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¿Christmas Miracle for Eagle Act?

This absolutely could happen. Eagle Act could be the Christmas miracle for immigrants this year in Congress. 

The House votes this evening on the green card backlog's meticulously crafted country caps bill that passed in the last last Congress 365 to 65 before Dick Durbin and Rick Scott blocked the final passage of Eagle Act in the Senate. 

In July, Durbin told me he no longer supports Eagle Act, but there was Hill chatter yesterday that Durbin had changed his mind about the country caps bill he once helped negotiate with Senator Mike Lee and others. 

If Durbin supports Eagle Act, the stars could suddenly align this week for an epic legislative golazo in stoppage time for the backlog community ... unanimous consent in the Senate. Importantly, the Judiciary Committee, which Durbin chairs, meets tomorrow.

Truth be told, no migrant advocacy group has fought harder, smarter for their proposal in this Congress than the green card backloggers. Documented Dreamers played nice. They were cut from NDAA by the Senate GOP. 

Green card backloggers brashly defied the conventions of polite migrant-splaining in their civil rights quest for equality in the green card queue. 

Hope is always a dangerous drug in immigration policy, but Eagle Act could suddenly happen this week or next. The next hurdle is this evening's House vote, which has kicked the green card backlog's prolific call campaign capacity into high gear. 

My take: a fierce lobbying effort led by industry groups and xenophobes opposes the country caps bill, but an even fiercer community of nerdy migrants supports it. Advantage: Eagle Act

Watch this space.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for subscribing. I'll tweet from this evening's House vote ... and maybe post to TikTok.

Thursday PM Immigration Bulletin: Eagle Vote “Imminent”

House Vote “Imminent” For Eagle Act

Three aides to top House Democrats tell me that the Eagle Act is expected to get a floor vote when members return to Capitol Hill after Thanksgiving.

“We’re working on it,” said a senior aide in House Democratic leadership. “I can’t say exactly when, but a vote on the Eagle Act is imminent.”

The news comes after months of uncertainty over the fate of the bill that, if passed, would remove 7% per-country caps on green cards for employment-based visa holders and increase the caps on family-based visa holders from seven to fifteen percent.

Eagle Act creates no new green cards; instead it reshuffles existing green card allotments to benefit visa migrants from countries with the highest demand — currently India and China for employment-based visas and Mexico and the Philippines for family-based visas.

Opponents of the bill say the reshuffling of green cards under the Eagle Act would box out migrants from countries in Africa and the Middle East when the policy is implemented after an 11 year grace period (two years for the bill to take effect and another nine for it to be fully implemented).

Proponents of the bill vehemently dismiss naysayer concerns, saying that the Eagle Act is fundamentally about fairness in the way the United States allocates green cards for employment-based visa migrants. Employment-based migrants from India, in particular, say that they feel discriminated against based on their country of origin.

In July, Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced the Eagle Act’s companion bill in the upper chamber. Kramer expressed hope on Tuesday that the bill could potentially be attached to must-pass legislation in the lame duck.

• Subscribers can read the full Q&A here.

The House and Senate are gone next week for Thanksgiving and will return the following Monday to what has already been a busy lame duck session.

Grassley Maybe Open to Dreamer Deal

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Bloomberg's Nancy Ognanovich that an immigration deal is possible, but only if President Joe Biden does more on enforcement.

"I think one of the things that keeps us from passing any immigration legislation is the fact that the president has poisoned the waters of that discussion,' said Grassley.

This year, Grassley has been instrumental in nixing relief proposals focused on STEM PhD workers in the CHIPS and Science Act and documented dreamer relief in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Senator Todd Young (R-IN) told me in September that Grassley wanted to wait until the next Congress to do anything on immigration. It's unclear if Grassley has changed his mind now that Democrats have retained the Senate.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Wednesday that he has four or five GOP Senators who would support dreamer relief in the lame duck, but wouldn’t say which senators are on board.

Durbin has named Grassley to reporters multiple times in recent months as a key roadblock to immigration policy negotiations.

If Grassley comes on board for dreamer relief (or any immigrant relief measure), the prospects of its passing in the Senate increase dramatically.

• Here is what GOP Senators told me this week about the prospects of dreamer relief in the lame duck.

News Clips

• Sen. Jon Ossoff Takes ICE to Task Over 'Appalling' Gynecological Treatments in Detention - Caitlin Cruz for JEZEBEL
• The Diminishing Returns of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric - Alan Cross for THE BULLWARK

Thursday AM Immigration Bulletin: Ten for Dreamers?

Good morning! Yesterday was SUPER busy on the immigration beat at the Capitol as immigrant rights advocates turned up en force to pitch their relief proposals in the lame duck.

The day began with the House and Senate holding competing immigrant rights press conferences across the Capitol parking lot from each other in the 11 o'clock hour.

House-side, Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) lead a press conference about the  Farm Workforce Modernization Act that would create a special immigrant status for farmworkers.

The bipartisan bill currently has 61 House cosponsors including 13 Republicans.

Senate-side, Democrats Dick Durbin (IL), Bob Menendez (NJ), Alex Padilla (CA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) held a presser with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) on dreamer relief in the lame duck.

"If we can get Senate Republicans to work with us, we will get this done by the end of the year,” said Leader Schumer at the presser. 

Durbin told the crowd gathered in the Senate swamp that he had “four or five” GOP votes in favor of the unspecified immigrant relief measure.

“But we need more!” said the Senate Majority Whip but wouldn’t say which GOP Senators support the measure. 

Durbin also wouldn’t say if Senate Democrats will attached dreamer relief to the remaining ‘must pass’ bills in the lame duck: the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) or omnibus spending package.

I spent the better part of the afternoon asking GOP Senators if they would vote for dreamer relief in the lame duck if Democratic leadership brought it to the floor. Of the ten GOP Senators I asked, only Roy Blunt replied that he would support the measure.

“I think that could pass easily if you'll offer it as cleanly as you possibly can rather than adding other things onto it that are about immigration but not about the dreamers," said the retiring Missouri Republican.

Sixty votes are required to pass dreamer relief in the Senate. You can follow my reporting via this tweet thread which I’m looking to add to throughout the day today. More to follow…

THANKS FOR READING AND SUBSCRIBING … PLEASE KEEP SENDING ME YOUR NEWS TIPS … HAPPY THURSDAY!!!

Tuesday Immigration Bulletin: DACA Fix

Good evening! Another late bulletin tonight after a long day of news gathering, so let's get right to it —

There were rumors abound on Capitol Hill today as a universe of immigrant rights advocates pitched lawmakers on a wide range of relief proposals. 

Punchbowl broke the news this morning that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told his caucus that they would push for a DACA fix in the lame duck. 

So, I spent the better part of the early afternoon asking relevant House Democrats if they had any info about this supposed fix.  

"Not yet," Rep. Adriano Espaillat told me, in Spanish. "I'd like it to be a registry fix that resolves the issue for those with DACA and their parents."

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) confirmed to Roll Call reporter Lindsey McPherson that his staff is working on a DACA fix, which he described as "basically the same" as the Dream & Promise Act that passed the House last year.

Yesterday, I asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer if the Dream & Promise Act would get a vote in the Senate during the lame duck. Schumer wouldn't say. 

I followed up with the Senate Majority Leader again tonight, asking more broadly if any immigrant relief was moving forward in the upper chamber of Congress.

Schumer essentially told me my question was premature. "We have to see what our colleagues want to do on the other side of the aisle," he said.

Keep in mind: There is almost certainly not enough time left in this Congress for Democratic majority to cut some mythic enforcement-for-relief deal with Republicans. 

The legislative calendar in the 117th Congress is growing desperately short ... and there are still two major "must pass" bills that the Senate is working on: 

• National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
• Appropriations/Government Funding Bill (Omnibus)

Of course, immigrant relief proposals could be attached to either of these massive spending bills, but whether they will be remains to be seen. 

For all their political saber-rattling about the border, Congressional Republicans never really articulated a coherent immigration enforcement policy position as a party ... so at this point it's hard to say what GOP lawmakers want in exchange for relief proposals. 

Now that the midterm election is (almost) over, there is a lingering suspicion among some GOP lawmakers that raging xenophobia wasn't the winning election message they'd hoped it would be — an important topic for a future bulletin.

Regardless, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told me this afternoon there would be an update on the "DACA fix" rumors at a press conference tomorrow.

Senate Democrats Dick Durbin (IL), Bob Menendez (NJ), Alex Padilla (CA), and Cortez Masto are scheduled to speak on "immigration/DACA" at 11am ET. 

Oddly, House Democrats have scheduled a competing immigration press conference to talk about the Farm Workforce Modernization Act on the other side of the Capitol parking lot at literally the exact same time.

As always, I'll be there to bring you the latest. More to follow ... 

Monday Immigration Bulletin: Big Freshman Energy

Good evening! Late bulletin tonight after a long day of news gathering, so let's get to it: the incoming class of House freshman includes several migrant (and migrant-adjacent) members … Secretary Mayorkas returns to Congress on Tuesday for hearings before the House Homeland Security Committee … and Senator Durbin is asked by reporters about immigration in the lame duck and country caps … this is your Monday immigration news bulletin…

Two New Congressional Immigrants

The “first day of school” vibes were strong as new members-elect arrived for freshman orientation at the Capitol on Monday. I asked some of the new immigrant members-elect about how their experience will inform their policy during the 118th Congress.

For this evening, I'll start with two such members-elect ... both Democrats ... both immigrants ... one from the midwest … the other from the West Coast.

NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Shri Thanedar (MI-13)

An immigrant from India, Thanedar won the open seat for Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s district after the incumbent had her home redrawn. He will represent parts of Detroit, Dearborn, and Livonia in the next Congress … but Thanedar told me his immigration journey began four decades ago at the U.S. consulate in Mumbai.

“She had the authority to either approve or disapprove,” said Thanedar of the consular official who handled his application for an education visa to study for a PhD at the University of Akron in 1978. Unfortunately for Thanedar, the consular official (“Virginia”) did not approve his visa.

“That’s the only time I fainted,” recalled Thanedar. “I fell to the ground. When I woke up, she was standing over me with water. I was so heartbroken. At the time I had a lot depending on my visa. I was coming to the U.S. to do better for my family which was in dire poverty. My reason for coming here was to get an education, get a job, and help my family survive.”

Thanedar applied twice more, this time with a letter of support from a professor at the University of Akron. Both times his application was rejected again. So Thanedar applied a fourth time. “Back then you could reapply as often as you wanted,” said Thanedar.

When Thanedar went to the consulate to check on his application, a different consular official asked Thanedar for his passport. “They had never asked me for my passport before. I asked why they needed it. He said, ‘I can’t give you a visa if I don’t have your passport,” Thanedar recalled, smiling.

So what was different about the fourth application? Well, it turns out that Virginia had gone on vacation and her assistant had processed Thanedar’s fourth application. “He thought my documents were perfectly fine,” said Thanedar, lamenting how arbitrary the process was.

Over four decades later, Thenadar — now a multi millionaire businessman and proud Michigander — arrives as a freshman in Congress as one of a handful of members with a science PhD (Rep. Bill Foster being another).

When it comes to immigration policy, Thanedar said that Congress needs to focus on two things: make sure that the domestic workforce has the training for “tomorrow’s jobs” and encourage immigration to fill “skilled workforce” shortages.

NEW MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Robert Garcia (CA-42)

Born in Lima, Peru, Garcia is currently serving his second term as the first openly gay mayor of Long Beach, California.

“I’m a product of the last immigration reform bill,” said Garcia, referring to the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) signed into law by President Ronald Regan in 1986. “My parents immigrated here when I was five.”

Garcia didn’t become a citizen until he was 21 years-old. “Immigration reform, to me, is the single most important issue as an immigrant coming into the House,” said Garcia, adding: “I’m just very concerned that it hasn’t been a priority.”

Mayorkas Returns to Capitol Hill

Mayorkas and FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify Tuesday before the House Homeland Security Committee which is chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS).

Expect tomorrow’s hearing to be a preview of what GOP rule could look like in the lower chamber, with Republican committee members grilling Mayorkas about the border.

For months, House Republicans have been making overtures about impeaching Mayorkas (among others … including Biden) should they win control of the lower chamber when all the midterm votes are finally counted.

Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) will release a report Tuesday by the Senate Special Select Committee on Investigations that focuses on the medical mistreatment of migrant women in ICE detention centers.

It’s unclear if Mayorkas will be asked to respond to Ossof’s report. The freshman Democrat has been working on this investigation for 18 months … and if his tweets are any indication, expect his filmmaking skills to be on full display as he rolls out the committee findings.

Durbin on Lame Duck, Country Caps

Reporters asked Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) nearly a dozen questions today about immigration policy, most about the possibility of passing some form of immigrant relief during the lame duck.

“I’m taking every opportunity I can find to pass the Dream Act, DACA, and immigration reform,” Durbin told CNN reporter Daniella Diaz. “There is a sliver of a chance that we can initiate a conversation in the remaining weeks of the year.”

Durbin touted the Biden administration’s efforts to streamline asylum for migrants from Venezuela. “We are seeing a reduction of the people who are presenting themselves at the border,” said Durbin, crediting the White House policy changes.

I asked Durbin if the documented dreamer relief amendment could still be included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). "It could but it won't be because Grassley is not there," said Durbin.

I asked Durbin if the seven percent country-caps on green card allocations were racist against migrants from India, the country with the highest demand for employment-based visas.

“They're generating such highly educated people filling jobs in the United States … and the green card system has not kept up with this. They're critical to our economy, and their families are a critical part of this issue … but we just haven't increased the green cards … and that's wrong,” Durbin replied.

THAT’S IT FOR TONIGHT … THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING AND SUBSCRIBING … PLEASE KEEP SENDING ME YOUR NEWS TIPS … IF YOU ARE IN WASHINGTON, D.C., THIS WEEK ADVOCATING FOR IMMIGRANT RELIEF I’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!

Friday Immigration Bulletin: Magnus Exitus

Good afternoon! Citizens from mixed-status families make their case to Congress; LAT & Politico report DHS drama as Magnus refuses Mayorkas’ order to resign or be fired; and laid off Meta workers tell Buzzfeed that Zuckerberg’s promised “immigration support” is unresponsive.

Escobar Bill Faces Uncertain Future in House

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) has been asking House leadership for months to bring the American Families United Act to the floor for a vote.

This summer, Escobar reached across the aisle to find three House Republicans to cosponsor her bill, which focuses on relief for U.S. citizens living in mixed-status families.

Mixed-status families have both citizen and undocumented relatives. These families have been denied a range of federal benefits, including the pandemic relief checks received by their fellow U.S. citizens via the CARES Act in 2020.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) famously decried excluding undocumented immigrants (and by extension, many U.S. citizens in mixed status families) from pandemic relief.

Nearly 2 million mixed-status families have relatives who have been deported or face deportation, according to the advocacy group American Families United, which has championed earlier versions of their bill since the 113th Congress.

Escobar’s bipartisan bill now has 80 House cosponsors.  If passed, the bill allows the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to “exercise discretion by declining to remove an alien or bar an alien from entering the United States to prevent hardship for the alien's U.S. citizen spouse, parent, or child.” It also removes restrictions on birthright citizenship on children born outside the U.S. to a citizen and non-citizen parent.

Just before the midterm, I asked Escobar in passing if she had any update from leadership about her bill. “No, sorry,” said Escobar who at the time was walking in the opposite direction in a crowded Capitol corridor.

Some Hill sources say the legislative calendar is too short to bring Escobar’s bill to the floor, but Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) who has been shepherding the bill in the lower chamber told me she’s “always hopeful” that the bill can move forward.

I followed up with Escobar today for an update on the American Families United Act. As I write, she has not yet replied. The Texas Democrat won a third term on Wednesday night, defeating Irene Armendariz Jackson to represent Texas’ 16th congressional district.

Magnus Ordered Out at CBP

Hamed Aleaziz at the Los Angeles Times had a big scoop this morning that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) director Chris Magnus has been ordered by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign or be fired.

“I expressed to him that I felt there was no justification for me to resign when I still cared deeply about the work I was doing and felt that that work was focused on the things I was hired to do in the first place,” Magnus told LAT.

Politico reporter Daniel Lippmann reports that Mayorkas’ deputy secretary John Tien is now responsible for CBP, with deputy commissioner Troy Miller running the agency’s day-to-day operations.

Last month, Lippmann reported on internal resistance to Magnus’ reformist approach at CBP, which is responsible for enforcing trade, customs, and border regulations and for collecting import duties.

Magnus was confirmed 50-47 by the Senate last December, with Republican Susan Collins joining Democrats to vote for the former Tucson police chief.

If Magnus is out as CPB director, President Joe Biden will likely nominate a replacement to be confirmed by the Senate.

Despite wildly underperforming in the midterm election on Tuesday, House Republicans have vowed to impeach Secretary Mayorkas if they win the majority,

Zuckerberg’s Promised “Immigration Support”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told laid off employees that the company would provide “immigration support” to workers impacted by the social media giant’s first mass layoff. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg laid off 13% of Meta’s workforce.

“I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa,” wrote Zuckerberg “There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need.”

Buzzfeed’s Pranav Dixit now reports that the hotline offered by Meta has been unresponsive to the laid off migrants seeking answers. “Tech companies in the US like Meta heavily rely on work visas to hire thousands of people, largely from countries like India and China, each year. But US law requires workers holding some visas to find new employers or leave the country within 60 days if they lose their jobs,” Dixit reports.

Visa migrants laid off by Meta, Twitter, Lyft, Netflix, and other tech companies are having to scramble to find employers willing to sponsor their work visa. Otherwise they (and in many cases, their dependents) fall “out of status” 60 days after they lose their job.

Expect more immigration reporting on nightmare scenarios some tech workers are facing as the layoffs continue to play out in the industry. Meanwhile, I’ll keep watching this story from Washington, D.C. …

News Clips

• Top border official Magnus say he’s been asked to resign but refuses - Hamed Aleaziz for LOS ANGELES TIMES
• Laid off Meta workers on visas say company has left them hanging - Pranav Dixit for BUZZFEED
• Midterms results dispel Hispanic rightward shift - Rafael Bernal for THE HILL

HAVE A SAFE, HAPPY, HEALTHY WEEKEND … CONGRESS IS BACK ON THE HILL NEXT WEEK … KEEP SENDING ME YOUR NEWS TIPS … THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING!!!

Thursday Immigration Bulletin: “Legal Limbo”

Good afternoon!  Another huge backlog of migrants in “legal limbo” grows; big tech layoffs hit visa migrants (also in legal limbo) particularly hard; as a universe of immigrant relief advocates (many of them in legal limbo, too) plan returns to Capitol Hill to lobby for their causes. This is your Thursday immigration bulletin…

“Asylum System is Collapsing”

We’ll start with new reporting from CBS News immigration ace Camilo Montoya-Galvez who tweeted this morning that the  U.S. immigration system is collapsing under the weight of a massive asylum backlog.

