Week of April 16–22, 2023

WASHINGTON — House Republicans released sweeping immigration legislation on Monday that would tighten asylum eligibility, expand migrant family detention and crack down on the employment of undocumented workers.

The 137-page proposed bill represents the legislative response to high levels of migration on the U.S.-Mexico border from House Republicans, who have made border security a focal point of their new majority. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill Wednesday.

But the legislation may still face hurdles to make it through the House, given internal disagreement within the House Republican caucus over border security. It’s also unlikely to gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The committee action will follow previous delays on a border security measure, and the newest bill reflects some of the behind-the-scenes negotiations that have occurred over the past several weeks.

For example, the new legislation includes only some of the language from a border security bill introduced by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. Last December, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., had included Roy’s bill in a list of so-called “ready-to-go” legislation that would be brought to the House floor for a vote “in the first two weeks of 2023.”

But consideration of Roy’s bill was bumped in January after several House Republicans raised concerns that the bill went too far to restrict asylum.

The new bill includes provisions from Roy’s bill that would authorize the Homeland Security chief to block any foreign citizen from entering the U.S. if the official decides it “is necessary in order to achieve operational control over such border.”

But it does not include language from Roy’s bill that would also bar the government from allowing in asylum-seekers unless they can be detained or returned to Mexico.

The Judiciary Committee’s latest proposal — initially discussed as eight separate bills, according to congressional aides — was set to be released last month. But House Republican leaders asked Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio to delay those markups until after the House’s two-week April recess.

The House Homeland Security is also expected to release a counterpart border security measure. Chairman Mark E. Green of Tennessee said in March that his committee’s border bill would be released in mid-April. A Homeland Security committee aide said Monday that bill would be released soon.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California cannot lose more than four Republican votes, assuming full attendance and no Democratic support, for bills to pass on the floor with his narrow majority.

The Judiciary Committee’s bill, introduced by Reps. Tom McClintock of California and Andy Biggs of Arizona, would revive several Trump-era programs to significantly limit asylum eligibility for migrants traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The bill would restrict eligibility from migrants who have traveled through another country en route to the U.S., and had not first attempted to seek protection in the other country, a policy reminiscent of the Trump administration’s “safe third country” agreements.

House GOP plows ahead on risky immigration plan

Judiciary Committee Republicans advanced a sweeping border plan after weeks of closed-door negotiations.

House Republicans dug in Wednesday on a two-track strategy to project commitment to border security. Both tracks seem headed toward failure.

On one side, Judiciary Committee Republicans advanced a sweeping border and immigration plan after weeks of closed-door negotiations. Meanwhile, Republicans are also quietly laying the groundwork to potentially impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, using an hours-long appearance before the Homeland Security panel to preview their argument amid a cascade of GOP fury over his handling of the border.

The border bill and Mayorkas impeachment already faced heavy skepticism from a coalition of GOP centrists that’s showing no signs of fading. Centrists have raised fears that the immigration plan goes too far in limiting asylum claims, while also blanching at conservative demands to take the historic step of impeaching a Cabinet official.

Though neither House GOP effort has a chance at success in the Democratic-controlled Senate, a failure to get border security measures through the one chamber of Congress they control would mark a significant stumble for Republicans on an issue highly important to their base.

“I am confident leadership will not bring anything to the floor that does not have the votes to pass. … However long that takes, that’s what you want,” said Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), a vocal critic of the Judiciary Committee’s bill.

Criticism from purple-district Republicans amounts to a political tee-ball pitch for Democrats, who are all too happy to cite their GOP colleagues in making their case against the immigration legislation.

“This bill has no chance of being enacted into law, and most of its provisions cannot even pass on the House floor because of opposition from Republicans,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), his party’s top member on the Judiciary panel.

In a nod toward Gonzales, Nadler added that Republicans “should heed the advice of one of their own.”

While the intra-GOP fight has blasted to the forefront, given the Judiciary Committee’s advancement of the border security bill Wednesday, Gonzales remains locked in a months-long public spat with Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who has vocally pushed more conservative immigration measures.

Though Roy’s bill isn’t in the Judiciary package, pieces of the committee’s proposed changes to asylum laws closely reflect sections of the Texas Republican’s plan.

Many Republicans defended the Judiciary Committee bill, arguing it was needed to push back against more than two years of Biden administration policies, and, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) added, “to restore the successful Trump policy.” Republicans argue the border influx was much more manageable under the former president, when the Trump administration placed drastic limits on migrants’ ability to claim asylum.

Republicans, more broadly, view the issue as a potent one heading into 2024, where they are hoping to win back the White House and flip the Senate by ousting a handful of Democrats running in red and purple states.

But, Democrats aren’t making it easy for Republicans to pass the legislation, offering a slew of potential changes that could appeal to skeptical centrists.

For example, they unsuccessfully offered multiple amendments to alter, or remove, a section that would beef up e-verify requirements, which require that certain businesses check the citizenship status of their employees.

Opponents of the bill are hoping they will find allies on the floor with agriculture-minded Republicans like Reps. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) against the broader bill.

“I’m surprised that this bill is in here, frankly. … It’s never been able to pass on the House floor,” Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said about the GOP’s e-verify language.

The immigration package is likely to clear the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday without getting tangled in GOP infighting, in part because the panel is stocked with conservatives. But what can clear that panel, Republicans acknowledge, isn’t automatically reflective of what could get 218 votes on the House floor.

And Republicans have set an ambitious goal to clear legislation through the chamber by the middle of next month.

In the meantime, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a vote on its own border bill next week. The Rules Committee is then expected to merge the two proposals, allowing Republicans to make more changes before a final product gets to the floor.

The Homeland Security panel had initially been expected to hold a vote on its proposal this week, but that was delayed by Mayorkas’ scheduled testimony. And Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the panel’s chair, reportedly told donors this month that he believed his committee was making the case for Mayorkas’ impeachment — a move that would require near-total House GOP unity to succeed.

Republicans have so far rolled out two impeachment resolutions against Mayorkas, and neither has won over even close to a majority of the House GOP conference.

