The Republican Study Committee's budget proposal for FY2020 suggests reducing low-skilled immigration, requiring all businesses to use E-Verify, and increasing both border and interior enforcement. The budget outline provides a starting point for House GOP lawmakers considering the committee is comprised of 140 Republican House Members, or more than 70% of the caucus.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced an agreement on Thursday with Mexico that will keep asylum seekers in Mexico until their cases are heard by an immigration judge. Under the new agreement, migrants who ask for asylum at a port of entry or illegal aliens apprehended by border patrol who ask for asylum will be issued a court date and returned to Mexico. Mexico has agreed to allow any foreign citizen with an a notice to appear in court to stay in Mexico until the date arrives.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced today a 7-week spending bill that, if approved with Congress, would delay the fight over Pres. Trump's border security funding request until February. Congress risks a partial government shutdown if it doesn't pass legislation for nine agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, before the end of Friday.
When Democrats lost control of the House in 2010, a number of 'Blue Dog' Democrats who had earned B-grades or better through our immigration-reduction grade cards lost their seats. Since then, the Party has moved more and more towards supporting an expansion of legal immigration and less enforcement. Many of the newly elected Democrats will fill seats previously held by those 'Blue Dogs', but the lion's share of the incoming freshmen appear to be more in line with the national Party.
In its eagerness to attack Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Shareblue Media has a new website post that encourages Central American parents to take their children on the perilous journey through Mexico to illegally cross the U.S. border. The attack includes outlandish claims and makes no attempt at offering a solution to discourage illegal border crossers from placing their children's lives under the care of the murderous, transnational drug cartels that control much of the southern border.
The National ICE Council has announced its opposition to the Ryan Amnesty plan that the House is scheduled to vote on later this week. ICE Union President Chris Crane wrote that if the Ryan Amnesty passed, "it will have significant negative consequences for public safety and interior enforcement in general."
The Trump Administration called for an end to the Visa Lottery and Chain Migration in its National Security Strategy released earlier today. The document mostly focuses on non-immigration-related national security issues, but does highlight the Visa Lottery and Chain Migration as being possible threats to national security and public safety.
Most of the immigration talk over the last week has been about Pres. Trump's "border wall". Meanwhile, Congress continues to consider increases in H-2B visas for low-skilled foreign workers, and tens of thousands of American tech workers continue to suffer from flatlined wages and fewer job opportunities. Building the wall may have been Trump's most famous campaign pledge, but he also pledged to protect American workers from foreign worker competition.
DHS Secretary John Kelly has certainly been busy since the Senate confirmed his appointment last month, but two memos he signed yesterday are the most significant actions he's taken thus far. Kelly signed a memo titled "Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest" and another one titled "Implementing the President's Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements Policies" providing guidance to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, and USCIS on how to execute Pres. Trump's Jan. 25 executive orders.