“Fewer than 600 judges are reviewing 2 million court cases—including 750,000 asylum requests. Migrants are waiting 4.2 years for a hearing. An unknown number of migrants have not even received a court date,” wrote Camilo.

“Legal limbo” is a term coming up a lot to describe the perpetual uncertainty of backlogged immigrants. Several backlog relief bills have been introduced in the current Congress. None have passed either chamber.

Tech Layoffs Hit Visa Migrants

Marketplace aired a new story on how the wave of layoffs hitting big tech are impacting visa immigrants in the industry.

“For decades, the tech industry has relied heavily on H-1B visas, a guest worker visa for immigrants with specialized skills that’s usually good for three years. But when H-1B holders are laid off, they have 60 days to basically find a new job … or leave the country,” reports Meghan McCarty Marino, 

Ajay Machada, a prominent green card advocate on Twitter was quoted in the segment, but tweeted that he was “disappointed” when the segment aired. 

Missing from the segment, said Machada, was the root cause of why so many immigrants from India are not yet green card holders: there are existing artificial country caps on green cards for employment and family visa holders.

Country caps limit the allotment of green cards to a given country to no more than 7% of the total annual green cards.

Country caps on employment visas particularly impact visa migrant workers from India due to the high demand for green cards by workers from that country; while family-based caps have the biggest impact on migrants from Mexico and the Philippines.

In recent days, tragic stories of laid off immigrants have hit LinkedIn where tech workers scramble to find new employers who will sponsor their work visa before it's too late and they fall out of status.

Immigrants Plan Lame Duck Push

Several immigration advocacy organizations are planning to return to Capitol Hill during the lame duck session to pitch their respective legislative proposals.

Immigration Voice, an organization looking to end country caps, began meetings this week with lawmakers that advocates say will continue next week in-person on Capitol Hill.

The backlog relief group will arrive in an extremely crowded legislative calendar, especially in the Senate, where other immigrant relief organizations (and their lobbyists) tell me they, too, are pushing leadership in both chambers to advance their respective proposals to the House and/or Senate floor.

Organizations and lobbyists for DACA recipients, Afghan war refugees, farmworkers, day laborers, mixed-status families, asylum seekers, and other migrant groups plan to make their presence known in Congress as part of an eleventh hour push to pass some form of relief legislation before the GOP takes over the House, Senate, or both.

Of course, the policy calculus on immigrant relief changes if the GOP fails to win a majority in both the House and Senate, which could still happen. As I type this bulletin, neither chamber has been called though the conventional wisdom among forecasters seems to be settling on a Democratic Senate and GOP House.

Shattered Advocacy Infrastructure

The 117th Congress began with bold overtures about broad, ambitious coalitions of migrants working together to achieve relief … ambitions that never really panned out.

The same Congress ends with a free-for-all of advocates approaching lawmakers in a cacophony of one-off pitches and priorities.

The scramble for resources has always created rifts among advocates, but what seasoned Hill aides say is missing going into the lame duck, is a unified proposal or message that lawmakers could rally around.

I’ll keep watching this space and updating readers on the latest immigration happenings. Meanwhile, if you are meeting with Congress about your immigration proposal(s), I’d love to hear from you…

News Clips

• Immigration Fights Flare Up As Midterms Yield Uneven Results - BLOOMBERG
• Migrants hoping to seek U.S. asylum face years-long legal limbo in overwhelmed system - CBS NEWS
• When losing your job means losing your right to stay in the U.S. - MARKETPLACE

THANKS FOR YOUR NEWS TIPS … PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING … WELCOME NEW SUBSCRIBERS … YOUR SUPPORT MAKES THIS IMMIGRATION NEWS BULLETIN POSSIBLE!

Wednesday Immigration Bulletin: Mrs. Fetterman Goes To Washington

Election night defied dire warnings of a “red tsunami” with some notable wins and losses on the immigration beat.

In the Rio Grande Valley in Texas -- the epicenter of the border rhetoric that dominated midterm election politics -- Democrats prevailed in two of three races Senator Ted Cruz hoped to sweep as a statement piece about the border.

Instead, GOP superstar Mayra Flores, an immigrant from Mexico, lost her House race to low key incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez. Democrat Henry Cuellar beat former Cruz staffer Casey Garcia.

The results are still coming in but most people still believe the GOP will keep the House … none more confident than Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who announced his candidacy for House Speaker.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise put in for Majority Leader this afternoon. Elections and new member orientations are busily being scheduled on Capitol Hill where members will return next week for the first time in six weeks.

While the Senate majority has yet to be determined, it’s safe to say that Democrats overperformed, so far … and that the screaming headlines and dire election forecasts predicting a filibuster proof majority for the Senate GOP were clearly exaggerated.

This was clear early in the evening on election night when incumbent Democratic Maggie Hassan defied forecasters by stomping her GOP opponent at the polls in her senate race in New Hampshire.

Republican Mehmet Oz conceded in the early morning hours, giving the Pennsylvania Senate race to John Fetterman. Democrat’s win in Keystone State win means the first ever formerly undocumented Senate spouse is headed to Washington.

Brazilian-born Gisele Barreto Fetterman told me that she and her husband would be strong immigrant rights supporters in the Senate. Of course, this will matter more when the new Congress begins in January.

For now, what’s most important to note is that in another wildly xenophobic election cycle, the Fetterman’s ran on immigrant pride … and won in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile on Capitol Hill...

While Congress was out campaigning in October, the committee chairs of jurisdiction have been working with their ranking members on this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The sprawling defense spending bill is said to be priority one for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer when senators return next week.

Readers of this bulletin may recall last month’s manager amendment in the Senate did not include age out protections for 200,000 documented dreamers.

This came 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.

In October, Improve The Dream sent a letter to Senators 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 he 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. I’ll ask him again when I see him.

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.

. . . so there is precedent for attaching immigrant relief provisions to NDAA. What remains to be seen is whether there will be the post-midterm will to move hard on immigration legislation before the next Congress.

If Republicans take the House as expected (or even the Senate … still a possibility at this point), the lame duck pressures to attach a range of policy items to must-pass bills like NDAA and the government funding package will quickly simmer and boil when the lawmakers return next week.

I’ll keep watching this space when Congress is back next week. Until then, let me know what you’re hearing in/from the Senate.

Fun Fact

When Fetterman takes office in January, 10% of all U.S. senators will be named John/Jon (HT Grace Seegers on Twitter).

News Clips

• Monica De La Cruz becomes first Republican to win in 15th - Congressional District in South Texas -  Matthew Choi and Stephen Neukam for TEXAS TRIBUNE
  
• Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar wins in Texas’ 28th District, defeating Cassy Garcia - Suzanne Gamboa for NBC NEWS
  

Tuesday Immigration Bulletin: McCarthy Promises Border Bill

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to ascend to the House Speakership if Republicans win back the lower chamber of Congress in tonight’s midterm election.

The California Republican is making no bones about what his first priority would be as House Speaker: “The first thing you’ll see is a bill to control the border first,” said McCarthy in an interview with CNN reporter Melanie Zanona on Sunday.

Zanona asked McCarthy specifically what his plan was to secure the U.S. Mexico border. McCarthy’s reply was highly unspecific, invoking drug cartels and fentanyl from China. You can watch the segment here.

• NOTE: Reason editor Fiona Harrigan wrote an important story last month showing that most fentanyl seizures by federal law enforcement agents have been at legal points of entry, not from illegal border crossings.

If Republicans win the House, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is expected to chair the House Judiciary committee, which shares direct jurisdiction over immigration policy with the Homeland Security committee, where Ranking Member John Katko (R-NY) is retiring.

Katko’s retirement leaves the Homeland Security Committee chair under House GOP rule an open question, but the Committee is bound to attract hawkish Republicans looking to score political points by blaming immigrants for everything.

Katko leaves behind an immigration bill that has 68 GOP cosponsors since he first introduced it last August. The Border Security for America Act could provide insights into what specifically Republicans are going to pursue if they win the House, Senate, or both.

The topline in Katko’s bill is, of course, a border wall.

However ineffective border walls have been so far, Republicans have been obsessed with building one along the U.S. - Mexico border since Donald Trump first chanted “build the wall”.

The Katko bill also increases Border Patrol’s size and capacity while authorizing grants for state and local authorities to assist on certain agency operations.

Notably asylum reforms go unmentioned in the Katko bill, but you can expect it to be a GOP talking point whether or not the party is in power.

“Ending asylum as we know it” is how one House GOP aide described to me the proposals circulating in policy circles on Capitol Hill.

On the campaign trail, Republicans have made perfectly clear that, if they win, immigration enforcement will be their top legislative priority … but the details remain elusive on how McCarthy would steer that legislative ship as House Speaker. I’ll keep watching this space…

+++

Happy Election Night!

Whatever happens, I wish everyone a safe and healthy election night to all those who celebrate … I’ll be downtown in our nation’s capital to make the rounds at the watch parties … please keep sending me your news tips … welcome new subscribers … thanks for reading … please like and share (I’ll RT)!

Monday Immigration Bulletin: Immigrants for Mike Lee

Good afternoon! Backlog immigrants posted a new video in support of Senator Mike Lee, as two Latina immigrants campaign as disruptors for Congress in Texas and Pennsylvania. Here’s your Monday immigration bulletin -

Immigrants for Lee

Green card backlog immigrants are hopeful that Senator Mike Lee will finally return to the legislation he helped negotiate in the 116th Congress.