One, from Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), currently has 42 cosponsors, while a separate resolution from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) has 32. Democrats, and some GOP lawmakers, have warned that their colleagues are equating a policy disagreement — namely, that Mayorkas isn’t appropriately handling increased migration levels — to a high crime or misdemeanor.

“I was dismayed to see that, speaking to a group of campaign contributors last week about today’s hearing, the chairman said, and I quote, ‘Get the popcorn, it’s going to be fun.’ I think that tells Americans all they need to know,” said Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee.

Underscoring the competing pressures within their own party, Republicans found themselves at odds with one of their own during Wednesday’s hearing when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called Mayorkas a “liar.”

Green, the panel’s chair, ultimately ruled that her remarks went against committee rules and formally struck them from the hearing record — a rare step that is even more rarely taken against a member of the same party. The dust-up generated frustrations and headlines of its own, threatening to put a focus back on intra-party tensions.

But Republicans also used Wednesday’s Homeland Security hearing to zero in on the GOP’s argument for impeachment, with Green telling Mayorkas: “You have not secured our borders, and I believe you’ve done so intentionally.”

Republican border package sparks debate at House Judiciary panel

A Republican called the immigration bill 'essential,' while a Democrat dubbed it 'pure political theater'

House Judiciary Committee members accused each other of partisan posturing and political theater in an hourslong meeting Wednesday on a Republican border security proposal that would impose sweeping restrictions on asylum access at the border.

The committee debated a 137-page bill unveiled by House Republicans this week that would restrict asylum eligibility, increase penalties for immigration violations, heighten employment verification requirements and expand migrant family detention.

The House Homeland Security Committee also plans to release a counterpart proposal that focuses on border infrastructure, which is expected to be considered by that committee next week.

Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who chairs the Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, said the committee’s package is a combination of bills from eight different lawmakers. He called the legislation “essential” in his opening remarks.

But Democrats launched criticisms early and often. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, slammed the legislative proposal as “nothing more than pure political theater.”

“This bill has no chance of being enacted into law, and most of its provisions cannot even pass on the House floor because of opposition from Republicans,” Nadler said. “That’s right: these Republican bills are so extreme that they’re opposed by many of their own members.”

Nadler asked Republicans to “go back to the drawing board,” and he said “Democrats stand ready to work with you.”

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee’s immigration panel, said Republicans’ bill “is not a serious proposal.”

Democratic Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California said that if Republicans were “sincere and interested in solving this problem,” they would have worked with Democrats “instead of taking up a bill which, if it can even muster up the support of their own party to pass the House, will surely go no farther than that.”

Even Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, after saying he did “not have high expectations for today,” called on his colleagues to engage in bipartisan immigration discussions.

“If we’re going to have the kind of markup today that I suspect we’re going to have, let us at least meet afterwards and have the discussion about the fact that America does want and need to be welcoming,” Issa said.

Back and forth

Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, one of the most vocal lawmakers on border security, said criticisms of the bill “make for nice splashy soundbites on Twitter or show for the television to get out and send out as clips.”

Roy pointed to New York Times articles that reported the Department of Homeland Security lost contact with migrant children, and some of them worked jobs, and called the administration’s current approach a “lawless morass.”

“Yes, we are putting forward measures today to ensure our system works, because a system that works begins with the rule of law and ensuring that people are protected,” Roy said.

The bill would ensure that the administration can no longer use asylum as parole “to end run the rule of law to release people in the United States in ways that causes 85,000 children to get lost,” Roy said.

“Children in these articles getting sold into the human trafficking business, the sex trafficking business, all while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to tout how compassionate they are,” Roy said. “Well go campaign on that.”

During the markup, which was ongoing as of 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening, Democrats proposed amendments such as one that would strike a provision that would require businesses to electronically verify that their employees have authorization to work in the U.S.

Another amendment sought to exempt migrants fleeing communism or totalitarian regimes from the proposed asylum restrictions. Both amendments were rejected.

Early opposition

The border security legislative proposal, released publicly on Monday, has faced early opposition from other House Republicans. Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales has raised concerns that an earlier version went too far to restrict asylum.

Gonzales, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told reporters that he continues to have “a lot” of problems with the Judiciary Committee’s border package.

“And it’s not just me. I think there’s a lot of members that have a lot of issues with what they saw yesterday. 137 pages of a lot of issues,” Gonzales said.

Gonzales has also threatened to vote against raising the debt ceiling if a border bill stripping away legal migration pathways goes to the House floor.

Still, House Republicans leading the efforts maintained their bill will pass on the House floor, despite Republicans’ narrow majority in the chamber.

McClintock and Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, another Judiciary Committee member, predicted this week in interviews that the border bill would advance out of committee.

Rep. Mark E. Green, the Homeland Security Committee chairman, said he believed the Judiciary and Homeland Security committee bills would be combined on the floor and would pass in the House.

Green also pointed to Senate Democrats’ recent decision to join Republicans in voting to overturn a Washington, D.C., crime bill as evidence that his bill could even have legs in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

“We’ll pass it on the floor of the House, but the Senate, I don’t… but hey who knows? They said they were not gonna vote for the D.C. crime bill and they did it,” Green said Tuesday. “I’m not ruling it out.”

Rescued migrants look out to sea on the Geo Barents rescue ship, operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), as the ship makes its way to the Italian port of Bari, in the central Mediterranean Sea March 25, 2023. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo

ROME, April 19 (Reuters) - Italy's nationalist government approved a bill in the upper house of parliament on Thursday that aims to reduce the number of migrants who can claim some form of asylum and curb integration efforts.

The bill, which still needs the approval of the lower house to become law, was drawn up after a shipwreck off southern Italy in February that killed more than 90 migrants.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said the legislation, which includes tougher jail terms for human smugglers, is intended to dissuade people from putting their trust in traffickers and trying to reach Italy illegally.

Critics say the bill is repressive and will do nothing to halt the flow of migrants seeking a better life in Europe, but will instead force ever more newcomers into illegality.

