As of May 14, the Trump administration’s indefinite refugee ban is still in effect. With the exception of a handful of Afrikaners, vanishingly few if any refugees are being resettled, and contracts for essential refugee services both overseas and in the United States continue to be suspended. More than 20,000 refugees had undergone extensive vetting and screening processes and were classified as “Ready for Departure.” More than 10,000 of these had flights already reserved to the U.S. and resettlement agencies (and in most cases family members) ready to greet them.
All are stuck. Under a May 5 compliance timeline in Pacito v. Trump, the administration is under a detailed schedule of commitments to the reopening of processing and resettlement for a class of 12,000 stranded refugees – but a recent Ninth Circuit clarification has created uncertainty over the framework and the extent of the protected class.
At this point it is not clear if the administration has lived up to initial commitments to restart overseas processing, reopen access to main processing databases, and prepare plans for renewing or repeating security and medical screenings for stranded refugees. The administration is supposed to submit a status report today. Check out the latest filings in the case here. An in-depth look at House Republicans’ ‘reconciliation’ proposal as committee talks drag on.
During this week, House Republicans are negotiating and “marking up” their budget reconciliation bill, a process that enables legislation to circumvent the filibuster and pass with simple (and partisan) majorities in both houses of Congress.
If it passes, the bill would have far-reaching and enduring effects on refugees, newcomers, and other vulnerable communities. Crucial House committees such as Judiciary and Homeland Security posted and marked up their shares (or “Titles”) last week, and yesterday, markups commenced for the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees – which have jurisdiction over major human needs programs. The bill includes several gravely problematic provisions aimed at services and programs for refugees and immigrants, such as:
Ways and Means Committee: The Ways & Means Title contains a provision that seeks to take away medicare eligibility from a massive number of legal immigrants – including refugees, asylees, TPS holders, trafficking survivors, domestic violence survivors, Cuban and Haitian entrants, humanitarian parolees, and many more. This Title also contains the language of a bill referred to as the “nonprofit killer” (H.R. 9495) which would give sweeping discretion to the executive branch to remove tax exempt status from non profit groups if it decides that they are a “terrorist supporting organization.”
Energy and Commerce Committee: The Energy & Commerce Title contains dramatic Medicaid eligibility restrictions that would affect millions of Americans. The bill reduces Medicaid matching funds for states that cover immigrants who are not eligible for Medicaid on their own; it eliminates the requirement of Medicaid coverage while citizenship or immigration status is being confirmed, and it removes eligibility to enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage for DACA recipients.
Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees: The Judiciary Title contains a whopping $110 billion boost in taxpayer funds for ICE immigration enforcement, including over tripling existing annual immigration detention capacity. The Homeland Security Title contains a $90 billion boost in funding for border militarization and wall building.
The proposals would together increase the entire DHS budget by 65% to over $100 billion.
The Judiciary Title also seeks to levy enormous and unreasonable fees for humanitarian applications such as asylum and sponsoring an unaccompanied child. Members are by no means unanimous on these and other conditions, and even if the House passes the bill the Senate would have an opportunity to comment.
This provides a key and ongoing opportunity for advocacy to contact your members of Congress and fight the dangerous proposals outlined above. In case you missed it. On April 8, Pro Publica reported on the Trump administration’s closure of the critical DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, an office that safeguarded rights of immigrants and American citizens alike and managed a successful alternative to detention case management program for asylum seekers.