Immigration Voice, a group seeking to eliminate country-caps on employment based visas, has even posted a video featuring immigrants praising the Utah Republican for his past support of backlog relief legislation.

Publicly, Lee has kept mum during the current Congress on whether he still supports the Eagle Act. The two-term senator is up for reelection tomorrow in a race he is expected to win against the Democratic candidate, former CIA operations officer Evan McMullin.

Several backlogged immigrants I spoke with over the weekend believe that if Lee beats McMullin, the xenophobic pressures of campaigning for Senate as a Republican will be lifted … and that Lee will finally join Senators Kevin Cramer (ND), Susan Collins (ME), John Hickenlooper (CO), and Tammy Baldwin (WI) to support the bill he once championed.

Cramer introduced the Eagle Act in the Senate on July 20, 2022, less than a month after a founder of Immigration Voice donated to the North Dakota Republican’s reelection campaign. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced its companion bill in the House in June 2022.

You can watch the Immigration Voice video here.

Midterms Spotlight: Two Latina Immigrants

Tomorrow is election day in what has been a brutal political campaign cycle rife with mainstream xenophobia. Outlined against such an antagonizing backdrop, it would be almost ironic if two Latina immigrants made history by winning their races during the 2022 midterm.

The first is an immigrant from Mexico: Mayra Flores from Texas’ 34th congressional district. Liberals have painted Flores as a border hawk, pointing to her enforcement-related rhetoric that aligns roughly with that of Donald Trump and other MAGA candidates.

The truth about Flores’ views on immigration are likely more nuanced. She is one one of two immigrants from Mexico serving in the current Congress. The other being Chicago Democrat Chuy Garcia.

Flores came to Capitol Hill after winning a special election to replace retiring Democrat Filemon Vela, a monumental political feat making Flores the first Republican to represent her district since 1871.

Since coming to Capitol Hill, Flores has broken somewhat with some of the GOP’s most-extreme rhetoric about immigrants, telling reporters in September that it is “so important for me to focus on legal immigration and improving the legal process.”

Last month, I wrote about the GOP’s Latina House candidate’s in South Texas in The New Republic. You can read the article here. The important thing to note is that, for better or worse, if Flores wins in south Texas she will be an important immigration voice in Congress.

Not only is Flores an immigrant, but she hails from the region at the epicenter of President Joe Biden’s most-negative headline during his presidency so far: the southern border with Mexico. Whether Flores will push relief policies alongside her immigration enforcement rhetoric is an open question.

Another Latina immigrant running hard for Congress during this midterm is Giselle Barreto Fetterman, the wife of the Democratic candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania. 

Of course, Mrs. Fetterman is not running to be senator, but she has taken an increased role as her husband’s spokesperson during the six months since Democratic candidate John Fetterman suffered a stroke on the campaign trail.

An immigrant from Brazil who came to the United States undocumented, Mrs. Fetterman told me in September that she and her husband would be strong proponents of relief policies if they win their senate race against television personality Mehmet Oz.

The Pennsylvania Senate race has been a nail biter so far, with polls swinging back and forth between the two candidates. If Fetterman wins, his wife won’t be the only immigrant spouse in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is famously married to former U.S. transportation secretary Elaine Chao, an immigrant from Taiwan.

However, Mrs. Fetterman would be the first formerly undocumented spouse in Senate history, arriving with a perspective that is largely absent in the Capitol. Undocumented immigrants are prohibited from working as Hill staffers. Even DACA recipients who can work legally face restrictions on their ability to work as staffers on the policies that will determine their fate in the United States.

If her husband wins his race, Mrs. Fetterman could be a key ambassador to immigrant communities in the next Congress, especially undocumented folks and their families who have been almost entirely ignored by lawmakers during the current Congress.

Humble Brag

The first profile I’ve written in a while comes out tomorrow in The New Republic. It’s a fun piece about some smart youths doing good work in election forecasting. I’ll share it on Twitter when it’s live…

News Clips

• “Can Democrats and Republicans Find A Way Forward on Immigration?” - THE NEW YORK TIMES
• “What Prevents Immigrants From Applying for Citizenship?” - MERIDIAN RECORD JOURNAL

THANK YOU to everyone who has subscribed and/or increased your subscription to Pablo Reports. I’m touched by the support for my fiercely independent reporting effort on the immigration beat. Keep sending me your tips! Happy election day tomorrow to those who celebrate!

Friday Immigration Bulletin: DHS Deems DePape Deportable

Happy Friday! DHS says Pelosi attacker is deportable; Grijalva + 27 House Dems send letter to Mayorkas about attorney access to migrants in ICE detention; insights into immigration messaging during the election from Data for Progress; and some Beltway context to the Define American report on North Carolina immigration news coverage...

DHS Deems DePape Deportable

The assassination attempt on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has an immigration angle after  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials revealed that the suspect, David DePape, is a Canadian national who overstayed his temporary status after entering the United States legally in 2008.

Last Friday, David DePape broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home looking for the House Speaker (who was in Washington, DC at the time) and attacked her husband Paul with a hammer.

CNBC reports that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent the San Francisco County Jail a detainer request for DePape so that the federal agency can take him into custody if he’s eventually released by local authorities.

ICE typically sends detainer requests for migrants the agency is looking to deport, leading to speculation that DePape, 42, will eventually be deported back to Canada.

House Dems: ICE Must Allow Attorneys Access

On Thursday, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) sent a letter signed by 28 House Democrats to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Director Tae Johnson decrying the ways migrants in detention are denied access to legal representation. The letter offered six recommendations for the agency to consider.

“At least 58 ICE detention facilities do not allow attorneys to schedule phone calls with detained clients in advance,” said Grijalva in the letter. “[P]hone calls are often cost prohibitive, and telephones for detained people are almost always located in public areas, and are often in disrepair. At least 58 ICE detention facilities do not allow attorneys to schedule phone calls with detained clients in advance.”

Denying migrants access to their lawyer is unconstitutional. Detained migrants do not have the right to government-sponsored attorneys, but the constitution gives everyone the right, regardless of their citizenship status, to due process which includes access to legal representation.

The six recommendations lawmakers made to the agency heads included providing migrants with free ways to transfer confidential documents and spaces to have private conversations with their attorneys in ICE facilities. I’ll follow up with Grijalva and the other lawmakers in the lame duck to see if DHS or ICE replies to their letter, which you can read here.

Interesting Statistic in Roll Call

Suzanne Monyak wrote a solid overview of how the GOP’s immigration narrative is playing out in the midterm. The story includes an interesting statistic from the team at Data for Progress:

• “When asked about the top issues for congressional candidates to focus on, just 7 percent of Democratic voters put immigration in the top three, compared to 39 percent of Republicans, according to polling by progressive firm Data for Progress. Data for Progress’ polling also shows that voters overall are more likely to say the Republican party would do a better job addressing immigration than the Democratic party would.”

Report: Immigration Coverage Lacking in North Carolina

Define American’s report on immigration news coverage in North Carolina is a telling microcosm of some of the issues facing the beat nationally and in Washington, DC. The report lists four key findings that are worth diving into a bit here:

First, the advocacy non-profit concluded immigration to be an expendable beat assigned to inexperienced reporters in North Carolina, if at all.

This is true in Washington, as well, where the immigration beat has long-been a stepping stone for early career reporters in the Beltway political press, a sort of hardship tour rife with misinformation and wildly emotional stakeholders.

Moreover, most major U.S. news outlets have no immigration reporter in Washington, though some mainstream Beltway outlets lump their immigration coverage in with other beats, like Politico’s “Immigration and Labor” beat that focuses almost entirely on labor.

Most Beltway outlets have no assigned reporter or articulated immigration beat, choosing instead to assign general assignment or other beat reporters to cover immigration stories when they feel immigration events rise to the level of news (usually when something sensational happens in the U.S. - Mexico border; rarely when something wonky happens in Congress).

Second, Define American found that immigration reporting tends to focus almost entirely on Latinos who make up just half of the immigrant population in the United States. “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) make up a full 28.5% of the immigrant community, yet fewer than 5% of immigration stories refer to this group,” notes the report’s authors.

Beltway outlets tend to maintain a wider demographic focus because immigration coverage here is usually a derivative of the news of the day. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is a good example of how a defense or foreign policy beat story becomes an immigration story in time.

The problem for news consumers with the “news of the day” model of covering immigration is that non-immigration beat reporters get assigned to cover immigration news stories when it touches their beat. Outlets with no immigration reporter to help guide coverage or answer questions internally are more likely to rely on partisan framing in their stories.

Third, Define American found that immigration reporting in North Carolina often reinforces stereotypes that associate migrants with crime. This is absolutely true of Beltway immigration reporting which tends to over-rely on enforcement data from the Department of Homeland Security and right-wing narratives offered by lawmakers and other public figures to frame their coverage.

It’s worth noting here that exhaustive reports over the years by Cato Institute and others have established that immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes or use public benefits than the native born population. That hasn’t stopped Beltway outlets from incorporating the border narratives about danger and criminality into their editorial decisions on the immigration beat.

Fourth, the report argues that news outlets are missing out on a significant business opportunity by neglecting the immigration beat. (I actually made this case to Axios founder Mike Allen at a super fun DC happy hour on October 20th.)

Immigrants and their communities have long been under-served by the Beltway press. The question news executives have never really sought to answer (at least not in the English-language press) is whether or not these audiences are willing to pay for dedicated news coverage of the beat.