Among the most contested measures is a decision to eliminate "special protection" residency permits that authorities can offer migrants who don't qualify for asylum, but who face humanitarian risks back home, or have family ties in Italy.

The government said the system was being abused, noting that in 2022 authorities had handed out 10,506 special protection permits against 7,494 permits offering refugee status and 7,039 that granted a separate form of international protection.

The bill also halts state-funded Italian language courses and eliminates legal advice services for migrants hosted in official reception centres.

Italy has seen a recent surge in arrivals by boat migrants, with 34,715 people reaching the country from Jan. 1- April 19, against 8,669 in the same period last year, alarming Meloni, who took office in 2022 promising to reduce migrant flows.

Earlier this week, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said Italians were at risk of "ethnic replacement", drawing criticism from centre-left parties who accused him of promoting white supremacy - a charge he has rejected.

Opposition senators urged the government to do more to help migrants be absorbed into the workplace, saying Italy needed hundreds of thousands of new workers as the population declines.

"Why if you are enemies of illegal immigration are you doing all you can to push people into illegality," said Ivan Scalfarotto, a senator with the centrist Italia Viva party.

Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alex Richardson

Biden is ignoring immigration issues, voters say in poll

The exclusive poll comes three weeks before the Biden administration plans to end Title 42.

President Joe Biden’s immigration problem isn’t just about policy. It’s that he’s not talking about the issue enough, voters say in a new survey from a Democratic polling firm.

Fifty-eight percent of voters in seven key Electoral College battleground states disapprove of how the president is handling immigration, compared with 32 percent who approve, according to a new swing-state poll from Global Strategy Group first shared with POLITICO. And a majority of voters surveyed, at 52 percent, believe Biden is ignoring problems at the border, while 50 percent said the president is ignoring the situation around undocumented immigrants.

Republicans talk more about immigration than Democrats, and they are trusted more to handle the issue, according to the poll. Both parties get low marks for how they are handling immigration, but Democrats face greater criticism because voters don’t know where the party falls on the issue. Thirty-nine percent of voters trust Biden and Democrats in Congress more on the immigration issue, while 47 percent said they trust Republican lawmakers more.

The new poll — conducted on behalf of immigrant advocacy group Immigration Hub and Voto Latino, a political organization focused on Latino voter turnout — comes three weeks before the administration plans to end Title 42, the Trump-era policy that has allowed border agents to immediately expel millions of migrants on public health grounds for the past three years. Biden administration officials fear a surge at the border upon the policy’s expiration next month and have turned to more restrictive measures to tamp down a record number of migrants fleeing political and economic turmoil.

The White House should seize on the opportunity to get ahead of Republicans’ growing chatter leading up to the May 11 end date, said Beatriz Lopez, Immigration Hub’s chief political and communications officer.

“It’s comms 101. Get ahead of the narrative. Talk about what you’re doing. Talk about what you plan to do,” Lopez said. “But it’s talking about both — not just the border but also what they’re planning to do to protect Dreamers and others who are every bit a part of the American community. That balanced approach is what works with voters.”

The shift in border policy is expected to be a major political test for the Biden White House, which has rolled out a patchwork of solutions to combat a growing humanitarian crisis at the southern border. The Biden administration is also dealing with a gridlocked Congress, although lawmakers have long been unable to compromise on how to fix an outdated immigration system.

“The fact is that in the 820 days since he sent Congress a comprehensive immigration reform bill, President Biden has taken unprecedented action to expand lawful immigration pathways, limit unlawful immigration, protect Dreamers and farmworkers, and increase border security. Because of this administration’s work, unlawful immigration is down, legal immigration is up, we’ve got record funds for border security, and thousands of smugglers are now off the streets,” White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in a statement.

“Meanwhile, all that House Republicans have managed to ‘accomplish’ since taking their (slim) majority is voting to abruptly lift Title 42 overnight with no plan in place for what comes next, proposing draconian funding cuts to border security, and playing partisan political games that do nothing to actually fix our long-broken immigration system.”

House Republicans unveiled immigration legislation this week, with plans to further restrict asylum, expand family detention and crack down on the employment of undocumented workers. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill Wednesday, though the measure has little chance of making it through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) also unveiled a plan on Tuesday that relies on the White House taking executive action to address immigration. He shared his plan with the White House and other federal agencies, with ideas for creating new pathways to citizenship, increasing humanitarian aid for certain countries, increasing border security funding and expanding efforts to target human traffickers.

Menendez’s suggestions come as the Biden administration prepares for a spike in border crossings come May, already the busiest time of year for migration. In addition to relying on more stringent immigration proposals to restrict entry to asylum-seeking migrants, the administration has discussed reinstating the detention of migrant families — drawing great backlash from immigration advocates, lawyers and Democrats.

More than eight-in-10 voters in the poll — 82 percent — believe the immigration system is broken, and they want to see both enhanced border security and policies that provide a pathway to citizenship, such as work permits for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and Temporary Protected Status for other migrants.

Sixty-five percent of respondents have a positive view of “modernizing and improving the physical infrastructure at high-volume ports of entry to enhance screening and processing,” while 76 percent want Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. to gain legal status if certain requirements are met, including background checks. Sixty-four percent of voters back the Biden administration using its TPS authority.

“Voters disapprove of the job both parties are doing on immigration because they see the system as deeply broken and in desperate need of a fix,” said Nick Gourevitch, partner and managing director at Global Strategy Group. “Recent polling shows voters clearly want Washington to act with solutions that are balanced — that include both border security and pathways to citizenship and legal status for Dreamers and other immigrants.”

The Biden administration announced plans last week to expand health care coverage to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but great concern remains about the fate of the popular Obama-era program, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to receive work permits and deportation relief. After a flurry of court challenges, advocates and legal experts warn the program is headed to the Supreme Court, where the conservative bench seems likely to rule it illegal.

The online poll surveyed 1,201 likely 2024 general election voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between April 4-11. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 points.

