Latest On IMMIGRATION TOPICS

By: Robert Gard

 

> President Obama’s Executive Actions — Status of Implementation & Political Infighting — Part 3

Two key pieces (expanded “DACA” without age limits and “DAPA”) of President Obama’s Executive Actions Program, announced on November 20, 2014, were or are scheduled to go into effect on February 18th and May 26th of this year, respectively; but legal and political hurdles to implementation remain. On November 20, 2014, President Obama announced his “immigration accountability executive action,” which includes a series of measures that are first steps towards common-sense reforms to an outdated immigration system.

The series of executive actions presented by the administration range from new temporary immigration protections for many unauthorized parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to highly technical regulatory proposals to fix outdated visa provisions. The USCIS website has a DACA page/link, where the public can sign up for emailed instructions, updates and further developments: http://www.uscis.gov/immigrationact ion Status of Implementation and Political Infighting: Republicans have vowed to fight Obama’s immigration plan, charging the president overstepped his constitutional powers in taking the executive action.

More than half of the States have sued the President, and they strategically “forum shopped” for a Federal District Court and a Federal District Judge who would be most likely to favor their position; settling on the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division, and Judge Andrew S. Hanen (appointed to the Federal Bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush). As of the date of my last article, Judge Hanen issued a 123 page decision on February 16th, putting in place a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking implementation of President Obama’s new deferred action initiatives (expanded DACA and DAPA), while pointedly leaving the original 2012 version of DACA untouched and undisturbed.

Judge Hanen indicated that his preliminary injunction was for the purpose of providing time for a coalition of 26 states to pursue a lawsuit seeking a permanent injunction against the President’s new deferred action initiatives. President Obama’s sweeping executive actions on immigration have been delayed for more than a month thanks to legal challenges aimed at blocking deportation protection for millions of undocumented immigrants. In that time, there’s been a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the timing of the ongoing injunction – will the executive actions be delayed indefinitely?

The Obama Administration has filed an emergency Motion to remove the injunction ordered by Judge Hanen on February 16th, and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has also appealed Judge Hanen’s decision. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Obama administration’s request for an expedited appeal, which could ultimately cut down the number of months before the court reaches a final decision.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hold oral arguments on the Emergency Motion for a Stay of Judge Hanen’s decision on April 17th, with a decision on the Motion expected shortly thereafter. This is a hearing on the request for an emergency stay pending a full appeal. This April 17th oral argument is not a hearing on the underlying full appeal, which would happen later. The Court also set an expedited briefing schedule on the full appeal:

· March 30—DOJ will file its opening brief

· April 6—any amicus briefs on the side of DOJ are due

· May 4—brief by suing states is due · May 11—any amicus briefs on the state of the suing states are due

· May 18—reply brief by DOJ is due ·

The court has not yet set an oral argument date for the full appeal.

Given the expedited briefing schedule, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals could issue a decision on the Obama Administration’s appeal of Judge Hanen’s order sometime in June. This means that regardless of whether the Court of Appeals temporarily stays (lifts) the injunction, if the Obama Administration wins the case the delay to DAPA/DACA expansion could be no more than a few weeks.

Immigrant Tax Inquiry Group (“ITIG”) Floats New and Simple “Third Way” Proposal for Immigration Reform

A Malibu, California notfor- profit foundation chartered in 2010 for the purpose of studying the implications of taxation in the immigration debate has published a very simple “Third Way” proposal that would bring immigrants “out of the shadows”, stabilize the work force, provide dignity and improved work conditions, reduce the incentives for employers and immigrants to engage in unlawful employment activities and accomplish all of this without a hint of “amnesty” or “pathways to citizenship.”

The plan purports to generate $103 billion in revenues, creates 100,000 jobs, and provides benefits such as driver’s licenses, freedom to travel in and out of the U.S., and other benefits such as education, protection in the courts under U.S. laws, and available health care coverage. A detailed and illustrated explanation of their plan (with revenue projections, graphs and charts) can be found at their website at: http://www.immigranttaxgroup.org/

The ITIG proposal is simple: Recognizing that not all immigrants are seeking U.S. citizenship or the right to vote, cater to the undocumented worker by issuing a 10-year, renewable work permit and taxing the employer at five percent of the wage for employing one of these workers. This would bring the undocumented worker, and his or her family out of the shadows, provide revenue for their cost to society, and enable them to have dignity and security without citizenship. This is an interesting plan that is garnering bipartisan support.

