Seventy-seven Democratic lawmakers are slamming President Biden over what they claim is his restrictive asylum policy for migrants crossing the southern border. This comes as House Republicans bicker with their GOP Senate colleagues on the way forward out of the nightmare that we find ourselves in on the hot-button issue yet again. Suffice it to say, no side has any real solutions, with some in both parties being at the far extremes of the issue: one side asking for open immigration access and the other preferring to slam the border shut.
Here are the headlines making immigration news this past week.
1: No solution to House Republicans running power-drunk
House Republicans have so far signaled little to no interest in passing a bipartisan immigration bill, and instead have focused on oversight hearings on border security. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said they plan to put together a “big border security package” that would go through the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.
2: Democrats bash the President
A group of 77 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden on January 25, criticizing his administration’s policies restricting asylum access for migrants crossing the southern border.
The letter, signed by New Jersey Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and 74 others, said the new policies announced on Jan. 5 to open more legal options for migrants from Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba while eliminating pathways for those nationalities to claim asylum at the border are “disappointing.”
3: These U.S. states suing Biden administration
Twenty US states, led by Republican attorneys general, including Idaho, are suing the Biden administration over immigration. The premise of the Jan. 24 lawsuit is that the recent immigration program laid out by Biden will burden states with more problems and an influx of people, and has no legal authority.
The lawsuit relates to the Biden administration change in immigration policy that would turn away more migrants but still allow 360,000 people to enter legally each year. In the lawsuit, Idaho states in part: “Idaho spends significant amounts of money providing services to illegal aliens because of the federal government’s abuses of federal law. Those services include education services and healthcare, as well as many other social services. Federal law requires Idaho to include illegal aliens in those programs. Like many Western states, the number of illegal aliens in Idaho continues to increase—likewise increasing the number of illegal aliens receiving such services.”
The other states suing are Texas, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
4: North Carolina bill would force sheriffs to cooperate with ICE
A bill introduced by Republicans in the North Carolina legislature would require sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) by doing more to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants.
The bill would require sheriffs, when admitting any prisoner into their jails, to determine whether a prisoner is a legal resident of the U.S. and, if not, make contact with ICE. If ICE has issued a detainer (a notification to request that a prisoner be transferred into ICE custody upon release from jail), the sheriffs must honor the request under the proposed law.
The Republican Party controls both chambers of the state legislature even though there is a Democratic governor in the state of North Carolina.
5: Does Social Security have an immigration dilemma?
According to the Motley Fool (MF), a business-focused news site, the US Social Security Administration has a major immigration problem—but it’s not what you may think. Social Security’s problem, according to the site, is “that net-legal immigration has been declining for a quarter of a century.”
Since 1998, the net migration rate into the U.S. has fallen every single year, and is down by an aggregate of 57%, according to data from the United Nations. The MF points out that “if net migration into the U.S. continues to fall, or even steadies at these reduced levels, it’s all but a certainty that Social Security’s funding shortfall will grow.”
The writer is publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com – The Black Immigrant Daily News.