IMMIGRATION

Fire in Ciudad Juárez: binational immigration systems fail Central, South American victims

April 20, 2023

On March 27, a fire in a federal migrant detention center in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, killed 40 people. Six people have been issued arrest orders for homicide and causing injuries, but the ones responsible for incarcerating these migrants and upholding the migration systems which led these detention facilities to exist, have escaped accountability.

The Mexican Nation Institute of Immigration (INM) was detaining 68 migrants from Central and South America in these facilities. Some of them were waiting for their asylum request under Title 42 and others were recently confined after the police raided Juarez and detained the migrants that were cleaning car windows, selling candy or begging for money.

Dr. Carlos Martinez — an assistant professor of Migrant Health & Social Justice in the Latin American & Latino Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz — and Mayte Elizalde — Communications Officer with the Hope Border Institute — share similar views regarding the fire in Juarez.

“These are all unfortunately ongoing outcomes of the militarization and bureaucratization of the border and several asylum policies that the U.S is implementing with Mexico,” Martinez said.

Martinez argues that Mexico has been becoming a migrant prison for people in transit from Latin America and the Caribbean to the U.S., and changes in asylum policies has forced migrants to now be stuck in Mexican border cities and detention centers. The U.S. is outsourcing asylum, and preventing migrants from even accessing the system.

The Hope Border Institute does urgent humanitarian work in Juarez and policy work in El Paso. Elizalde lives in El Paso and regularly visits the Clinica Hope.

“Here in the U.S., there is not really a response to the migration crisis but more implementation of inhumane policies and no one is really trying to resolve the issue but just packing on it and blame shifting between Mexico and the U.S,” Elizalde said.

Martinez noted that the Obama administration started this system of placing limits at ports of entry, but then under Trump it became an institutionalized bureaucratic practice that was implemented across all ports of entries of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The overall asylum system is racist, classist and part of a major geopolitical project, with the most obvious example [being] the Ukrainian asylum seekers who are treated vastly differently from anywhere in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Martinez said.

Under President Biden’s humanitarian protocols, Ukrainians seeking asylum in the U.S. are not subject to any sort of caps for the number of asylum seekers coming from there.

“Ukraine is going through a very horrible situation right now,” Martinez said. “But arguably, all of these places and these people fleeing are. How did we end up valuing life in this highly unequal way?”

When Trump instituted Title 42, it nearly shut down asylum in the U.S., and now with people requesting asylum, they’re forced to wait in Mexico.

“They are already fleeing horrible conditions,” Elizalde said. “They are scared and have endured a long journey, fleeing from a country with economic, environmental, political and social issues. And they come here hoping for the best and for a better future, to wait for their appointment for asylum and be treated horribly in Mexico.”

The United Nations and Human Rights watch have released several reports in regard to Mexico’s migrant detention centers, highlighting the lack of basic necessities, such as running water, as well as respect for the human rights of the people detained in and outside of them in Mexican border cities.

“Most of the people that I have met in these shelters are scared of being on the streets of Juarez because of the constant Mexican police harassment and abuse of authority, together with organized crime and violence,” Elizalde said.

The Federal Attorney General’s Office in Mexico is investigating the fire. So far, six arrest warrants have been issued and Mexico’s National Immigration Institute head officer will be charged.

“I do not think the arrest warrants are going to solve or change conditions for migrants. This fire is a small bit of a mass phenomenon that will not end until we return the right to migrants to request asylum, the U.S. abolishes Title 42, and restores the asylum system in the first place.”

Dr. Carlos Martinez, UC Santa Cruz assistant professor of Migrant Health & Social Justice

Likewise, Elizalde said Mexico and U.S. governments should reexamine the systems they have created for these people in these specific regions of the world.

“How do you let 40 people die and how can we make sure it will not happen again? More and more people will get stuck in Mexico detention facilities and as of today, Mexico is not prepared to provide a decent space for them to wait for the asylum trial,” Elizalde said.

The message is simple. People should not be confined in detention centers in the first place. And to quote the poet Francesca Gargallo: ​​“La calle es de quien la camina, las fronteras son asesinas”.

ROME, April 19 (Reuters) - Italy's nationalist government approved a bill in the upper house of parliament on Thursday that aims to reduce the number of migrants who can claim some form of asylum and curb integration efforts.

The bill, which still needs the approval of the lower house to become law, was drawn up after a shipwreck off southern Italy in February that killed more than 90 migrants.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said the legislation, which includes tougher jail terms for human smugglers, is intended to dissuade people from putting their trust in traffickers and trying to reach Italy illegally.

Critics say the bill is repressive and will do nothing to halt the flow of migrants seeking a better life in Europe, but will instead force ever more newcomers into illegality.

Among the most contested measures is a decision to eliminate "special protection" residency permits that authorities can offer migrants who don't qualify for asylum, but who face humanitarian risks back home, or have family ties in Italy.

The government said the system was being abused, noting that in 2022 authorities had handed out 10,506 special protection permits against 7,494 permits offering refugee status and 7,039 that granted a separate form of international protection.

The bill also halts state-funded Italian language courses and eliminates legal advice services for migrants hosted in official reception centres.

Italy has seen a recent surge in arrivals by boat migrants, with 34,715 people reaching the country from Jan. 1- April 19, against 8,669 in the same period last year, alarming Meloni, who took office in 2022 promising to reduce migrant flows.

Earlier this week, Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said Italians were at risk of "ethnic replacement", drawing criticism from centre-left parties who accused him of promoting white supremacy - a charge he has rejected.

Opposition senators urged the government to do more to help migrants be absorbed into the workplace, saying Italy needed hundreds of thousands of new workers as the population declines.

"Why if you are enemies of illegal immigration are you doing all you can to push people into illegality," said Ivan Scalfarotto, a senator with the centrist Italia Viva party.

Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alex Richardson

Biden is ignoring immigration issues, voters say in poll

The exclusive poll comes three weeks before the Biden administration plans to end Title 42.

President Joe Biden’s immigration problem isn’t just about policy. It’s that he’s not talking about the issue enough, voters say in a new survey from a Democratic polling firm.

