Senators push to pass immigration bill in waning Congressional session—12-12-22
Immigration news, in context
This is the 147th edition of BORDER/LINES, a weekly newsletter by Felipe De La Hoz and Gaby Del Valle designed to get you up to speed on the big developments in immigration policy. Reach out with feedback, suggestions, tips, and ideas at BorderLines.News@protonmail.ch.
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This week’s edition:
In The Big Picture, we examine the immigration bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers in exchange for tougher border security measures and an extension of Title 42.
In Under the Radar, we discuss ICE’s decision to terminate a detention contract with a California jail.
In Next Destination, we look at the Biden administration’s appeal of a recent ruling regarding Title 42.
The Big Picture
The news: As the smoke clears from the midterm elections, it’s clear that though their majority will be very slim, Republicans will retake control of the House of Representatives. A Republican-controlled House will probably kill any already long-shot chance to pass anything related to immigration reform or a path to citizenship for the undocumented. That’s not until next year though, and some lawmakers are hoping to use this interim “lame duck” period to pass a bill pairing a path to citizenship for Dreamers and revamped asylum processing with (surprise surprise) additional funding for Border Patrol and an extension of Title 42.
According to reported estimates, the Kyrsten Sinema-Thom Tillis-led effort could regularize around 2 million people while directing an additional $25 billion to enforcement mechanisms, including the expansion of Border Patrol’s headcount. Additional funding would go towards adjudication, such as hiring more immigration judges and creating so-called processing centers that would receive asylum seekers along the botter.
While these centers are built out, the bill would apparently order Title 42 to remain in place for at least a year, which makes it somewhat of a nonstarter for some Democrats that the sponsors will have to wrangle if they want the legislation to make it past the House. On the other side of the coin, the legalization of millions of people, as popular as it is with the electorate writ large, will complicate its passage in the Senate, where ten Republican votes are needed to overcome the filibuster.
Under the Radar
ICE ending its contract with Yuba County Jail
Immigration and Customs Enforcement will no longer detain immigrants at the Yuba County Jail in California, the Sacramento Bee reports. The facility, run by the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office, had held immigrant detainees for more than 30 years and was the last California jail to do so. The jail’s contract will end in 60 days, and the four immigrant detainees currently held there will be transferred elsewhere. California previously tried to end ICE’s use of private detention facilities in the state, but a federal appeals court ruled that doing so would override the federal government’s authority over immigration.
Next Destination
Biden administration appeals Title 42 ruling
Last month, a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to rescind Title 42 by December 21. The administration reportedly plans on doing so, per the New York Times, but also appealed the court’s order last week.
An administration official told the Times that the Justice Department will ask the appeals court to rule that Title 42 was implemented legally, presumably because the administration wants to be able to invoke the public health statute again in the future. If the court rules that Title 42 was illegal on its face, subsequent administrations may not be able to implement similar policies.
However, it’s worth noting that top scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Trump administration that sealing off the border to unauthorized migrants would do nothing to slow the spread of COVID-19. The policy was pushed through anyway at the urging of vice president Mike Pence. The motive for Title 42 was always deterrence; the public health rationale was a pretext—one that both the administration and the states suing the administration to keep Title 42 in place have largely abandoned in favor of claiming that Title 42 is needed to maintain a semblance of order at the southern border, despite the chaos it has caused.