Pablo Reports is the first Beltway outlet betting that the immigration beat is a real business opportunity. My Hill reporting proves that there is a huge, underserved audience for news updates on the latest immigration policy developments in Washington. On the question of whether or not audiences will pay for these updates through subscriptions, I've been surprised and grateful by the response here on Patreon.

Download the full Define American report here. 

Reminder

Come Monday, Pablo Reports will go from publishing thrice-a-week (MWF) to daily (M-F) …

News Clips

• Democrats Twist and Turn on Immigration as Republicans Attack in Waves - NEW YORK TIMES
• GOP Candidates Focus on Border Security Amid High Immigration - ROLL CALL
• Accused Paul Pelosi attacker David DePape could be deported - CNBC
• Human Rights Groups Ask Biden Not to Send Hatian Migrants to Guantanamo - NBC NEWS

THANKS FOR READING … HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY WEEKEND … KEEP SENDING ME YOUR IMMIGRATION NEWS TIPS!

Wednesday Immigration Bulletin: Immigrants, Would Get The Job Done

Happy Wednesday! Jobs report highlights immigrant labor needs; Define American’s new report on immigration news coverage in North Carolina; and some housekeeping items.

Immigrants, Would Get The Jobs Done

The Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report this week shows 10.7 million vacancies. Bloomberg's Senate sage Steve Dennis tweeted yesterday that under different political circumstances, this would be an ideal economic moment to talk about immigration reform.

The American economy was built from the start on immigrants filling labor shortages, but these are not ideal times for immigrants in the United States. For decades, politicians from both parties have long decried the "broken immigration system" on the campaign trail, only to keep the same broken system very much in place when elected.

In Congress, immigration is a multidimensional partisan stalemate where lawmakers rarely come together on the topic except in one area: enforcement funding - which  increases every year through the bicameral appropriations process with strong bipartisan support.

Canada is taking the opposite immigration policy approach to their “labour” shortage. A million job openings north of the border prompted Immigration Minister Sean Frasier to announce the goal of bringing 500,000 migrants to Canada by 2025.

CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)  reports that immigrants accounted for four-fifths of Canada's workforce growth from 2016 to 2021. "Every job that is not filled represents one less person contributing to Canada's economic growth and one less person paying taxes to support Canada's social infrastructure," said the Business Council of Canada president and CEO Goldy Hyder in a media statement.

American business groups large and small have a long history of urging Congress to loosen restrictions on immigrant labor. In 2012, Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg touted progressive immigration reforms together at a New England Council luncheon. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has supported several comprehensive immigration reform pushes in Congress that have ultimately died ingloriously on the Hill.

Brookings published some great research earlier this month showing how immigrants are complementary to native born workers. The team of Dany Bahar, Carlos Daboin Contreras, and Greg Wright even created a “Complementary index” to study relationships between different occupations. Their blog about the work is worth a read, if you haven’t already….

New Report on Immigration News Coverage

An important new study by Define American takes a look at immigration news coverage in North Carolina. The toplines on the report align neatly with some unpublished research I did for Latino Rebels about a year ago about immigration coverage in top stateside dailies like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, and so on.

For Friday’s bulletin, I’m going to go back through my work from last December in the context of the new report. Meanwhile, check out Define American’s work here and send me your thoughts on the state of immigration news coverage in the United States.

Housekeeping Items (3)

• Beginning Monday, Pablo Reports will start publishing daily, Monday through Friday. This will help keep the bulletins shorter, punchier, and more digestible than some of the sprawling bulletins I've been posting on just Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
• I  registered in the District of Columbia as an LLC! It feels nice to be a business owner. Thanks to all who’ve been shepherding me on this journey. I wouldn’t be here without you.
• Subscribers: Don’t forget to join the Telegram chat if you haven’t already. Email or DM me for the link. It’s a lively immigration group chat where I post bulletin previews.

News Clips

• “Canada aims 1.5 million immigrants to fill its labor gap” - THE NEW YORK TIMES
• “Canada Plans to Welcome Half-Million Immigrants by 2025” - BLOOMBERG

Monday Immigration Bulletin: Dreamer Documentary, LatAm Delegation, Registry, Eagle, Midterm

Hey fam! Happy Monday. I’m working on some magazine pieces this afternoon so I am putting out today's bulletin a lil' earlier than usual ... FOR TODAY — filmmaker Daniela Cantillo has a new documentary focused on documented dreamers; advocates tell me Gillibrand has declined to cosponsor registry; Dem lawmakers hold press call to recap Latin America trip; Eagle Act’s vote count remains elusive; and polling shows midterm momentum swinging back toward Senate Dems. Thanks for reading! 

Cantillo Releases Documented Dreamer Documentary (WATCH)

Filmmaker Daniela Cantillo has a new documentary that takes an intimate look at the uncertain lives of documented dreamers and policies impacting them in the United States.

Humble Brag: Cantillo interviewed me for the film when  when she came to the Capitol last year with advocates for Improve The Dream, an immigrant-youth-led organization featured prominently in “LIMBO - the struggle of documented dreamers in the United States”.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE ... and consider linking and leaving a comment on Cantillo's film project.

Gillibrand Won't Cosponsor Registry Bill, say advocates

Advocates for Movement for Justice in el Barrio told me  this morning that, after weeks of meetings with staffers for Kristen Gillibrand (D), the junior senator from New York's team said she will not cosponsor the immigration registry bill introduced last month by fellow Democratic Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA).

Movement is an East Harlem-based community organization run by Gillibrand's constituents, mostly immigrant women, who tell me Gillibrand's staff cited her support for the stalled U.S. Citizenship Act introduced by Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) as her reason for declining to support the registry bill.

What remains unclear is how the registry and citizenship bills (neither of which being likely to pass the Senate this year) are somehow mutually exclusive. Gillibrand's staff did not immediately reply to my request for comment, but I will continue to track this and other immigrant relief bills here in Pablo Reports...

Dem Lawmakers Return From Latin America

Senator Tim Kaine (VA) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (NY), newly returned from delegation travel to Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic, held a press call this morning to talk about the trip.

Kaine said he was struck by China’s influence in the region, telling reporters that while the U.S. attention on the allies like Costa Rica has been fleeting, the Chinese have never lost focus on the region.

Immigration came up briefly in the context of scanners used to detect drug trafficking shipments at ports of entry along the U.S. - Mexico border. Also, Kaine and Espaillat both noted concerns expressed in the Dominican Republic about Haitians fleeing political instability to DR.

The Hill reporter Rafael Bernal asked the lawmakers about Sunday’s runoff election in Brazil between incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro and challenger Luis Lula de Silva. Both lawmakers said they join President Joe Biden in congratulating Lula on his victory and hope Bolsonaro concedes.

Eagle Act Vote Counts Remain Elusive

What is the House and Senate vote count for the Eagle Act in the 117th Congress? It’s a question I’ve been asking for months as we head toward the lame duck session on Capitol Hill.

Advocates have long-said that removing country-caps on employment-based visas has enough support to pass the House and Senate, if brought to the floor. As evidence, they cite the hugely successful bipartisan effort around the Eagle Act during the last Congress.

Hill aides during this Congress disagree about Eagle Act’s prospects in the House, citing two factors:

• Eagle Act has only eight House GOP cosponsors and only 75 Dems. This is considerably less than the ubiquitous support some advocates have suggested the bill enjoys; and
• No GOP member voted for the bill during its House Judiciary Committee markup.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could bring the bill to the House floor for a messaging vote during the lame duck. It would certainly put to the test the lip service dozens of members of both parties have given backlog immigrants during this Congress.

Senate-side, Eagle Act has been all-but-forgotten by most rank-in-file members of both caucuses, even those who voted on the bill last term. For some members, even clarifying the bill as “Senator Lee’s bill on per-country caps” isn’t enough to jog their memory.

Like Pelosi in the House, leadership in the Senate could bring the bill to the floor; but that seems unlikely given Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin’s stated opposition to the bill text he has ostensibly helped negotiate over the years.

Even if, by some miracle, Senate leadership brought the Eagle Act to the floor during the lame duck, Chuck Grassley (D-IA) has reportedly told Senate GOP colleagues that he wants to wait until the next Congress to do anything on immigration.

Meanwhile, no new cosponsors have joined Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) (who introduced the Eagle Act in this Congress) and the current bill cosponsors, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and John Hickenlooper (D-CO).

If the votes aren’t there, the bill obviously will not pass. That doesn’t mean per-country caps won’t get a messaging vote in either (or both) chamber, but don’t be surprised if the House Judiciary markup is the only vote Eagle Act gets during this Congress...

Poll: Momentum Swings Back to Senate Dems

New polling suggests that momentum has shifted back to Democrats in four tight Senate races: Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada.

We are now only a week away from a midterm election that could have a tremendous impact on immigration policy … especially if Republicans take either or both chambers of Congress, as polls predicted they would just last week. 

Like the rest of the political press…I’ll keep watching with bated breath this rollercoaster election to determine the makeup of the 118th Congress of the United States...

News Clips

• “Poll finds broad support in battleground states for legalizing unauthorized immigrants” - CBS NEWS
• “Big Tech Cites National Security in Push for Immigration Changes” - ROLL CALL
• “Afghan Evacuees in Limbo While Seeking Permanent Legal Status in the U.S.” - WSJ
• “Leaked Documents Outline DHS’s Plan to Police Disinformation” - THE INTERCEPT
• “GPS Tagging Migrants ‘Psyochological Torture’, says report” - THE GUARDIAN

THANKS FOR READING … PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE … HAPPY MONDAY … KEEP SENDING YOUR NEWS TIPS … CONGRESS IS SCHEDULED TO RETURN TO CAPITOL HILL ON NOVEMBER 14th! 