Fifty-eight percent of voters in seven key Electoral College battleground states disapprove of how the president is handling immigration, compared with 32 percent who approve, according to a new swing-state poll from Global Strategy Group first shared with POLITICO. And a majority of voters surveyed, at 52 percent, believe Biden is ignoring problems at the border, while 50 percent said the president is ignoring the situation around undocumented immigrants.

Republicans talk more about immigration than Democrats, and they are trusted more to handle the issue, according to the poll. Both parties get low marks for how they are handling immigration, but Democrats face greater criticism because voters don’t know where the party falls on the issue. Thirty-nine percent of voters trust Biden and Democrats in Congress more on the immigration issue, while 47 percent said they trust Republican lawmakers more.

The new poll — conducted on behalf of immigrant advocacy group Immigration Hub and Voto Latino, a political organization focused on Latino voter turnout — comes three weeks before the administration plans to end Title 42, the Trump-era policy that has allowed border agents to immediately expel millions of migrants on public health grounds for the past three years. Biden administration officials fear a surge at the border upon the policy’s expiration next month and have turned to more restrictive measures to tamp down a record number of migrants fleeing political and economic turmoil.

The White House should seize on the opportunity to get ahead of Republicans’ growing chatter leading up to the May 11 end date, said Beatriz Lopez, Immigration Hub’s chief political and communications officer.

“It’s comms 101. Get ahead of the narrative. Talk about what you’re doing. Talk about what you plan to do,” Lopez said. “But it’s talking about both — not just the border but also what they’re planning to do to protect Dreamers and others who are every bit a part of the American community. That balanced approach is what works with voters.”

The shift in border policy is expected to be a major political test for the Biden White House, which has rolled out a patchwork of solutions to combat a growing humanitarian crisis at the southern border. The Biden administration is also dealing with a gridlocked Congress, although lawmakers have long been unable to compromise on how to fix an outdated immigration system.

“The fact is that in the 820 days since he sent Congress a comprehensive immigration reform bill, President Biden has taken unprecedented action to expand lawful immigration pathways, limit unlawful immigration, protect Dreamers and farmworkers, and increase border security. Because of this administration’s work, unlawful immigration is down, legal immigration is up, we’ve got record funds for border security, and thousands of smugglers are now off the streets,” White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in a statement.

“Meanwhile, all that House Republicans have managed to ‘accomplish’ since taking their (slim) majority is voting to abruptly lift Title 42 overnight with no plan in place for what comes next, proposing draconian funding cuts to border security, and playing partisan political games that do nothing to actually fix our long-broken immigration system.”

House Republicans unveiled immigration legislation this week, with plans to further restrict asylum, expand family detention and crack down on the employment of undocumented workers. The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill Wednesday, though the measure has little chance of making it through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) also unveiled a plan on Tuesday that relies on the White House taking executive action to address immigration. He shared his plan with the White House and other federal agencies, with ideas for creating new pathways to citizenship, increasing humanitarian aid for certain countries, increasing border security funding and expanding efforts to target human traffickers.

Menendez’s suggestions come as the Biden administration prepares for a spike in border crossings come May, already the busiest time of year for migration. In addition to relying on more stringent immigration proposals to restrict entry to asylum-seeking migrants, the administration has discussed reinstating the detention of migrant families — drawing great backlash from immigration advocates, lawyers and Democrats.

More than eight-in-10 voters in the poll — 82 percent — believe the immigration system is broken, and they want to see both enhanced border security and policies that provide a pathway to citizenship, such as work permits for Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and Temporary Protected Status for other migrants.

Sixty-five percent of respondents have a positive view of “modernizing and improving the physical infrastructure at high-volume ports of entry to enhance screening and processing,” while 76 percent want Dreamers and other undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. to gain legal status if certain requirements are met, including background checks. Sixty-four percent of voters back the Biden administration using its TPS authority.

“Voters disapprove of the job both parties are doing on immigration because they see the system as deeply broken and in desperate need of a fix,” said Nick Gourevitch, partner and managing director at Global Strategy Group. “Recent polling shows voters clearly want Washington to act with solutions that are balanced — that include both border security and pathways to citizenship and legal status for Dreamers and other immigrants.”

The Biden administration announced plans last week to expand health care coverage to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but great concern remains about the fate of the popular Obama-era program, which has allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to receive work permits and deportation relief. After a flurry of court challenges, advocates and legal experts warn the program is headed to the Supreme Court, where the conservative bench seems likely to rule it illegal.

The online poll surveyed 1,201 likely 2024 general election voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between April 4-11. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 points.

Fire in Ciudad Juárez: binational immigration systems fail Central, South American victims

On March 27, a fire in a federal migrant detention center in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, killed 40 people. Six people have been issued arrest orders for homicide and causing injuries, but the ones responsible for incarcerating these migrants and upholding the migration systems which led these detention facilities to exist, have escaped accountability.

The Mexican Nation Institute of Immigration (INM) was detaining 68 migrants from Central and South America in these facilities. Some of them were waiting for their asylum request under Title 42 and others were recently confined after the police raided Juarez and detained the migrants that were cleaning car windows, selling candy or begging for money.

Dr. Carlos Martinez — an assistant professor of Migrant Health & Social Justice in the Latin American & Latino Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz — and Mayte Elizalde — Communications Officer with the Hope Border Institute — share similar views regarding the fire in Juarez.

“These are all unfortunately ongoing outcomes of the militarization and bureaucratization of the border and several asylum policies that the U.S is implementing with Mexico,” Martinez said.

Martinez argues that Mexico has been becoming a migrant prison for people in transit from Latin America and the Caribbean to the U.S., and changes in asylum policies has forced migrants to now be stuck in Mexican border cities and detention centers. The U.S. is outsourcing asylum, and preventing migrants from even accessing the system.

The Hope Border Institute does urgent humanitarian work in Juarez and policy work in El Paso. Elizalde lives in El Paso and regularly visits the Clinica Hope.

