The draft text for House Speaker Paul Ryan's "compromise" bill is out, and it's as bad as we feared. Speaker Ryan's amnesty plan follows the same playbook that the Gang of 8 followed, granting an immediate and permanent amnesty to at least 1.8 million illegal aliens with only promises of future enforcement.
A recent report by the Migration Policy Institute, entitled Chilling Effects: The Expected Public Charge Rule and Its Impact on Legal Immigrant Families' Public Benefits Use, revealed that 10.3 million out of the 22 million foreign nationals in the U.S. receive benefits from at least one welfare program funded by taxpayer dollars. Additionally, 54.2% of foreign national children, age 17 and younger, are granted welfare benefits. The data also showed that 46.3% of foreign national welfare recipients are adults, age 18 to 54, and 47.8% are older than 54.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced that he will bring two immigration bills to the floor next week for a vote. The move managed to persuade two Republicans not to sign a discharge petition that would have forced several no-strings amnesty votes in the House.
Last Friday the Justice Department filed a brief that lays out how the Administration would like Judge Andrew Hanen to proceed in the DACA challenge brought by seven states. The brief, which supports the states’ challenge, marks the first time the Administrations has weighed in on the case. The Administration plan could send the matter back to the Supreme Court quickly, according to the Constitution Center.
The D.C. Circuit reversed the dismissal of a case challenging whether or not the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was authorized to create the Optional Practical Training program (OPT) and remanded the case back to the D.C. District Court last Friday. The court ruled against the agency's argument that the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), suing on behalf of American workers harmed by OPT, did not have standing to bring the suit. The court ruled that American workers do not have to prove they were rejected, after applying for a specific job that was later filled bya foreign national with OPT status.
In an opinion yesterday in the case Matter of A-B, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled that “claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not [generally] qualify for asylum…The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes — such as domestic violence or gang violence — or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.”
A recent poll was conducted by CBS News/YouGov of registered voters in so-called "battleground" Congressional Districts, or midterm elections for seats in the House of Representatives that the pollsters identified as "competitive" or "likely competitive."
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) requested in a letter addressed to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and DOL Secretary Alex Acosta that both the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) provide a written report, explaining in detail their departments' decision to expand the H-2B program.
DHS released border apprehension numbers for the month of May, and the numbers aren't good. Specifically, the release shows huge spikes in the number of unaccompanied children and family units attempting to cross the border illegally. Pres. Trump's tough talk on enforcement was able to slow the surge over his first year in office, but in year two, word has spread across the globe that his hands are tied when it comes to dealing with illegal border crossers unless Congress makes changes to existing law.