Friday Immigration Bulletin: Cardenas, Semiconductors, Wyden

Rep. Cardenas of Los Angeles introduces a House bill focused on transparency in USCIS wait times; NYT reports the stateside semiconductor industry is slowing down despite the CHIPS Act; and Senator Wyden of Oregon posts an unredacted report on a controversial DHS operation in Portland. Happy Friday!

Cardenas (Re)introduces Backlog Bill

Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA) introduced a bill this week that would create a degree of transparency for backlog wait times at United States Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) run by Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (Cardenas’ fellow Los Angelo) .

The Case Backlog and Transparency Act (H. R. 9225) would require DHS to publish on its website quarterly reports and a biennial report with the Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) on the state of the backlog - a list of immigration applications that grew from 3.2 to 5.8 million between 2015 and 2020, according to Cardenas’ office.

The bill is a 17 page bill with no cosponsors that has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY). The Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship for House Judiciary is chaired by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).

There’s probably not enough time in the lame duck to pass the bill, which got three GOP cosponsors in the House last Congress … but the thinking behind this backlog relief effort is interesting. USCIS is the federal gatekeeper for immigrants looking to come or stay in the U.S. legally. If passed, Cardenas’ bill would codify a degree of accountability from an agency with a huge amount of highly subjective decision making power over immigrants and their families.

The bill requires GAO publish recommendations every two years on addressing the status of the backlog and related challenges. More-importantly, it requires a quarterly report from USCIS that includes “the average processing time for each type of immigration benefit application along with any change in that time relative to the prior quarter.”

In other words, Cardenas is suggesting that immigrants should know on the front-end how long their paperwork takes to process … and the public should know which paperwork has the longest and shortest processing times. While it’s unlikely to pass during this Congress, I’ll keep watching this and other backlog-focused newsletters here at Pablo Reports.

NYT: Biden’s Stateside Semiconductor Slump

The New York Times reports an unexpected dip in demand for consumer gadgets. Along with new red tape on trade with China, stateside semiconductor manufacturers are left “suddenly grappling with immense challenges.”  This comes barely a month after Congress authorized $52 billion for the industry, ostensibly to boost American competitiveness with China.

In August, President Biden signed the CHIPS iand Science Act into law. The bill passed both chambers of Congress on simple rhetoric about competitiveness with China. Proposed immigrant relief provisions in the CHIPS Act allowing STEM PhD workers in the semiconductor industry a citizenship pathway were stripped by GOP Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and bill conferee Todd Young (IN).

Young told me after the CHIPS bill was enacted that the American economy would benefit from STEM PhD immigrants. “Republicans, on balance, support inclusion because they’re waiting to do this next Congress,” said Young, adding it was Grassley’s desire to wait until the next Congress.

The ink had barely dried on the president’s signature when the CEOs of the major U.S. semiconductor companies wrote a letter advocating for immigrant relief for the STEM workers left behind by the bill.

To be fair, the semiconductor industry has been asking the White House for immigrant relief policies since Barack Obama’s presidency, but to no avail. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Biden from hyping the CHIPS bill by traveling to several manufacturing facilities this week with a message of domestic job creation and competitiveness with China.

Wyden’s Unredacted DHS Report

Senator Ron Wyden continues to scrutinize DHS agents’ actions in Portland at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, according to a newly unredacted version of the April report the Oregon Democrat released this week.

The report paints a troubling portrait of the bureaucracy behind DHS field agents in unmarked vehicles arresting protesters off the street in Portland and other U.S. cities after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Brian Murphy is named as a particularly bad actor. According to the report, Murphy suggested creating “baseball cards” of data on dissidents, including their immigration status.

The report shows Homeland Security analysts and agents with little experience in crowd control were deployed to Portland to control crowds and gather intelligence on protesters. Murphy helmed the one-month operation for DHS, telling analysts to say the protests were “Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired”, a claim the analysts themselves had already determined was baseless.

What struck me most about the protests in the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency were videos of dissidents disappearing into unmarked vans full of unidentified law enforcement agents. It was a familiar tactic. By 2020, it was a familiar terror tactic ICE has deployed in immigrant communities for over a decade. My father was detained this way into the trunk of an unmarked car by agents of a Chilean dictator in the 1980s (thankfully, he survived his interrogations).

Through the report, Wyden provides a small window into how this hodgepodge of DHS analysts and field agents were deployed to put down the protests for Black lives a little over two years ago. The operation set a dangerous precedent of a president deploying immigration enforcement agents to control citizen protesters.

Note: Durbin/Cramer Amendment to NDAA

As several of you pointed out, my last bulletin talked about how Congress has stymied relief for STEM PhDs but omitted some excellent reporting by Haley Byrd for The Dispatch. Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) or Kevin Cramer (R-ND) have an amendment to the must-pass defense bill to help STEM PhD immigrants. I will continue to poke around and see what I can find out before Congress returns to Capitol Hill on November 14th…

News Clips …

• “Protected immigrants at risk of losing work permit” - THE WASHINGTON POST
• “Plan to Grant More Green Cards to STEM Graduates Resurfaces” - THE DISPATCH
• “Newly un-redacted report shows how feds politicized response to 2020 Portland protests” - OREGON PUBLIC BROADCASTING
• “A quarter of Canadians are now immigrants; largest portion from India” - THE INDIAN EXPRESS

HAPPY FRIDAY … BACK MONDAY … HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND … THANKS FOR READING AND SUBSCRIBING … PLEASE KEEP SENDING ME YOUR NEWS TIPS!

Wednesday Immigration Bulletin: STEM PhDs, Oz/Fetterman, EOIR

Good afternoon! Voters head to the polls in less than two weeks to choose who will represent them in the 118th Congress of the United States. Today we’ll take a look at the stymied state of STEM PhD relief in Congress, plus the tight Pennsylvania Senate race in this bulletin’s first election spotlight. Thanks for reading!

STEM PhD Migrants Stymied in Congress

Last week, Science reporter Kate Langin had an interesting story about how fewer STEM PhDs graduated last year due to the pandemic. “The 2020–21 academic year saw 1721 fewer STEM Ph.D.s awarded by U.S. universities compared with the preceding year—a change that amounts to the largest annual drop in science, technology, engineering, and math Ph.D.s in at least 40 years, according to data released yesterday from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates,” Langin reports.

STEM PhDs are often uniquely suited to fill major workforce shortages that are making the U.S. uncompetitive in the global economy. The CHIPS and Science Act had a provision that would have given some STEM PhDs in the semiconductor industry a pathway to citizenship. GOP Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Todd Young (IN) stripped the provision during the bill’s conference.

As we enter the lame duck, there is no stand alone bill or specific amendment that targets STEM PhD immigrants for relief. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) had a provision for immigrants with advanced degrees in STEM but, like the documented dreamer effort, the amendment was not part of the manager’s amendment.

There had been a House-side effort led by Silicon Valley Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren to include STEM PhD relief in NDAA, but the provision was sunk on procedural grounds: the amendment would open the NDAA up to be a revenue measure with significant budgetary impact. The NDAA has never been a revenue bill, as that would result in opening the floodgates to a variety of other unrelated revenue amendments and potential origination clause issues.

Because the STEM PhD amendment had budgetary impact, it required Congressional Budget Office (CBO) scoring, which has a huge impact on whether a bill lives or dies in Congress. Big line items on huge price tags are easy fodder for political attacks on the overall legislation. The nonpartisan CBO associates huge costs on migrants - any migrants - and their dependents when evaluating relief legislation.

"They just make estimates that are completely unrealistic," Lofgren told me in June. "These are people with PhDs that are going to have very high salaries and pay a lot of taxes."

The plight of STEM PhD migrants are another example of how senselessly restrictive immigration policy undermines economic resiliency across industries. The U.S. needs these workers, but is unwilling to incentivize their migration with an eventual citizenship pathway.

Are you a STEM PhD impacted by U.S. immigration policies? I’d love to hear from you as we continue to watch this policy space…

Midterm Spotlight: Pennsylvania Senate Race

Polling is all over the place in several close Senate races this week - especially in Pennsylvania where, in the last week, reports show voters swinging back and forth between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz who are campaigning to replace retiring GOP Senator Pat Toomey.

Political Twitter was quick to point out that Fetterman’s performance on the debate stage last night against Oz left much to be desired. The Democratic Mayor of Braddock suffered a stroke in May that has shrouded his candidacy (however unfairly) in pathos.

Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, is an immigrant from Brazil, having moved undocumented to New York City when she was 7 years-old.

“John has seen my journey, my family’s journey as immigrants to this country,” Barreto Fetterman told me last month. She says if elected, her husband would be a champion for immigrant relief policies, especially for the undocumented community.

Regrettably, my phone didn’t capture audio of the interview where I asked her several specific questions about relief policies affecting both undocumented and documented migrants … but suffice to say Barreto Fetterman was impressively knowledgeable and assured me that her husband was on board with helping migrants, if elected.

Granted, assurances from the candidate’s partner are not assurances from the candidate which, in turn, are a long, far cry from an actual vote on the floor for immigrant relief policies by an actual United States Senator … but having a formerly undocumented latina among the Senate spouses in the next Congress would be something new.

Of course, this is all moot if Oz beats Fetterman for the Pennsylvania Senate seat. If elected, Oz has promised to be hawkish on undocumented immigration, despite the fact that his wife’s company, which claims to employ 35,000 “vegitation management specialists”, faced a $95 million dollar fine from ICE in 2017 for employing undocumented workers. Oz and his wife Lisa told the New York Post in February that they were “passive shareholders” in the company at the time of the ICE fine.