“Here in the U.S., there is not really a response to the migration crisis but more implementation of inhumane policies and no one is really trying to resolve the issue but just packing on it and blame shifting between Mexico and the U.S,” Elizalde said.

Martinez noted that the Obama administration started this system of placing limits at ports of entry, but then under Trump it became an institutionalized bureaucratic practice that was implemented across all ports of entries of the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The overall asylum system is racist, classist and part of a major geopolitical project, with the most obvious example [being] the Ukrainian asylum seekers who are treated vastly differently from anywhere in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Martinez said.

Under President Biden’s humanitarian protocols, Ukrainians seeking asylum in the U.S. are not subject to any sort of caps for the number of asylum seekers coming from there.

“Ukraine is going through a very horrible situation right now,” Martinez said. “But arguably, all of these places and these people fleeing are. How did we end up valuing life in this highly unequal way?”

When Trump instituted Title 42, it nearly shut down asylum in the U.S., and now with people requesting asylum, they’re forced to wait in Mexico.

“They are already fleeing horrible conditions,” Elizalde said. “They are scared and have endured a long journey, fleeing from a country with economic, environmental, political and social issues. And they come here hoping for the best and for a better future, to wait for their appointment for asylum and be treated horribly in Mexico.”

The United Nations and Human Rights watch have released several reports in regard to Mexico’s migrant detention centers, highlighting the lack of basic necessities, such as running water, as well as respect for the human rights of the people detained in and outside of them in Mexican border cities.

“Most of the people that I have met in these shelters are scared of being on the streets of Juarez because of the constant Mexican police harassment and abuse of authority, together with organized crime and violence,” Elizalde said.

The Federal Attorney General’s Office in Mexico is investigating the fire. So far, six arrest warrants have been issued and Mexico’s National Immigration Institute head officer will be charged.

“I do not think the arrest warrants are going to solve or change conditions for migrants. This fire is a small bit of a mass phenomenon that will not end until we return the right to migrants to request asylum, the U.S. abolishes Title 42, and restores the asylum system in the first place.”

Dr. Carlos Martinez, UC Santa Cruz assistant professor of Migrant Health & Social Justice

Likewise, Elizalde said Mexico and U.S. governments should reexamine the systems they have created for these people in these specific regions of the world.

“How do you let 40 people die and how can we make sure it will not happen again? More and more people will get stuck in Mexico detention facilities and as of today, Mexico is not prepared to provide a decent space for them to wait for the asylum trial,” Elizalde said.

The message is simple. People should not be confined in detention centers in the first place. And to quote the poet Francesca Gargallo: ​​“La calle es de quien la camina, las fronteras son asesinas”.

Justice Department Secures Agreement with Micron Technology to Resolve a Claim of Immigration-Related Employment Discrimination

The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a settlement agreement with Micron Technology Inc. (Micron), a manufacturer of semiconductor memory and storage products based in Boise, Idaho. The settlement resolves the department’s determination that Micron violated the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by discriminating against a U.S. citizen when it failed to hire him for a position and instead hired a temporary visa worker.

“Companies cannot unlawfully discriminate against a job applicant because they prefer to hire someone with a different citizenship or immigration status,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will continue to hold companies accountable, both big and small, for their violations of this federal civil rights law.”

The department’s investigation began when a U.S. citizen worker complained that Micron unfairly denied him employment because of his citizenship status. The department determined that Micron unlawfully preferred a temporary visa worker for the position, failing to meaningfully consider the U.S. citizen’s qualifications. Under the INA, employers cannot discriminate based on citizenship, immigration status or national origin at any stage of the hiring process, unless required or allowed by law.

Under the settlement, Micron will pay a civil penalty to the United States and offer back pay totaling $85,000 to the affected worker. Additionally, Micron will train its staff on the INA’s anti-discrimination provision, change its policies and procedures and be subject to departmental monitoring for a two-year period.

The Civil Rights Division’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER) is responsible for enforcing the anti-discrimination provision of the INA. This law prohibits discrimination based on citizenship status and national origin in hiring, firing or recruitment or referral for a fee; unfair documentary practices; and retaliation and intimidation.

Learn more about IER’s work and how to get assistance through this brief video. Find more information on how employers can avoid discrimination when hiring and recruiting on IER’s websiteoutreach materials. Applicants or employees who believe they were discriminated against based on their citizenship, immigration status, or national origin in hiring, firing, recruitment or during the employment eligibility verification process (Form I-9 and E-Verify); or subjected to retaliation, may file a charge. The public can also call IER’s worker hotline at 1-800-255-7688 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); call IER’s employer hotline at 1-800-255-8155 (1-800-237-2515, TTY for hearing impaired); email IER@usdoj.gov; sign up for a free webinar; or visit IER’s English and Spanish websites. Subscribe to here to receive updates from IER.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) reintroduced the bicameral Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, legislation that targets the inhumane conditions of detention centers and protects the civil and human rights of immigrants. U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Adam Smith (D-WA) reintroduced the companion bill in the House.

Specifically, the legislation would:

Stop future attempts to reinstate family detention

End the use of private prisons and county jails to detain immigrants

Set humane standards for detention facilities

Increase oversight of these facilities to eliminate abuse, and

Better protect the civil rights of immigrant detainees.

"Our immigration system has allowed for the unjust treatment of immigrants and stripped them of their humanity and due process. We must respect and protect the basic rights of immigrants detained in the United States. I am proud to reintroduce this bill that would ensure our immigration system aligns with our country’s core values,” said Senator Booker.

“There’s no question that our immigration system is broken,” said Representative Jayapal. “The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act urgently reforms the alarming injustices of a broken, for-profit immigration detention system by ending the use of private detention facilities altogether, repealing mandatory detention, and prohibiting family detention while also restoring due process and increasing oversight, accountability, and transparency measures. This is a measure that will go a long way to restore humanity and dignity to the immigration system.”

