A memo from the Center for American Progress warns vulnerable Democrats to spend "as little time as possible" talking about immigration. Will open borders prove a bigger albatross than family separations? The last twelve months of immigration punditry provides some clues.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published an ambitious immigration regulatory agenda that includes rule proposals for the H-1B, H-4, H-2A, H-2B, F-1 and EB-5 visa programs as well as measures concerning asylum seekers, “public charges,” and migrant families. Many are designed to implement President Trump's America First agenda.
Christopher Browning, a professor of German history, published a long essay in The New York Review of Books. The topic wasn't a book review but a vituperative attack on President Trump, including a denunciation of those, Trump supporters or not, who seek to restrict immigration. It is shockingly shoddy work by someone of Browning's stature, and any effect it may have will only serve to inflame political passions.
ICE told Arizona Sheriffs it has run out of detention space to handle the number of migrants illegally crossing the border and presenting themselves at ports of entry. This lack of housing and the Flores Settlement’s 20-day release requirement forced ICE to release a large number of “family units" in Arizona all at once.
The Mexican government is reportedly stationing hundreds police and immigration agents at its southern border with Guatemala in advance of the arrival of a 2,000-person caravan of Hondurans that is traveling to the United States, according to one report. Another report indicates that Mexican immigration agents are trying to prevent migrants from accessing U.S. ports of entry.
The Trump Administration told the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that it will ask the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s injunction blocking the termination of DACA if the Appeals Court doesn’t issue a decision by Oct. 31. The Ninth Circuit heard arguments on May 15th but has yet to issue a ruling.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., this week said Senate Republicans are “committed to helping the president get wall funding” during the lame duck session. The Senate included $1.6 billion for wall funding in its 2019 spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security but McConnell wants to match the $5 billion figure set by the House Appropriations Committee.
Polling consistently shows that U.S. voters want to reduce the level of annual immigration. NumbersUSA polling in mid-term battleground states found that in all 25 states polled, a strong majority of likely voters prefer cuts to immigration over continuing to hand out one million lifetime work permits annually.
Vice President Mike Pence called on the leaders of the Central American counties that make up the Northern Triangle to take more steps to discourage illegal immigration to the United States. Many of the illegal border crossers in recent years have come from the Northern Triangle countries that include Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, including the majority of family units and unaccompanied alien children apprehended at the border.