QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Are people who are less successful not human or deserving of the right to hold on to their children? Our answer to that question says everything about us.”
— Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, on new Justice Department policy that will increase family separation at the border, May 18
SUMMARY
Discharge Petition Reaches 196 Signatures
Twenty Republicans and 176 Democrats have signed on to the discharge petition Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Florida) filed May 9 to bring the “Queen of the Hill” resolution on Dreamers up for a vote in the House, meaning 22 more lawmakers must sign on to reach the 218 required to force a vote. The petition would circumvent House Republican leadership by forcing the House to vote on immigration bills that address the future of Dreamers.
The “Queen of the Hill” rule would give Congress the opportunity to advance legislation that provides a long overdue permanent solution for Dreamers who have been living in limbo amid the ongoing legal battle over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The Queen of the Hill resolution would lead to votes on four bills, including the bipartisan DREAM Act and USA Act, as well as the restrictionist Securing America’s Future Act, introduced by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), which would dramatically reduce legal immigration to the U.S. and fails to provide a permanent solution for Dreamers. The fourth bill would be a bill of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisconsin) choice that would possibly mirror President Trump’s immigration framework.
If the petition garners an additional 22 signatures, the earliest the House could consider the proposal is late June.
Congressional Committees to Hear Testimony on Border Security
Two congressional hearings this week will focus on border security and immigration, including how immigration policies affect families and unaccompanied minors at the border.
The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Maritime and Border Security is scheduled to hear testimony from Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan, Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Deputy Commissioner Ronald Vitiello and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Lee Francis Cissna on Tuesday at a hearing titled “Stopping the Daily Border Caravan: Time to Build a Policy Wall.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration is scheduled to hear testimony from Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada) and a panel of federal government officials on the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) at a hearing titled “TVPRA and Exploited Loopholes Affecting Unaccompanied Alien Children” on Wednesday.
Unaccompanied children and other migrants from Central America are often fleeing dangerous conditions and persecution and are prone to trafficking by gangs or cartels en route to or while in the United States, and TVPRA protections are an important component of ensuing adequate asylum and trafficking screening to those who request asylum at the U.S. border, which they are legally entitled to seek.
LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN
Summary of immigration legislation introduced and government reports on immigration: https://immigrationforum.org/article/legislative-bulletin-friday-may-18-2018/
MUST READS:
NEW YORK TIMES: Apartments Are Stocked, Toys Donated. Only the Refugees Are Missing.
By Liz Robbins and Miriam Jordan
May 16, 2018
In Fayetteville, Ark., this March, volunteers were on their way to set up an apartment, cars loaded with linens, lamps, crockery and canned food, when they were abruptly told to turn around. The refugee family from the Democratic Republic of Congo would not be coming.
In Columbus, Ohio, a 14-passenger white van that would take refugees to medical appointments sits unused. In the rare instance a newcomer or two needs transport, they travel in a fuel-efficient economy car.
And in southwest Houston, a 1,500-square-foot storage room is loaded to the ceiling with furniture, toys, bedding and other items donated for refugee families, all collecting dust.
The flow of refugees to the United States has slowed nearly to a halt, demonstrating that what President Trump’s administration could not achieve by executive order, it is accomplishing by bureaucracy.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/refugee-admissions.html
HUFFINGTON POST: Trump’s ICE Is Increasingly Arresting Immigrants Without Criminal Convictions
By Elise Foley
May 17, 2018
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting more immigrants, and increasingly they have not been convicted of crimes, according to data released on Thursday by the agency.
About two-thirds of those arrested by ICE from October 2017 to the end of March had no criminal convictions — up from 21 percent during the same period the year before and only 13 percent the year before that. ICE officials noted that some of the arrested immigrants had been charged with a crime but not convicted.
The new figures, which reflect the first two quarters of the 2018 fiscal year, demonstrate that ICE is carrying out the crackdown on unauthorized immigrants that President Donald Trump promised. That means ICE officers are picking up more people with clean records, even if they were previously allowed to remain in the country.
CNN: Trump’s top immigration critic could become the governor of a key border state
By Tal Kopan
May 21, 2018
President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda has few more outspoken opponents than Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who, as chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has served as the voice of Hispanic and Democratic members of Congress in condemning the administration’s policies.
The New Mexico Democrat is hoping to take that message to a new platform next year, leaving Congress to run to be governor of her border state, where a win would position her to square off directly with Trump on everything from National Guard deployments on the border to his policies affecting legal and illegal immigration.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/20/politics/michelle-lujan-grisham-new-mexico-trump/index.html
THE ATLANTIC: The Real Risk of Trump’s Dehumanization of Immigrants
By Vann R. Newkirk II
May 19, 2018
“You wouldn’t believe how bad these people are. These aren’t people—these are animals.”
That was President Trump earlier this week, when, according to The New York Times, he “lashed out at undocumented immigrants” during a meeting on so-called sanctuary cities. Democratic politicians seized the opportunity to criticize the president, accusing him of attacking many or most immigrants. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tweeted: “When all of our great-great-grandparents came to America they weren’t ‘animals,’ and these people aren’t either.”
Except, according to the White House, that wasn’t the entire story. “I’m referring, and you know I’m referring, to the MS-13 gangs that are coming in,” Trump said on Thursday.