Week of November 1–7, 2021

Democrats are preparing to present a new version of their immigration proposal, dubbed "Plan C", to the Senate parliamentarian to be cleared under Senate reconciliation rules. The move comes after the Congressional Budget Office submitted a cost estimate, including a range of costs, for the proposal. Democrats are hoping to include the proposal in the sweeping social spending and tax bill they are advancing via reconciliation, which allows legislation to pass on a simple majority vote in the Senate but requires provisions to be primarily budget-related. The latest plan features work authorization and protections for undocumented immigrants against deportation, a step down from previous proposals that would have offered a pathway to citizenship. Lawmakers were prepared to pitch the proposal to the parliamentarian as soon as Tuesday. The rush to get the backup plan approved comes as House and Senate Democrats work to finalize the package.

The US immigration system has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trump administration's gutting of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The backlog of green card applications has reached over 5 million, exacerbated by per-country caps and the bureaucratic vanishing of unused green cards at the end of a fiscal year.

President Joe Biden's latest reconciliation plan includes a proposal to recapture hundreds of thousands of unused green cards, which could help reduce the backlog and bring the immigration system up-to-date. Although the Senate parliamentarian has not yet ruled on whether green card recapture can be included in a budget reconciliation measure, there is precedent, and it has support from both sides of the aisle.

The need for a modernized immigration system is urgent because of the threat posed by China, which is growing its tech industry exponentially and has a pattern of malicious cyber activity that poses a major threat to US economic and national security. If China were to fully control Taiwan via military action, the US could become massively dependent on China for computer chips.

The US needs to make up ground in terms of both manufacturing capacity and talent, and the Senate has passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021, which authorizes over $100 billion over five years for technological advancements. However, the US will still face a shortage of STEM workers unless the green card backlog is addressed.

The number of foreign-born STEM workers in the US has increased significantly, and immigrants currently make up 26% of the STEM workforce. However, the US is failing to reform its immigration system, weakening its competitive advantage over China and the rest of the world.

Modernizing the immigration system could be done overnight, and including a remedy for the green card backlog in budget reconciliation is a critical step in strengthening the US economy and security.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas submitted a document on October 29th calling for the end of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as “Remain in Mexico”. The policy was introduced during the Trump administration and requires asylum-seekers to remain on the Mexico side of the southern border until their cases are heard. The Biden administration attempted to end the policy in June but was blocked by a US District Court judge. The Supreme Court upheld the judge’s ruling in August and ordered the Biden administration to reinstate it. However, Mayorkas has extensively explained in the new document that the administration's justification for wanting to end the policy is based on its flaws, the unjustifiable human costs, and the failure to provide fair process and humanitarian protections. Catholic groups, including bishops, who work with migrants have supported the move. The chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration has welcomed the action by the administration to terminate MPP, “given the well-documented harms and injustices” he said the policy has caused.

Restoring pre-pandemic immigration levels could help ease the staffing shortages that are holding back parts of the US economy, experts say. The US has 3 million more open jobs now than it did before the pandemic, with companies across the country struggling to hire enough workers to meet demand. In 2019, just over 1 million people obtained lawful permanent residency in the US. That number declined to 707,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, the US issued about 4 million non-immigrant visas last year, half as many as it issued in 2019, and down from over 10 million back in 2016. Immigrants who want to come to the US are often willing to take on some of the jobs that Americans don’t want to do, and companies need that right now.

Democrats are attempting to include protections for undocumented immigrants in the $1.75 trillion economic bill, but face resistance from moderate members in both the House and Senate. The House version of the bill includes parole language that would provide temporary protection from deportation and work permits for undocumented immigrants who entered the US prior to January 2011 and meet certain criteria. However, it does not provide a pathway to citizenship. Democrats plan to pass the bill using budget reconciliation, which would require all 50 Senate Democrats' yes votes, but provisions must have a real impact on the country's overall budget. The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, would be the final sign-off for what is ultimately included in the bill. MacDonough has already ruled twice against arguments from Democratic aides to include immigration in the economic bill. Pelosi has said she wants to have the House vote on the bill soon, but faces concerns from members who want immigration included.

H-1B visa applications in Massachusetts, which allow foreign professionals with specialities to work in the US, have continued to prioritise healthcare and research despite the overall number of petitions falling in 2020, according to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The process involves employers offering a job and then petitioning on behalf of the employee, after which USCIS selects 85,000 petitions at random to move onto processing and from which 65,000 final visas are offered to bachelor’s degree holders and 20,000 to master’s degree holders. There were two primary factors influencing the trends in H-1B visas last year: the pandemic and immigration policies implemented under the Trump administration. H-1B approvals in consulting and accounting firms were lower, with the industry experiencing the greatest impact under the Trump administration, whilst higher chance of approval was experienced by healthcare employers.

The Biden Administration has expanded a list of places where immigration officials are not allowed to make arrests, including all health care facilities, domestic violence shelters, drug and alcohol treatment facilities, playgrounds, school bus stops, recreational centers, and after-school care. The guidelines have been changed from "sensitive locations" to "protected areas." While migrant advocates have welcomed the changes, they have not celebrated too soon, as the Biden Administration has simultaneously pursued a hardline approach to enforcement at the US-Mexico border. The administration has embraced the Trump Administration's use of Title 42, a health measure that allows federal officials to immediately expel immigrants at the border without following normal immigration laws, which has led to a record-breaking number of migrant arrests at the US-Mexico border during fiscal year 2021.

US President Joe Biden has endorsed the idea of compensating immigrant families separated at the border under the Trump administration’s "zero-tolerance policy." In 2018, the Trump administration's policy initiated criminal prosecutions of every adult illegally crossing the border, which resulted in the separation of thousands of families, including those with infants. Biden called the previous administration's "outrageous behavior" a deserving cause for cash payments but did not specify any amount. Recently, there were reports that migrant families who were forcibly separated at the US-Mexico border under the policy could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation as part of a settlement being negotiated between the Justice Department and the families' lawyers. However, the Justice Department has told attorneys representing the families that the settlement figures reported in the media "are higher than anywhere that settlement can land."

The Jalandhar police are offering a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh for information on a travel agent involved in a multi-crore immigration and human trafficking scam. The accused, Himansh Verma, managing director of Navrattan Group of Companies, has offices in Mumbai, Chandigarh and other cities. Verma was arrested on October 15 but escaped from police custody by jumping from a window of his home in Chandigarh. During investigations, it was discovered that Verma had created Navrattan Group of Companies as a front to cover up his illegal business of trafficking people abroad. Many victims have come forward with complaints against Verma after news of the FIR became public. Verma used the names of high-profile singers to portray that he was taking various persons along with them. His Mumbai office was in the same building as that of VFS office of Hungary in Mumbai and used to obtain visas at exorbitant rates. He would eventually send people to America through Mexico, and many of these people have reportedly gone missing.

Around one-third of the Afghans who resettled in New Zealand to escape the Taliban do not meet the strict criteria imposed by the Cabinet, according to reports. Of the nearly 1,300 who were issued with visas urgently during the emergency, 435 were found to be outside the criteria set for the brief evacuation window in August, which prioritized people who had helped New Zealand agencies or their partner or children. Immigration New Zealand said those outside the criteria were mostly the partners or dependents of New Zealand citizens. However, Community Law Aotearoa said it was unclear how Immigration was making decisions. A Community Law branch in Waikato is arguing in the High Court this week for clearer and fairer visa rules and a restart to issuing residence visas to Afghans with family links to refugees in New Zealand.