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.
For the moment, I have to say that I was relieved when the President got through his long State of the Union section on immigration.
There had been so much talk about the possibility of a big new announcement and about the efforts of at least a few inside the White House to put together some kind of new comprehensive compromise plan, I was braced for some major backtracking. I breathed a sigh of relief when he moved on to the trade issue without offering an amnesty or asking for larger guest worker programs.
With 28 pages of photo essays from TIME's correspondents and photographers around the world, the magazine warns readers that the Central American caravans at the U.S. southern border are just the beginning of millions more sure to follow out of the 258 million current international migrants outside their country of birth who are on the move.
The federal government is shut down, at least partially. The reason, we are told, is President Trump's demand for a "wall." That isn't really the President's demand, and that really isn't why we are at such an impasse.
A core part of NumbersUSA's mission is to provide a civil forum to discuss a single policy issue: the numerical level of immigration. With that goal in mind, here are ten immigration reads from 2018 to put us in a thoughtful and productive frame of mind for the new year.
In a series of tweets today, President Trump said he would "close the Southern Border entirely" if Democrats do not agree to fund the wall and to change the nation’s “ridiculous” asylum laws. The threats come on the seventh day of a partial government shutdown. At this point no votes are expected until Trump and Democratic leaders reach a funding deal.
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.
Thanks to the feckless Republican leadership, President Trump is unlikely to get funding for his border “wall” or legislative solutions for the Southwest border crisis before the new Congress. Democrats are now firmly against even a bad deal like a DACA amnesty/wall funding trade. He will either have to veto the next continuing resolution, hoping the Democrats will change their mind, or rethink how he can win against a Democrat-controlled House and filibuster-limited Senate. Since a pre-Christmas shutdown is likely to produce only animosity, President Trump should think about re-branding his "wall" to increase public support for a broader solution next year.