Supporters of streamlining green cards for immigrants with advanced degrees face limited options after their proposal faltered in defense negotiations on Capitol Hill this week. “It’s not looking good to me,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who sponsored the measure, said Wednesday after an effort to attach it to an annual defense package came up short. The House Rules Committee on Tuesday deemed the proposal “out of order” as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 7900). Many advocates say the measure — which would apply to immigrants with doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math — is critical to national security. A few other immigration-related amendments will advance to the House floor. One is a measure protecting “documented Dreamers” — to ensure dependents of foreign workers or green card applicants don’t age out of legal status. A proposal for the US to admit essential scientists and technical experts working on national security will also get a vote. The Rules Committee reviewed more than a thousand proposed amendments to the annual must-pass legislation to determine which ones could advance to the House floor. Many advocates viewed the defense policy bill as the best hope for moving ahead with the STEM immigration measure as other windows appear to close. The House included a similar measure in a sweeping competition bill (H.R. 4521), but lawmakers have struggled to secure its place in a final package, and overall negotiations on the legislation have stalled. Lofgren said she would push to attach a STEM immigration measure to “anything that’s possible,” but said she didn’t know what options remain. “We hope members across the aisle will work to pass this or an appropriately modified provision in a timely manner to help address the challenges faced by our national security critical industries,” Dan Correa, CEO of the Federation of American Scientists, said in a statement to Bloomberg Government. Documented DreamersRep. James Langevin (D-R.I.), a cosponsor of the STEM immigration amendment, said the measure would have bolstered national security and he was disappointed it didn’t advance. He said he would redouble his efforts to pass the narrower amendment to admit essential scientists and experts, which he sponsored. “I am more determined than ever to ensure that my amendment to provide pathways to citizenship for the best foreign talent seeking to work in the US National Security Innovation Base — which has already passed the House twice — will once again pass the House and get signed into law,” Langevin said in a statement. Another key immigration NDAA amendment set for a floor vote is the documented Dreamers proposal from Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.). Ross noted more than 200,000 of these young people face the risk of deportation if they stay in the US when they lose their legal status as dependents. Other Options for STEMSome advocates remain hopeful STEM immigration changes will eventually get traction. Remco Zwetsloot, a trustee fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, pointed to recent comments Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) made to FYI, a news outlet from the American Institute of Physics.
Grassley told the outlet he was open to streamlined visas for STEM graduates, but only through comprehensive immigration legislation. Grassley has rebuffed his colleagues’ efforts to include STEM immigration changes in the competition package. 7/4/2022 UN Migration Study Deems Us-Mexico Border 'deadliest' Land Route in the World Based on 2021 NumbersA new study has labeled the border crossing between the U.S. and Mexico the deadliest migration land route in the world.
The study, conducted by the Missing Migrants Project and published by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), recorded at least 1,238 deaths during migration in the Americas in 2021, with at least 728 of those deaths occurring on the U.S-Mexico border. "The number of deaths on the United States-Mexico border last year is significantly higher than in any year prior, even before COVID-19," Edwin Viales, author of the report, said. "Yet, this number remains an undercount due to the diverse challenges for data collection." "Our data shows the growing crisis of deaths during migration in the region, and the need to strengthen the forensic capacity of the authorities to identify deaths on these routes," he added. "We cannot forget that every single number is a human being with a family who may never know what happened to them." The study cites the Venezuelan economic crisis as a major factor that has driven people from their home countries and forced them to take "irregular routes, including overseas crossings to Caribbean nations." The dangers of the crossing made headlines last week after the discovery of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas, containing 46 migrants who died and 16 who required immediate hospitalization. Some of those taken to the hospital died shortly after arrival. The victims came from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, highlighting the scope of the migration route. IOM reported that this brought the total number of victims along the border to 493 for 2022 alone. Border Patrol officers have encountered record numbers of migrants trying to cross the southern border during the past year, with 239,416 recorded last month and 235,478 the month before that. During his time as secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas has often said that our current immigration crisis has been partly caused by what he claims was a broken and dismantled immigration system inherited from the Trump administration.
As a veteran of more than 30 years in immigration enforcement, I can tell you that statement is a lie. Just like the lies this administration tells about how the border is secure, the border is closed, the border is under operational control, the Border Patrol’s mounted agents whipped Haitians, and many more. Here are the facts. It is the Biden administration that dismantled the most secure border we ever had, and the data proves it. Illegal immigration was down 83% to 90% after President Donald Trump and his administration, including myself, made the necessary policy decisions to address the loopholes that Congress has failed to address. Within his first few weeks in office, President Biden signed over 90 executive orders that “dismantled” almost every policy created under Mr. Trump. He dismantled the Migrant Protection Protocol, better known as the Remain in Mexico program, which allowed migrants to still claim asylum, but to do it from Mexico until their hearing rather than be released into the U.S. and rarely show up in court for their immigration hearings. Even when they do show up in court, the data from the Executive Office of Immigration Review — our federal immigration courts — show nearly 9 out of 10 Central Americans that claim asylum never get relief from federal courts because they either do not qualify or do not show up in court. The vast majority who are ordered to be removed never leave, and just live here illegally hoping for the next amnesty bill to be passed. The “Remain in Mexico” program was a game-changer, and it worked. Many people didn’t bother making the journey and attempting asylum fraud because they knew they wouldn’t be released into the U.S. Catch-and-release was ended by the implementation of this Trump program. They dismantled the Asylum Cooperative Agreements, better known as the Third Safe Country Agreements, that were created in partnership with the three Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras). This was a historic agreement with the countries that are the three biggest importers of illegal aliens into the U.S. The agreement was simple. If you claim asylum because you need to escape fear and persecution from your home government because of race, religion, political affiliation or membership in a specific social group, then you should claim asylum in the first country to which you escape. Next, they dismantled the asylum process itself. They were not happy that so few qualified or got relief from the U.S. courts. So, they vastly expanded who qualifies and what qualifies as a valid asylum claim, which would result in more positive asylum approvals. The Biden administration also dismantled the detention system. It ended agreements with local jurisdictions to hold detainees. It shut down other immigration detention facilities. It shut down all family residential centers. The number of detainees went from 55,000 to less than 20,000. |