The positive aspects of migration issues promoted by the President’s Government Joe Biden were dwarfed by the false democrat promisess of an immigration reform, although the president sent his proposal to Congress at the beginning of his government.
What did the Democrats go through to default again when they had control of the House and Senate? The answer is not simple: the midterm election, the increase in immigrants at the border, the conservative control of the Supreme Court and the priorities set by the agenda in Europe and Asia with Ukraine and China at the forefront, but mainly the never-declared economic crisis. that led to the worst level of inflation in the country in 30 years.
immigration reform
Although the most important projects on immigration reform were presented in 2021, during the year that ends the debate intensified in Congress.
At the beginning of the year, the intention to include protection for millions of undocumented immigrants was maintained, after the proposals were blocked by the Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough.
The approval of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), through the Reconciliation process, could open the door to include an immigration benefit, but there was no concrete plan or even intentions to “disobey” the parliamentarian to move forward with a project.
The Republican representative from Florida, Maria Elvira Salazar, requested bipartisan support for the so-called “Dignity Law” project, which would open the way for citizenship and contemplate extensive security measures on the border. There was no Democratic endorsement.
In the House of Representatives, the Democrat Zoe Lofgren (California), and in the Senate, also a Democrat Alex Padilla (California) filed the reform to the Registration Lawwhich would allow some eight million undocumented immigrants to apply for a Green Card, but the plan failed to advance, despite the fact that 72 congressmen co-sponsored it.
63% of voters overall support immigration reform, a figure that rises to 77% when only Latinos are counted, according to a poll conducted Nov. 8 during the election.
“This new poll makes it clear that the American people continue to support critical pro-immigrant policies by wide margins,” said Sergio Gonzales, executive director of the Immigration Hub.
The ‘dreamers’ and DACA
Although 82% of Latino voters want Congress to pass protections for ‘dreamers’; while 68% of overall voters, of any race and ethnicity, support the same measure, there was no concrete action on it.
The debate for the protection of ‘dreamers’ was part of the discussion on immigration reform, although there were parallel plans.
The most recent seemed to have some future, led by the now independent senator kyrsten sinema (Arizona) and Republican Thom Tillis (North Carolina), who proposed the protection of some two million immigrantsthe majority ‘dreamers’.
In exchange, they suggested expanding border security, increasing agents, and extending Title 42 for at least a year, so that the Biden Administration could implement a new immigrant processing system. The plan did not advance, but Sinema indicated that in 2023 the group will continue negotiations.
The urgency of the ‘dreamers’ is that the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit could decide the cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program at the beginning of 2023.
Title 42
In March 2020, the then president Donald Trump implemented Title 42a health policy endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for the expedited removal of immigrants, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden Administration has tried to suspend said policy, but does not consider that its implementation has been “illegal”, and has even defended it in court.
In fiscal year 2022 alone, that policy allowed the expulsion of more than a million immigrants, who were not granted the right to request asylum.
The Supreme Court postponed its decision until February 2023 about this policy on the border, in the midst of an increase in the arrival of immigrants that even triggered an alert in El Paso, Texas, governed by Democrat Oscar Leeser.
A group of 19 states governed by Republicans asked the Supreme Court to maintain the program, while the Biden Administration claims to have Title 8 ready with additional actions to speed up responses to asylum requests, as well as deportations and the implementation of the five-year punishment for undocumented.
farm workers
In addition to the debate in Congress on the protection of ‘dreamers’, an attempt was also made to promote a plan for the protection of agricultural workers, considered during the pandemic as “essential workers”.
Undocumented immigrants comprise 54 percent of workers in agriculture and farms, reported the Center for Migration Studies (CMS).
The United Farm Workers (UFW) organization made one last effort in mid-December to convince congressmen of the importance of protecting these immigrants.
A delegation of farmworkers and family members from Arizona, California, Idaho, Michigan, and Georgia, went to Congress without success.
“The legal status of farmworkers is essential to America’s food security,” said UFW President Teresa Romero. “Farm employers and their Republican allies must put the bipartisan deal on the table, which will save them more than $430 million in wages next year alone.”
USCIS and ICE
The Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), directed by Ur M. Jaddou, the daughter of immigrants, promoted several changes in order to face the severe delays in processing.
Some of the adjustments that were beneficial for immigrants were the extensions in the validity periods of the Green Card, Employment Authorization, time to respond to extra requests for information on different cases, among others.
The agency’s adjustments also allowed nearly a million immigrants to achieve citizenship in fiscal year 2022, but there were severe delays with H-1B work visas.
Meanwhile, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office is still waiting in the Supreme Court for a decision on deportation priorities, which would guide the arrests of immigrants with criminal records.
The Biden Administration increased, meanwhile, the monitoring of any undocumented immigrant under process in courtswith an alternative to detention (ATD) system with shackles with GPS and the SMARTLink system for telephone surveillance.
In fiscal year 2022, the agency reported 316,700 people under those systems. At the start of the Biden Administration, some 80,000 immigrants were monitored in this way.