As for Oz’s position on legal immigration, it doesn’t appear that he’s been pressed on the matter so far on the campaign trail, where nuanced discussions of immigration policy have been rare. Instead, Oz and GOP candidates nationwide have pushed a crime narrative riddled with falsehoods that allows the party to attack non-voting immigrants as this election cycle’s main bogeymen (and bogeywomen).

I’ll keep watching Pennsylvania closely. Meanwhile, if you want to know more about the race, check out this really great profile by Abby Vesoulis for Mother Jones. It’s well worth a read.

Garland Appoints 32 New Immigration Judges

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) announced 32 new immigration judges today appointed across nine states by Attorney General Merick Garland. Here’s the list.

News Clips …

• “Inside the unorthodox political rise of John Fetterman” - MOTHER JONES
• “U.S. Border Patrol sends migrants to places where no help waits” - ASSOCIATED PRESS
• “Gisele Fetterman’s Husband Campaigns for Senate in Pennsylvania” - LATINO REBELS (from September)
• “Dr. Oz says he'll fight to end illegal immigration. A business owned by his family, in which he is a shareholder, faced the largest fine in ICE history for hiring unauthorized workers.” - BUSINESS INSIDER (from June)
• “Family company of Dr. Oz had the largest fine in ICE history” - NEW YORK POST (from February)

Happy Hump Day … Back Friday … Thanks for reading and subscribing … Send me your news tips … Tell your friends!!!

Monday Immigration Bulletin: Eagle, Registry, Diwali

Good afternoon and Happy Diwali to those who celebrate! Bay Area backloggers marched to end per-country caps over the weekend as East Harlem Latinas continue to push Senators to support the immigration registry bill. Here’s your Monday immigration bulletin -

Backlog Immigrants March to Lofgren’s House

Eagle Act advocates marched to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)’s home on Sunday from a nearby elementary school. At least four dozen supporters of the bill to end per-country immigration caps on employment based visas turned up with signage to the family-friendly affair.

“When somebody is hired based on merit to do a job, why does their country of birth really matter?” Gokul Gunasekaran told CBS News Bay Area affiliate, who reached out to the House Democrat for comment. Lofgren told CBS “the bill should be set for a House vote when Congress reconvenes.” 

Photo courtesy of Rohit Sharma 

In the House, Eagle Act has already been set for a House vote, having gone through the markup process and been added to the Union Calendar. It just hasn’t been brought to the floor. Before Sunday’s rally, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-NY) told Immigration Voice that Eagle Act would get a vote in the lame duck, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.

Multiple Hill aides told Pablo Reports that the House vote count for Eagle Act is not as obvious as some advocates have claimed. The immigrant relief bill was incredibly successful a Congress ago, but has been reduced to legislative obscurity ever since.

"To help the people from India at the expense of everyone else is their solution,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin told me in June when asked about support for the Eagle Act. “You can imagine everyone else has a different opinion so we're trying to find some middle ground.”

The Eagle Act eliminates the employment-based caps altogether, a change that most benefits immigrants from India and China. The bill also increases the family-based cap from seven to fifteen percent, which would most benefit immigrants from Mexico and the Philippines.

“If this is about fighting racism in our immigration system, why not eliminate country caps altogether?” said Amy Maldonado, an immigration attorney in Michigan and Eagle Act skeptic.

Gunasekaran disagrees. “This is akin to people being asked to stand in a separate line based on the color of their skin,” he told CBS while standing in front of Logfren’s house on Sunday. “I think this country has rejected this idea in the past.”

Latina Immigrants Push Registry Bill in Senate

Movement for Justice in el Barrio is a low key, majority-women, community organization in East Harlem with a deep rolodex in the House and Senate that includes both Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (Ds-NY).

The group has been pressing Senators to sign on to the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929, the immigration registry bill introduced late last month in the upper chamber by Democratic Senators Alex Padilla (CA), Elizabeth Warren (MA), Ben Ray Lujan (NM), and Majority Whip Dick Durbin (IL). A month early, Lofgren introduced the original, identical bill in the House.

The immigration registry bill is just two pages long, but its social and economic impact would be immense. Eight million undocumented immigrants would be eligible for green cards. The bill would also help legal immigrants by clearing much of the green card backlog and protecting many documented dreamers, mostly from India.

A spokesperson for Movement tells me that they have been meeting with staffers for Senators Bernie Sanders (VT) and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) about the registry bill and that Sanders is ready to cosponsor when the Senate returns after the midterm. Sanders’ team did not immediately reply to confirm, but the senior senator from Vermont has a long history of supporting ambitious immigrant relief legislation.

Registry is arguably the most ambitious of a galaxy of immigrant relief items that advocates are trying to push through Congress during the lame duck. Immigrant rights advocates fear the short legislative sprint after the election could be the last window of opportunity for a long time if the GOP gains control of either the House or Senate … or both.

Today I Learned …

In the video era, there has been only one mention of Diwali on the House or Senate floor. "I would also like to extend my best wishes to the millions of people that will celebrate Diwali this Saturday; I certainly hope it will be a joyous occasion,” said Rep. Ed Royce on the House floor on October 14, 2009. Hat tip to CSPAN’s Howard Mortman on Twitter for that trivia.

News Clips…

• “Indian Backlog Immigrants Offer Durbin Redemption Through Eagle Act” - LATINO REBELS (from June)
• “Philly Advocates Furious Over Lack of Immigration Progress Under Biden” - PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
• “Immigration a top issue among Latino voters weeks out from election day” - CNN
• “First Group of Venezuelans With U.S. Sponsors Arrive Under New Immigration Program” - CBS NEWS
• “Immigration becomes key issue in competitive Pennsylvania House race” - WSJ

HUGE THANKS AND WELCOME TO NEW SUBSCRIBERS! I’ll be back on Wednesday. In the meantime, please keep sending me your tips!

Friday Immigration Bulletin: Senate Cafeteria FTW

The Capitol workforce is a deeply immigrant beat. Where member and staffer diversity has been elusive for generations in Congress, support workers - like cafeteria, custodial, and law enforcement - are rife with perspectives of color, including many immigrants, like in the Senate cafeteria where this week there’s news…

Senate Cafeteria Workers Ratify New Contract

The Senate cafeteria workforce is made up almost entirely of people of color, including immigrants from all over the world. These front line workers kept the cafeteria open during the pandemic, then fed thousands of uniformed military personnel in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

“We had to make thousands of sandwiches,” recalled an immigrant worker in the kitchen that day. “The soldiers were lined up … all the way down the tunnel.”

DCist reports these workers now have a contract with Restaurant Associates (the vendor that runs the Senate cafeteria) that creates a $20 minimum wage, provides a pension plan, and

health insurance.  After the news broke, workers were quick to note that many were already making more than the new minimum, but I’m told some cashiers and floor staff should see a significant pay increase.

Materials detailing the negotiated benefits were distributed in English and Spanish. Families pay $90 per month for a Kaiser Healthcare Plan without a deductible. Individuals pay $30. Dental, vision, short term disability, and life insurance plans are free, according to the information provided to the workers. I’ll keep watching this space as these changes are implemented…

Brookings: Immigrants “Complement” Economy

Brookings has a new blog out about immigrants and the economy where researchers found that “immigrant workers are broadly complementary to natives, both because immigrants work in occupations that serve an unusually wide range of industries, and also because immigrant-intensive occupations often complement other jobs.”

Most lawmakers I’ve asked on Capitol Hill are aware that immigrants are needed to complement their state and local economies. Business leaders across industries tell Congress this in private conversations and public letters. Congressional Republicans are virtually unanimous in their political rhetoric about criminality and the border, but some GOP members of the House and Senate can and do separate their enforcement talking points from the economic realities of their states and districts.

Huge national workforce shortages in essential industries like healthcare, tech, agriculture, and others are serious concerns for the business leaders, but the inflationary impact of restrictionist immigration policies is not a case most politicians want to publicly make during a midterm election cycle where raging xenophobia is mainstream.

That could change in the lame duck. With this week’s polls showing GOP gains in key the House and Senate races, a range of constituencies impacted by debilitating immigration policies are eying the lame duck for one last desperate push before potential GOP rule.

• “The immigrant workforce supports millions of U.S. jobs” - BROOKINGS

News Clips

• “Immigration advocates feel abandoned as they stare at Biden’s first-term checklist” - POLITICO
• “GOP candidate and immigration hardliner had a grandmother who faced deportation” - AXIOS

Have a great weekend! Happy early Dilwali for those who celebrate! If you are attending the Eagle Act rally in the Bay Area this weekend, I’d love to hear from you for Monday’s bulletin.

Wednesday Immigration Brief: Speaker McCarthy Preview

Hello readers! Republicans are predicted to take at least the House back at the polls next month. Let's take a quick look at what that means for immigrants.

Less than three weeks from now, voters will head to the polls to vote in a midterm election that is less a referendum on immigration policy and more an opportunity for politicians to scapegoat migrants from all over the world with a simple bogeyman: "the border."

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is expected to become Speaker of the House in the likely event that the GOP retakes the lower chamber of Congress next month. McCarthy tells Punchbowl his immigration policy priority will be border-first, and that he is unwilling to trade citizenship pathways (or even DACA) for enforcement.

If Republicans win the House, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is expected to chair the House Judiciary committee, which shares direct jurisdiction over immigration policy with the Homeland Security committee, where Ranking Member John Katko (R-NY) is retiring.

