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Friday Immigration Brief: All Eyes On Lame Duck

Added 2022-10-14 19:15:20 +0000 UTC

Hello readers! This Friday bulletin comes to you a couple hours early so that I can get started on my weekend oil paintings. Lmk what you think!

Age Out Protections Face Another Senate Hurdle

The latest bipartisan manager’s amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in the Senate did not include age out protections for 200,000 documented dreamers.

This comes as a blow to advocates for Improve The Dream who have launched one of the most diligent pro-immigrant advocacy efforts in recent memory on Capitol Hill.

The NDAA amendment was introduced last month by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) with five Senate GOP cosponsors: Rand Paul (KY), Roy Blunt (MO), Kevin Cramer (ND), Mike Rounds (SD), and Susan Collins (ME). Democratic Senators Dick Durbin (IL), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Chris Coons (MD), and Angus King (ME) also cosponsored the amendment.

Advocates like Improve The Dream founder Dip Patel, vow to continue fighting in Congress for the age out protections — potentially through a floor amendment when the NDAA comes to a vote next month in the Senate. A staffer working on the giant defense spending bill tells me that the procedure for passing it will be determined in the coming weeks.

Improve The Dream sent a letter Monday to Senators Chuck Schumer (NY), Mitch McConnell (KY), Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed (RI), and Ranking Member Jim Inhofe (OK) imploring them to include relief for documented dreamers in the final NDAA bill.

Inhofe told me before the recess that did not support including immigrant relief amendments to NDAA, but offered no reason why. I asked the retiring Senior Senator from Oklahoma what had changed since two years ago when Liberian war refugees received a citizenship pathway through the defense bill. “That’s what I can’t answer,” said Inhofe.

Reed negotiated the Liberian green cards at the height of Donald Trump’s presidency, a political feat that has been a head-scratcher among immigration policy wonks ever since. The senior Senator from Rhode Island tells me that the Liberian relief effort worked because war refugees from the early 1990s now had become large populations of Liberians in certain states like Minnesota, where he was able to work with Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) to get others on board for the NDAA provision.

What’s changed since the 2020 NDAA? Reed said the GOP now sees immigration entirely as a political tool rather than a policy issue. Still, that’s not stopping Improve The Dream where Patel tells me they will continue to pressure senators at town halls during the recess.

Last recess, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley (R), a powerful bulwark against reform during this Congress, was confronted by a documented dreamer. Expect to see more of this tactic as the immigrant youth demand accountability of their lawmakers.

Senate Democrats Pitch Lame Duck for DACA

Immigration Hub convened a press call Tuesday with Senators Dick Durbin (IL) and Bob Menendez (NJ) to demand permanent relief for undocumented immigrant youth. Republicans, in turn, are countering with demands to undermine asylum rights, which Menendez and other Senate Democrats have made clear they will not support. In this policy impasse, permanent relief for OG dreamers is exceedingly unlikely to find 60 votes in the Senate, let alone a majority in the House. This reality has some advocates calling for protections that stop short of a permanent status. I’ll continue to watch this space and report the latest…

Mixed-Status Families Want Answers

The American Families United Act that would provide relief to mixed-status families separated by deportation never made it to the House floor before recess. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), one of the bill’s top advocates in the House, declined to comment on the bill when I last asked her in September. “Nothing,” said the Texas Democrat, frustrated. Escobar is scheduled to be back in Washington, D.C. next week where hopefully we can find out more.

Meanwhile, advocates continue to call on Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a cosponsor of the mixed status families bill and chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration and citizenship, to help get the legislation to the floor for a vote. Lofgren did not seem optimistic the bill would get a vote when I last asked her in September, but she said she was “always hopeful.”

Interesting …

Pricilla Alvarez at CNN reports that the migrants who Florida Governor Ron Desantis flew to Martha’s Vineyard may be eligible for a special visa status as victims of a crime, according to their lawyer.

In other news …

This week, I started a half-dozen new oil paintings and wrote a thing about Latinos in The New Republic. I also updated the subscription tiers here on Patreon to give more perks to existing patrons and incorporate my oil painting hobby into my beat. HUGE SHOUTOUT to my first Large Oil Painting patron who prefers to remain anonymous here. Thanks a million, fam. Couldn’t do this without you.