“We cannot wait any longer to reform our broken immigration system to ensure it is humane and just,” said Representative Smith. “The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would overhaul our immigration detention system by ending mandatory detention, promoting community-based alternatives, and ending the use of private, for-profit detention centers that have a shameful history of prioritizing their own profits over the civil and human rights of children and families. This bill is a crucial step forward to bringing due process back to our immigration system and centering the humanity and dignity of people who come to our country to build a better life. I thank my colleagues Congresswoman Jayapal and Senator Booker for their leadership on this issue.”

The legislation would inject much-needed justice and oversight in the American immigration system by taking steps to:

Repeal mandatory detention;

Prohibit the detention of families and children in family detention;

Phase-out the use of private detention facilities and jails over a three-year period

Create a presumption of release and impose a higher burden of proof to detain primary caregivers and vulnerable populations, including asylum seekers, pregnant women, LGBTQ individuals, survivors of torture or gender-based violence, and people under age 21;

Prohibit the detention of anyone under age 18 in a facility operated or contracted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);

Require DHS to establish civil detention standards that provide, at minimum, the level of protection in the American Bar Association’s Civil Immigration Detention Standards;

Mandate the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to conduct unannounced inspections with meaningful penalties for failure to comply with standards.

The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).

The full text of the bill can be found here.

Immigrant-advocacy groups drop lawsuit over migrant flight issue

Marthas Vineyard residents line up in front of St. Andrews Parish House to donate food to the recently arrived migrants. Two planes of migrants from Venezuela arrived suddenly Wednesday night on Martha's Vineyard.

Immigrant-advocacy groups have dropped a lawsuit filed after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration flew 49 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last year.

Lawyers for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, Americans for Immigrant Justice and Hope CommUnity Center filed a notice Wednesday in federal court in South Florida to dismiss the case.

The notice did not detail the reasons, but the lawsuit was based on a now-moot part of the state budget that was used to fund the flights, which sparked a national controversy.

Lawmakers included $12 million in the budget for the Department of Transportation to carry out a “program to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.”

The DeSantis administration used $615,000 of that money to pay Vertol Systems Company, Inc. to fly the migrants Sept. 14 from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, with a brief stop in the Northwest Florida community of Crestview.

But with the flights facing a series of legal challenges, the Legislature on Feb. 10 passed a law that effectively sought to neutralize at least some of the arguments. In part, the law repealed the section of the budget that was used to pay for the flights and created a new program, the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, in state law.

Also, the bill funneled remaining money provided in the budget section back to state coffers, and allocated $10 million to the newly created program — effectively swapping out money.

The immigrant-advocacy groups filed the lawsuit Dec. 1. Among other things, they argued that the state improperly infringed on federal authority over immigration issues and violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. “(The section of the budget) impermissibly attempts to implement its own classification and/or characterization of immigration status, by providing an incoherent definition of the term ‘unauthorized alien,’” the lawsuit said.

April 19, 2023 US family immigration detention won't restart 'at this time,' official says

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is not planning "at this time" to restart family immigration detention, a senior U.S. immigration official said on Tuesday, signaling the contentious practice to more quickly deport families is on hold.

Tae Johnson, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said officials had discussed jailing families as an option for dealing with increased illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021 promising to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. The Biden administration said in early 2022 that it was repurposing family detention centers, which Trump had tried to expand.

"At this time, there's certainly no plan to restart family detention in any way, shape or form," Johnson told lawmakers during a budget hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee.

Reuters and other news outlets reported in March that officials were considering resurrecting family detention in preparation for a possible rise in crossings after the expected end of COVID-19 border restrictions on May 11.

Democrats and immigration advocates criticized the idea of restarting family detention, saying it could cause psychological trauma to children and did not serve as an effective deterrent to illegal border crossings.

ICE would instead use "alternatives to detention" to monitor parents or heads of households, Johnson said. The agency is also weighing a pilot program similar to house arrest, he said, a plan Reuters reported last year.

ICE has identified nine detention centers that it could use for faster initial asylum screenings, Johnson said.

The Biden administration said earlier this month that it also would begin testing sped-up asylum screenings for migrants in the custody of U.S. border authorities.

Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Grant McCool

BISMARCK, N.D. – Gov. Doug Burgum today signed bipartisan legislation creating an Office of Legal Immigration within the North Dakota Department of Commerce to help businesses recruit and retain foreign labor and address the state’s workforce challenges.

The immigration office will develop a pilot program to support businesses pursuing or employing legal immigrants and help communities develop plans and activities to integrate immigrants. The office also may contract with other state agencies and private organizations to develop and administer programs or services related to bringing legal immigrants into the state’s workforce, including those already in the United States. The bill includes authorization and funding for two additional Commerce team members to administer the office.

“Working with the Legislature, we continue to pursue a comprehensive strategy to address North Dakota’s workforce challenges, and the Office of Legal Immigration will play an important role in those efforts by helping employers recruit and retain legal immigrants,” Burgum said. “We’re grateful to the bill’s sponsors, the Department of Commerce and the business and medical communities for supporting this legislation to alleviate our extreme workforce shortage, which remains North Dakota’s No. 1 barrier to economic growth.”

The bill requires Commerce to conduct a study – with input from employers – on immigration opportunities, immigration goals and ways to measure progress, and a structure for a pilot program to support businesses and communities pursuing legal immigration. Commerce also must develop a fee-based system for immigration office services to be implemented in the 2025-27 biennium.

North Dakota had the second-lowest unemployment rate in the nation in March, at 2.1%. Job Service North Dakota reported more than 17,000 online job openings in March, the most recent month available, and estimates are that the actual number of available jobs may be twice that many because employers aren’t posting every open position.

Senate Bill 2142 was introduced by Sen. Tim Mathern of Fargo and co-sponsored by Sens. Kristin Roers and Ronald Sorvaag, both of Fargo, and Reps. Zachary Ista of Grand Forks, Lisa Meier of Bismarck and Alisa Mitskog of Wahpeton. It passed the Senate 41-5 and the House 64-28.

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is not planning "at this time" to restart family immigration detention, a senior U.S. immigration official said on Tuesday, signaling the contentious practice to more quickly deport families is on hold.

