ban 3.0 Decision Expected
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision this week on the legality of President Trump’s ban on people from five Muslim-majority nations entering the country, the third version of a travel ban that has been embroiled in legal battles since Trump first issued it via executive order in January 2017. The latest version of the ban was initially blocked by a federal judge in Hawaii last October, but the Supreme Court allowed it to go fully into effect in December while the legal challenge continued.
While the Trump administration has argued that such a ban is critical to national security, the president’s inflammatory rhetoric toward Muslims has raised questions about the motivations for the policy. Barring citizens of the five countries would not improve national security, as citizenship is not a reliable indicator of potential terrorist activity.
LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN
Summary of immigration legislation introduced and government reports on immigration: https://immigrationforum.org/article/legislative-bulletin-friday-june-22-2018/
MUST READS:
WASHINGTON POST (Noorani Op-Ed): How we can follow our laws at the border – and still be a nation of grace
By Ali Noorani
June 21, 2018
The Trump administration’s decision to implement a policy that separated children from their parents was as morally reprehensible as it was politically reckless. That two-thirds of a polarized country finds the policy unacceptable, according to a recent CBS News poll, tells us how the move is playing in Peoria.
So, it is good that the president has reversed a decision he never should have made.
But what has been lost in the barrage of harrowing images, disturbing audio recordings and nightly news stories is serious discussion about sensible alternatives and what happens next.
Let’s be clear: Family detention is not the best alternative to family separation.
Family detention wasn’t right when President George W. Bush did it, it wasn’t right when President Barack Obama did it, and it won’t be right as President Trump ramps up the new policy.
NEW YORK TIMES: Why Are Parents Bringing Their Children on Treacherous Treks to the U.S. Border?
By Julie Turkewitz and Jose A. Del Real
June 22, 2018
TUCSON, Ariz. — When Luis Cruz left behind his wife, four of their children and the house he’d built himself, he’d heard that American officials might split him from his son, the one child he took with him. But earlier this month, the two of them set out from Guatemala anyway.
The truth, he said this week, moments after they arrived at a cream-colored migrant shelter in Tucson, was that he would rather be apart from his child than face what they had left behind. “If they separate us, they separate us,” said Mr. Cruz, 41. “But return to Guatemala? This is something my son cannot do.”
For years, children and parents caught crossing the nation’s southern border have been released into the United States while their immigration cases were processed, the result of a hard-fought legal settlement designed to keep children from spending long months in federal detention.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/us/immigration-border-children.html
CITYLAB: Where Will the Migrant Kids Go?
By Tanvi Misra and David Montgomery
June 22, 2018
This week, the outrage over migrant children the Trump administration has been separating from their parents reached a crescendo. City leaders were alarmed to learn of shelters housing these children in their midst. Some came out in opposition. Others traveled to the “tent city” set up near the border to survey the situation there. Meanwhile, activists planned nationwide protests in cities across the country.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that was billed as an attempt to end the practice of family separation. In reality, it didn’t do much to ensure that outcome. It did not take back the policy that triggered the crisis; it did not lay out a plan to reunite the families. Instead, its language signaled an intent for entire families to be detained together in the future, likely, for extended periods of time—setting the stage for significant logistical and legal challenges.
Read more: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/06/where-will-the-migrant-kids-go/563318/
REUTERS (Diaz Op-Ed): I was a terrified child migrant who became a theologian and U.S. ambassador. I want U.S. officials to stop misusing the Bible.
By Miguel H. Diaz
June 22, 2018
As the former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See – and a migrant who once also faced the fear of being separated from my family – I have to speak out: the way U.S. officials have used the Bible to justify inhumane immigration policies is antithetical to America and its faith traditions.
Like any religious text, the Bible can be misused as a tool of oppression instead of serving as a revelatory text of human liberation. When Attorney General Jeff Sessions told law enforcement officers that the apostle Paul had commanded in Romans 13 “to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” he misused the Scripture to justify the inhumane immigration policy of separating children from their families at the border.