Katko’s retirement leaves the Homeland Security Chair under House GOP rule an open question, but the Committee is bound to attract hawkish Republicans looking to score political points by blaming immigrants for everything. Look for GOP Reps. Michael McCaul (TX) and Dan Bishop (NC) to contend for the Chairmanship.

Blaming immigrants for everything is central to the GOP playbook for the midterm. Crime is the narrative. Immigrants are the cases in point which brings us back to “the border.” Conflating all immigrants with migrants crossing the Rio Grande is how most GOP lawmakers answer questions about immigration, especially in House Leadership, where I’ve asked everyone from McCarthy to Elise Stefanik (NY) about the legal immigrant backlog only to have them answer about the border.

To his credit, Rep. Steve Scalise usually has a more-nuanced take on the immigration challenges facing the national economy, but when push comes to shove, the Louisiana Republican is unlikely to stick his neck out for anyone who may be (falsely) blamed for ‘stealing American jobs.’

There are Senate GOP Republicans who are more engaged on the issue as a practical matter. Thom Tillis from North Carolina, for example, approaches immigrant relief policy with a focus on businesses and the economy. Ditto for Roger Marshall from Kansas.

Roy Blunt, the retiring senior senator from Missouri is a Senate Republican who has vocally supported Dreamers -- OG and documented -- every time I’ve asked him about a new relief policy measure that would impact those communities.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (IA) and John Cornyn (TX) have both left the negotiating table on immigration policy, where many advocates say they have always been obstructionist. The truth is more nuanced and will be the subject of future news bulletins here at Pablo Reports.

Getting ten Senate Republicans on a standalone immigrant relief measure is tricky. Even widely popular bipartisan measures from a Congress ago, like the Eagle Act or even the Dream Act several Congresses ago, have been largely abandoned by Republicans in the upper chamber.

Getting fifty Democrats on a relief measure in the lame duck is similarly not as obvious as it may seem. Recall that it was Senator John Tester (D-MT) who introduced the Title 42 messaging amendment during the votarama last summer that was voted for by Democrats Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV), Raphael Warnock (GA), Mark Kelly (AZ), and Maggie Hassan (NH).

This all makes the upcoming weeks and months super interesting when it comes to immigration policy. If the GOP takes over either (or both) chamber, the lame duck session will be a pressure cooker for lawmakers when it comes to immigrant relief. Advocates will be pushing harder than ever to get their relief items through.

Ultimately, no one seems to believe that any relief for immigrants will come from a GOP-ruled Congress (a point I disagree on … but that’s a story for another bulletin). At the same time, Democrats haven’t given immigrant relief advocates any reason to believe that, if reelected, they will finally keep their promises to immigrants and their families.

News Clips

• “Critic of Biden Border Policy to Oversee DHS Budget” - ROLL CALL
• “Apple picking is a bizarre imitation of hard work” - VOX
• “Don’t Blame Migrants and ‘Open Border’ for Fentanyl Entering the Country” - REASON
• “Small Town in Southern Mexico Hosts Thousands of Immigrants” - AP

Note: Tomorrow is my birthday and I would love nothing more than to celebrate with getting new subscribers! Back Friday with another bulletin.

Monday Immigration Brief: Backlog Rallies for Eagle

Hello, readers! Here’s your Monday afternoon immigration news bulletin, delivered an hour early —

Eagle Act Rally Planned for Bay Area

Advocates for green card backlog relief are planning a rally in support of the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act of 2022 (Eagle Act) on Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area. CA4Freedom is behind the organizing action, most of which is happening on LinkedIn and Discord.

Green card backloggers typically operate in anonymity, but their stories are harrowing in a rising ride of press coverage.  San Francisco is an interesting location for the rally because tech companies have a lot to lose if the existing 7% per-country cap on green cards were phased out.

Immigrant workers sponsored on employment-based visas are vulnerable to the businesses that hire them. They also face high barriers to entry into the American employment market where they cannot legally check the citizen box on job applications.

The Eagle Act does not create any new green cards, a distinction advocates hope is not lost on Capitol lawmakers in the upcoming lame duck session. Instead, the bill eliminates the employment-based cap altogether and increases the family-based cap from 7 to 15 percent.  Immigration Voice is an advocacy group at the forefront of pushing Congress to pass the Eagle Act.

The bill was introduced last year by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Lofgren has been legislating for her Silicon Valley constituents since she introduced a bill to remove per-country caps in 2007. It now has 83 House cosponsors, including eight Republicans. In July, Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) reintroduced the Eagle Act in the upper chamber where it currently has four cosponsors: two Democrats and two Republicans.

In the last Congress (116th), the bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent, which makes it hard to know for certain if it would have 60 votes to pass in this lame duck. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) has said repeatedly that he will not support the Eagle Act as it is currently written. The irony of Durbin’s position on the Eagle Act is that he once supported the exact same bill. In fact, Durbin helped negotiate the current version of the Eagle Act.

“To help the people from India at the expense of everyone else is their solution,” Durbin told me in June. “You can imagine everyone else has a different opinion so we’re trying to find some middle ground. The clear solution is more green cards so they don’t have to wait 25 years.”

Indian visa immigrants have the most to gain from Eagle Act. Roughly 75% of temporary H1-B visas currently go to immigrants from India, which means Indians have the longest green card queue, a growing backlog of immigrant workers and their families that can’t be cleared due to the per-country cap.

Without Durbin onboard, Eagle Act is likely dead in the Senate during this Congress. Rolling the bill into a larger immigration package that includes the GOP’s asylum restrictions would almost surely be stymied by Latino caucus Senators like Bob Menendez (NJ) and other Senate Democrats, leaving little room for negotiating a deal.

Could the Eagle Act pass the Senate if brought to the floor? Yes, insist advocates, pointing to the overwhelming support it had in the last Congress; but with only four Senate cosponsors, an actual vote count is elusive. Not impossible though, which is why advocates online are rallying in the Bay Area on Sunday.

The Eagle Act is one one of several possible inflection points of elusive immigrant relief in the 117th Congress that I will continue to cover here on Patreon and Twitter.. Meanwhile, if you are attending the Bay Area rally, please let me know for this week’s bulletins…

DHS in Disarray … ?

POLITICO reports that Department of Homeland Security insiders are not happy with Chris Magnus, Joe Biden’s Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The story by Daniel Lippman was quickly picked up in right-wing media and tweeted by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

“In any organization, some people are threatened by this,” Magnus told POLITICO of his approach to reform at CBP. “They don’t like it when someone questions ‘why’ certain things must be done the way they’ve always been done. I’m not here to back down to the predictable challenges from those people.”

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources were particularly unhappy with Magnus, but the story is unlikely to shake Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ faith in the 61-year-old former police chief. The sprawling government agency Mayorkas oversees includes immigration agencies like ICE, CBP, USCIS, plus other federal law enforcement entities like the Secret Service.

The infighting at DHS evident in today’s reporting is not unusual as the internal politics of making any changes at the agency have always been fraught with off-message bickering online and in the press. Secretary Mayorkas was bound to be a reformer after the agency’s excesses of the Trump administration; though most immigrant relief advocates I’ve spoken with say too many Trump-era policies remain in place.

Is Stephen Miller’s restrictionist agenda the new normal on the White House immigration portfolio? Not necessarily. Presidents have a lot of unilateral discretion over immigration policy, as Trump/Miller proved through four years of historically cataclysmic policies.

Where Obama was slow to move on immigrant relief a decade ago, Biden has tried a myriad of policy changes that have been held up in court by restrictionist judges. Rumors have been circulating in the press about possible executive action on immigration after the midterm. This seems likely, though the devil will be in the details.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep watching this space on Patreon and Twitter…

Bittersweet Video …

Reuters tweeted a tearjerker video on Saturday of families reuniting under close supervision over the Rio Grande. The #HugsNotWalls initiative is based on a similar event along the U.S. - Mexico border in 2018.

News Clips

• “Migrants Targeted in Canadian Immigration Scam on Facebook” - THE GUARDIAN
• “Republicans bank on tough immigration line as U.S. midterms near” - AL JAZEERA
• “Migrants in New York Are Grateful for Help. But They Want to Work.” - NYT
• “As Immigration Issue Looms, Biden Turns Eye to Latin America” - NYT

Thanks for reading! Please email or tweet me your immigration news tips. If you find value here, consider subscribing (if you don’t already). Back Wednesday with another immigration news bulletin.

Friday Immigration Brief: All Eyes On Lame Duck

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.

News clips…

• “Senate NDAA Debate Could Have Something For Everyone” - ROLL CALL
• “GRASSLEY: “Broad Support” Needed to Pass Documented Dreamer Relief in Senate” - LATINO REBELS
• “U.S. Mexico Plan Ukraine-Type Relief for Venezuela Migrants” - ASSOCIATED PRESS
• “Immigration Fights Face Make Or Break Moment at the End of Year One” - BLOOMBERG

My next immigration news bulletin will run Monday at 5pm. Tweet tips / questions at @PabloReports. Have a great weekend!!!

Hello Internet.

Welcome to Pablo Reports, my bulletin of immigration news reports on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5 PM Eastern from Washington, D.C.

Here, you’ll get the latest immigration news you can’t find anywhere else posted for free on the open Internet, with the Patreon support of subscribers like you.

There is a void in immigration reporting for an immigrant audience - a community that is underserved in the halls of power in Washington.

Pablo Reports is here to fill that void with hard policy news on what’s ahead for immigrants, our families, and our communities in the United States.

If you want to support my work, subscribe here on Patreon where you’ll get access to “el chat” on Telegram. Other subscriber perks to come.

More to follow on Friday!

Pablo