QUICK NOTES:

Immigration Bills Related to Family Members of Filipino WWII Veterans

There are two bills in Congress that seek to exempt family members of Filipino Veterans (those who fought on behalf of the United States during World War II) from the long waiting period and numerical limitations. The Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act of 2015 by HR Mark Takai (HI) seeks to exclude sons and daughters of Filipino Veterans from extraordinarily long wait times (up to 24 years) for an immigrant visa: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bil ls/114/hr483 Senator Mazie Hirono (HI) and Senator Harry Reid (NV) have cosponsored a bill to exempt children of certain Filipino World War II Veterans from numerical limitations on immigrant visas and for other purposes. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bil ls/114/s733

If you’re interested in providing support, please click on the above links.

Myth Busting: Net Migration To and From Mexico at ZERO

Between 2005 and 2010, 1.4 million immigrants moved back to Mexico from the United States; about double the number returning to Mexico over the previous five year period (a downturned U.S. economy was thought to be largely responsible for this increase.)

During that same 2005 to 2010 time period, Mexican immigration to the United States was at about the same level, roughly 1.4 million. Based on that data, many experts surmise that net immigration from Mexico between 2005 and 2010 was ZERO or less. Business Roundtable Group Ranks U.S. Near Last in Welcoming Skilled Immigrants

A 62-page report issued by the Business Roundtable, found that, among major economies in terms of policies to allow hiring highly skilled immigrant workers, the United States ranked ninth out of 10 countries including Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, France and Canada. Japan ranked 10th.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 as the best performance, the United States scored a 2.3 rating overall. It received a 2.0 for policies on hiring high-skilled foreign nationals and a 1.5 for laws that would attract foreign entrepreneurs.

The U.S. limits H-1B nonimmigrant visas for skilled foreign workers and graduate students to about 85,000 a year combined (including “Masters Cap, and treatybased H-1B type visas for Australia, Singapore and Chile), the report said. In 2014, employers sent U.S. authorities more than 172,000 visa applications for the federal fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

On April 1, 2015, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2016 cap. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming. The congressionally mandated cap on H-1B visas for FY 2016 is 65,000.

The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for individuals with a U.S. master’s degree or higher are exempt from the 65,000 cap. USCIS expects to receive more petitions than the H-1B cap during the first five business days of this year’s program. The agency will monitor the number of petitions received and notify the public when the H-1B cap has been met. If USCIS receives an excess of petitions during the first five business days, the agency will use a lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to meet the cap.

USCIS will reject all unselected petitions that are subject to the cap as well as any petitions received after the cap has closed. USCIS used the lottery for the FY 2015 program last April. COPYRIGHT BY AUTHOR — 2015

On 23-24 March 2015, the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), on behalf of the Philippine government, hosted a regional consultation for South, South-East and East Asian countries under the global ‘Migrants in Countries in Crisis’ (MICIC) initiative. The meeting provided an opportunity for governments to exchange views and identify best practices on how to assist migrants in countries in crisis. As Ambassador Guy Ledoux of the EU Delegation to the Philippines explained in his opening remarks, ‘we know that many countries, notably the Philippines but also others in Asia, already have good systems in place to protect their nationals abroad, and we want to learn from these experiences’.

The meeting was organized in collaboration with the United States State Department and the European Commission, with funding from the EU’s Global Public Goods and Challenges programme. This is the first of the six MICIC-focused regional consultations envisioned with EU funding.

When conflict or disasters hit, international migrants present in the crisis-stricken country are often among the affected population. For a variety of factors, migrants can be especially vulnerable during crises. In some cases, migrants may be trapped, unable to leave the crisis area, in others they may be unwilling to leave or unable to access humanitarian assistance, while in others they may seek refuge across borders in adjacent countries. For example, the civil war in Libya in 2011 saw thousands of migrants from Asian countries in need of humanitarian aid and repatriation assistance.

In order to improve responses to the impact of acute crises on migrants, the US and the Philippines launched a global initiative in 2014 on Migrants in Countries in Crisis, in collaboration with the European Commission, Australia, Bangladesh, Costa Rica and Ethiopia. Aside from the CFO, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Foreign Affairs represent the Philippine government in the MICIC initiative.