Monday, February 4, 2013

Immigration Roundup: What a Week!

by Laura D. Francis

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Following a period in which several states said they enacted their own immigration laws because of Congress’s inaction, there was a flurry of activity on the Hill and in the White House last week related to overhauling the nation's immigration system. 

Granted, comprehensive immigration legislation has not actually been introduced. But President Obama and the “Gang of Eight” in the Senate—a bipartisan group of senators who were in closed-door talks on immigration—practically tripped over each other to release their frameworks for what a comprehensive bill should contain.

Obama is calling for continued border security, greater pursuit of employers of undocumented workers, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country, and streamlining the legal immigration system.

The Gang of Eight--Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)--are calling for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; changing the immigration system to one that helps build the economy and strengthen families; a mandatory, effective employment eligibility verification system; and an immigration process that fulfills workforce needs but also protects American workers.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has promised an immigration hearing Feb. 13, while the House Judiciary Committee has an immigration hearing set for Feb. 5. A group of House members also is discussing its own immigration proposal, although actual overhaul legislation is widely expected to proceed through the Senate first.

Two pieces of legislation that could become part of a comprehensive package also were introduced in the Senate last week.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Chris Coons (D-Del.) Jan. 29 introduced S. 169, which would bump up the number of H-1B highly skilled guestworker visas to 115,000 from the current 65,000 and base future numbers on market demand. The bill also would recapture unused green cards and grant them to graduates of U.S. colleges and universities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, “persons of extraordinary ability,” and “outstanding teachers and researchers.”

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) Jan. 31 also introduced S. 202, which would make E-Verify, the federal government’s electronic employment eligibility verification system, mandatory for all employers.

The momentum is clearly there, but will it be enough to carry a bill through to enactment?

In Other News:

• The trend of denying driver’s licenses to deferred action for childhood arrivals program beneficiaries has reversed since U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Jan. 18 clarified that the program grants lawful presence albeit not lawful status. Michigan reversed its policy Feb. 1, mooting a lawsuit filed against it by the American Civil Liberties Union. Iowa also reversed its policy of denying licenses to DACA beneficiaries Jan. 23.

• USCIS as of Jan. 17 has approved 154,404 DACA applications submitted since mid-August 2012, when the program officially launched. That’s over 50,000 more than the 102,965 applications approved as of mid-December last year. The agency has received 407,899 applications since the program’s inception.

• A federal judge in Texas Jan. 24 held that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who filed a lawsuit against DACA and the Homeland Security Department’s prosecutorial discretion policy claimed enough of an injury for the case to go forward on one of their claims—that the policies require ICE agents to break the law or else risk disciplinary action. Chris Crane, president of the ICE agent’s union, also said unions representing employees of immigration enforcement agencies have been shut out of the immigration conversation by the AFL-CIO.

• The National Conference of State Legislatures reported Jan. 29 that states introduced and enacted fewer immigration laws and resolutions in 2012 than in years past. There were 983 bill and resolution introductions last year, a 39 percent drop from 2011. States enacted 156 laws and adopted 111 resolutions, a 13 percent decline from the previous year.

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