The Trump Administration saw the number of attempted illegal border crossings drastically drop by 40 percent in just one year. According to the DHS report released Tuesday on final border apprehension numbers for calendar year 2017, the Obama Administration oversaw 614,739 border arrests in its last year, compared to only 351,084 arrests in Pres. Trump’s first year.
DHS Secretary Kristjen Nielsen announced on Monday that the government will not renew the Temporary Protected Status for the country of El Salvador. El Salvador first received the status in 2001 after two earthquakes. TPS status will end on Sept. 9, 2019.
Senators Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) did not attend Wednesday’s hour-long meeting held by a bipartisan group of pro-amnesty Senators that has been collaborating on Dream amnesty legislation. The group, led by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), had been working on legislation that would pair a Dream amnesty with a few minor border improvements, failing to address any of Pres. Trump’s demands.
Pres. Trump once again called for an end to Chain Migration and the Visa Lottery in a meeting today with several Republican Senators who are negotiating with Democrats on DACA legislation. The President also called for an end to both programs over Twitter over the last week.
DHS department heads are drafting a “Buy American, Hire American” proposal that would prevent H-1B visa extensions beyond the six-year limit. If implemented, the proposed regulations would likely stop more than 100,000 foreign workers with pending green card applications from keeping their H-1B visas beyond the allowed two three-year terms, creating job opportunities for higher-skilled Americans.
The Justice Dept. announced yesterday that it settled an agreement with Crop Production Services, Inc., an agricultural company they filed a lawsuit against in September for violating the Immigration and Nationality Act by discriminating against American workers. This is the first settlement to resolve a lawsuit based on Pres. Trump’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order.
The Trump Administration announced Thursday its plans to end the Obama-era rule that allowed spouses of H-1B foreign workers to receive work permits.
The notice, which was published recently in the Unified Agenda, a semi-annual list of regulations under development by the federal agencies, stated that the DHS is reviewing the 2015 final rule in light of President Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” executive order.
Politico is reporting that Democrats are backing off their threat to oppose a year-end spending bill if it doesn’t include a DACA amnesty at the risk of being blamed for a government shutdown.
Democratic leaders eased their tone in recent days, and aren’t demanding that DACA be part of the year-end spending bill. Despite pressure coming from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to grant a permanent amnesty to all illegal aliens who received the unconstitutional DACA amnesty under Pres. Obama, Congressional leadership has become less aggressive in their push for DACA.