Tae Johnson, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said officials had discussed jailing families as an option for dealing with increased illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021 promising to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. The Biden administration said in early 2022 that it was repurposing family detention centers, which Trump had tried to expand.

"At this time, there's certainly no plan to restart family detention in any way, shape or form," Johnson told lawmakers during a budget hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee.

Reuters and other news outlets reported in March that officials were considering resurrecting family detention in preparation for a possible rise in crossings after the expected end of COVID-19 border restrictions on May 11.

Democrats and immigration advocates criticized the idea of restarting family detention, saying it could cause psychological trauma to children and did not serve as an effective deterrent to illegal border crossings.

ICE would instead use "alternatives to detention" to monitor parents or heads of households, Johnson said. The agency is also weighing a pilot program similar to house arrest, he said, a plan Reuters reported last year.

ICE has identified nine detention centers that it could use for faster initial asylum screenings, Johnson said.

The Biden administration said earlier this month that it also would begin testing sped-up asylum screenings for migrants in the custody of U.S. border authorities.

Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Grant McCool

ICE launches online CeBONDS capability to automate bond payments

WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today the implementation of Cash Electronic Bonds Online (CeBONDS) – another step toward the modernization of the agency’s immigration processes. This web-based system provides a fully automated, online capability to request verification of bond eligibility, make cash immigration bond payments, and send electronic notifications to cash bond obligors.

“This is another step in how we continue our efforts to build and promote a fair and efficient immigration process,” said Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Corey A. Price. “CeBONDS modernizes a legacy bond process that was inconvenient, time consuming, and costly, and transforms it to provide obligors an electronic method of requesting immigration bonds.”

This process and system enhancement increases convenience for obligors who can now initiate and process immigration bonds online from anywhere without obligating travel to a field office; saves time via electronic processing of bonds; and saves money and materials by significantly reducing paper and physical storage requirements. Individuals will still have the option of making in-person bond payments until the online system fully takes over on June 1.

Immigration bonds serve as a mechanism to encourage noncitizens to appear in immigration court and are not punitive. Bond decisions are based on a noncitizen’s flight risk and the potential threat to public safety. Each case is reviewed individually, considering factors like immigration history, criminal history, and community ties. Although it is not uncommon for a noncitizen to be afforded the option to bond out of custody, there are many exceptions and complexities surrounding releasing noncitizens from ICE custody on bond, for example those individuals subject to mandatory detention by law.

Noncitizens can appeal ICE’s bond decision to an immigration judge at various points throughout their immigration court proceedings. When an immigration judge grants a person an immigration bond or orders their release from detention, ICE complies with those decisions.

Noncitizens are afforded due process in removal proceedings before immigration judges in the immigration courts, which are administered by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). EOIR is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and is separate from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE. Immigration judges in these courts make decisions based on the merits of each individual case. ICE officers carry out the removal decisions made by the immigration judges.

The immigration laws of the United States allow noncitizens to pursue relief or protection from removal; however, they remain subject to a final order of removal from an immigration judge once they have completed proceedings before the immigration court and exhausted all administrative appeals, and ICE is charged with executing that order.

Individuals requiring additional assistance or experiencing an issue accessing the CeBONDS application can email ICECeBONDS-Helpdesk@ice.dhs.gov.

Bacow calls for immigration reform, backs policies to aid educational exchange

President says flow of workers, students bolsters U.S. economy, brings innovation, helps export democratic values

Harvard President Lawrence Bacow called for U.S. immigration reform and voiced strong support in particular for policies that encourage international student and scholarly exchange in a speech last week before a gathering of American higher education leaders in Washington, D.C.

Returning to a theme that has been a signature of his presidency — and reflecting on his own life experiences — Bacow said that immigration and education had made his career possible and raised concerns about proposed restrictions on immigration.

“Given my personal background, I have found the last 10 or so years of paralysis in our Capitol around immigration reform deeply disturbing and depressing. Given my professional background, I have found them detrimental,” Bacow said during his keynote Atwell Lecture at this year’s meeting of the American Council on Education, where he was also recognized with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“Efforts to restrict immigration have a profound impact on how each of our institutions is able to fulfill its mission,” he said.

“We limit immigration at our peril. Why? Because immigration furthers our national interest. And because immigration defines our national identity.”

Bacow, the son of Eastern European refugees, has been lauded for his actions on immigration during his presidency. He successfully fought to secure entry for an admitted Harvard student from Lebanon who was initially sent home without being able to enter the U.S.

He also led an effort during the COVID crisis to block guidance from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would have required international students to leave the country if their college or university shifted to online instruction. After Harvard and MIT sued, the government rescinded the directive, and an estimated one million international students avoided being forced to return to their home countries amidst a global pandemic.

Bacow said a more effective approach to immigration policy is vital to U.S. competitiveness.

“America thrives when the world’s best join us to pursue research that fuels discovery and innovation,” he told the audience of more than 600 people. “International students challenge our most talented domestic students in the classroom, and these international students bring another dimension of diversity to our campuses. They often seek to build families and careers in the U.S. after graduation, but — even if they leave this country — some of our values go with them, and their relationships with classmates persist.”

“Unfortunately, our longstanding pre-eminence as a top destination is not assured,” he said.

“Our competitors aspire to attract these same students with governments offering more favorable pathways to permanent residency and financial incentives for top faculty, students, and staff.

“So, immigration is truly in the national interest. Higher education helps to serve this national interest by attracting and educating students from around the world. And those same students make our campuses more interesting and more lively in countless ways.”

The Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes college and university presidents and chancellors who have dedicated their careers to championing the value of higher education and the good it does for our students and society.

“There is no better advocate for his students, the institutions he has served, or for American higher education than Larry Bacow,” said Council President Ted Mitchell. “Larry’s own life story exemplifies the unparalleled power of higher education to transform lives, institutions, and communities.”

In closing the speech, Bacow urged greater government support for community colleges and minority-serving institutions, calling those who work at such institutions “heroes” who are “fulfilling a responsibility to those who have already made it here, to those who want an opportunity to participate in what has always been called the American Dream.”