Tag Archives: immigration politics

Government Shutdown Avoided

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Immigration Programs Teeter for Two More Months

Congress averted a government shutdown on Wednesday by a few hours through the passage of a continuing resolution. President Obama signed it that same day and the federal government will be funded until December 11. In March of this year, a similar storyline unfolded, and the budgetary battle was explicitly over funding the Department of Homeland Security and immigration matters.

The immigration news stemming from the continuing resolution is that the four programs that were set to sunset on September 30 have been extended until December 11. While each individual program had its own congressional bill authorizing a longer renewal period or even permanence, none of those were passed. The EB-5 program even had three competing bills that aimed to tweak and improve the program in different ways. The continuing resolution maintains the four programs – CONRAD 30, EB-5 Regional Center, Religious Non-Minister Workers, and E-Verify. That means those programs have another two months until their existence is in peril.

Pope Speaks on Immigration

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Pope Francis’s first US visit was highly anticipated and virtually every step was televised. As the leader of a billion Catholics worldwide and a moral authority, his words carry enormous influence. The pontiff had an opportunity to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress during his visit. He spoke on many politically divisive topics, one of which was immigration.

The pope’s remarks on immigration resonated with the immigrant beginnings and roots of the United States, touching on themes of hope and freedom. His perspective on immigration emanates from a place of empathy and humanity, exhorting lawmakers and the public to allocate resources to assisting many of the migrants who have escaped brutal poverty, violence, and gang warfare in Central America.

Congress has its hands full this week on immigration and various policy matters, one of which is continuing the government’s operations and avoiding a government shutdown. A continuing resolution has been proposed while a longer-term solution can be worked out. There are four immigration programs that are set to expire this week.

Watch the Pope’s speech here.

Pope and Immigration

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Pope Francis I Expected to Address Congress on Immigration 

Pope-mania has engulfed the United States, as the country welcomes Pope Francis I for his first visit as Pontiff. The spiritual leader of the Catholic Church has many purposes in visiting the country and his itinerary reflects those purposes. Speaker John Boehner invited His Holiness to address a joint session of Congress, and the Pope will do so today.

It is expected that immigration will be a motif in the Pope’s address. The Catholic church exerts all kinds of resources in protecting, feeding, and sheltering migrants and many organizations are on the frontlines at the border. The Pope’s message throughout his tenure has been to encourage countries to undertake more humane and family-unity based approaches to migration, trying to understand the dangerous situations and plight that migrants are escaping. It is a moral calling that He exhorts.

The Pope’s expected remarks on migration will conflict with the immigration politics that much of the country holds and beliefs that have been broadcast throughout the presidential primary season.

Considering the Pope’s general influence and moral authority, his remarks on immigration will be newsworthy. A livestream of his visit is available here.

Children & Unauthorized Parents

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Children of Removed Parents

Front and center of the primary election campaigns of presidential hopefuls is the issue of unauthorized immigration. Estimates of unauthorized migrants in the United States range from 11-12 million individuals. They come from all over the world, but much of the attention falls upon people from Central American countries, who are often escaping poverty, civil wars, gang warfare, and

The George W. Bush administration removed millions of unauthorized individuals and the Obama administration was record-setting in its number of removals. The current administration attempted to re-prioritize the removal system in November of last year through executive actions. Part of the revamp was instituting Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. This program was judicially nixed before started receiving applications. The purpose behind it was family unity.

A motivation behind DAPA was that over 5 million children are living without authorized parents. That means they are constantly living in threat of losing one or both parents. The children are American by virtue of birthright citizenship, another issue that has become a lightning rod in primary election politics. Two studies have been conducted by the Migration Policy Institute and Urban Institute with assistance from DHS and ICE. The Washington Post has summarized the results. They cover what happens to the children of parents who have been removed from the United States.

Increasing Asylum Ceiling

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White House Considering Asylum for Syrians

There are proposals to increase the Asylum cap, a topic this blog briefly covered this week. The president requests the asylum ceiling on each year and Congress signs off on that number. The cap this year is 70,000. This includes asylum grants in immigration court and affirmative asylum cases that USCIS hears.

The White House announced this week that it would welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees this upcoming year. The plight of Syrian, Afghani, Iraqi, and refugees from other countries in the Levant has been headline news for months, as civil wars and internal strife have predominated in those nations in recent years. Syria’s civil war has been particularly devastating. People have been deracinated from their homes, livelihoods, and communities. Migrants have been escaping to Southern Europe through the Mediterranean in immense numbers over recent months, often to tragic ends. Their resettlement has become an intensely divisive issue in the European Union. Some countries in the EU are staunchly against resettlement in their own countries or doing it in limited numbers.

To accommodate taking in more Syrians, proposals are suggested for increasing the asylum cap to 85,000 for Fiscal Year 2016 and 100,000 for Fiscal Year 2017. The increase is criticized for being an increase and it is lambasted for not doing enough to relieve the overall crisis. Very few Syrians have received asylum in the United States since the civil war began. General bad conditions (such as civil war, disease, famine) are not bases for asylum. Syria has been accorded TPS status.