Immigration Update 6/30/21

The Border

On Friday, 6/25, Vice President Kamala Harris visited immigration facilities and met female migrants aged 9-16 in El Paso, Texas…

In mid-June, the White House released a summary of actions that the administration had taken thus far to address the border crisis…

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Sunday, 6/20, that U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada will remain closed to nonessential travel "to reduce the spread" of COVID-19…

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday, 6/16, rescinded a Trump-era decision that made it harder for victims of domestic and gang violence to win asylum…

Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, who took his position during the Trump administration, announced his resignation, pledging to stay for around 60 days to ensure a smooth transition…

An Amnesty International report has found that United States officials are returning Mexican unaccompanied migrant children to Mexico without giving them adequate screenings for protection needs - treating children from Mexico differently than other nations…

President and Administration

The White House is considering ending the use of Title 42, a Trump-era public health order that lets U.S. border officials quickly turn back migrant families to Mexico, as early as 7/31…

 Earlier this month, the administration announced that it has dismantled a Trump-era government office to help victims of crimes committed by immigrants, a move that symbolizes Biden’s rejection of Trump’s repeated efforts to link immigrants to crime…

 The administration is broadening the pool of migrants who will be allowed to enter the U.S. through asylum claims, in the latest effort to chip away at the restrictive immigration policies under President Trump…

In mid-June, the administration announced plans to expand the number of Central American children eligible to apply for asylum while still in their home countries…

The administration is calling on Congress to cancel billions of dollars set aside for Trump’s border wall…

A 46-page draft blueprint maps out the Biden administration’s plans to significantly expand legal immigration, including methodically reversing efforts to dismantle it by Trump, causing the average time to approve employer-sponsored green cards to double… 

The administration has quietly tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed into the U.S. through asylum as it faces mounting pressure to lift public health rules barring people from seeking protection…

Vice President Harris’ First Foreign Trip

In early June, Vice President Harris travelled to Mexico and Guatemala in the hopes of emerging with a migration strategy that will work…

Harris delivered a direct warning to migrants considering making the trek during her meeting with the Guatemalan President…

The powerful California Latino Legislative Caucus rebuked Harris for telling Central American migrants "do not come”…

The Courts

The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that immigrants allowed to stay in the U.S. temporarily for humanitarian reasons may not apply for green cards if they had entered the country unlawfully, potentially affecting tens of thousands of immigrants…

Congress

Immigration enforcement agencies would lose millions in funding under a House spending bill released yesterday, 6/29…

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TC) continue to spearhead bipartisan talks on a narrow immigration package dealing with Dreamers, border security and migrant farm workers…

A group of House Democrats led by Reps. Deborah Ross (D-NC) and Ami Bera (D-CA) are asking the Biden administration to help a group of immigrants often known as “documented dreamers,” or individuals who came to the U.S. as children of foreigners on nonimmigrant visas…

Earlier this month, dozens of House Democrats asked the DHS not to re-detain people in ICE detention released during the COVID-19 pandemic…

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) led a letter from several House Republicans demanding information from the Biden administration about their response to unaccompanied children apprehended at the southern border…

Weekly Update 6/28/21

California

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked US District Judge Benitez's controversial ruling that overturned California's longtime ban on assault weapons, in which he likened the AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife…

An 11-member en banc panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is considering a challenge to a voter-approved ban of large-capacity magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition…

Gov. Newsom says California will pay off all the past-due rent that accumulated in California because of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, a promise to make landlords whole while giving renters a clean slate…

An analysis of data shows that, in the Bay Area, businesses in higher-income or predominantly white census tracts were far more likely to have received a PPP loan than businesses in areas that are lower-income or have a higher share of Black and Hispanic residents…

California schools collectively have billions of state and federal dollars to spend on programs to help students catch up on the learning they lost while school campuses were closed…

Coronavirus

The Biden administration is likely to miss its goal of 70% of adults receiving at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July Fourth…

While women have received COVID-19 shots at higher rates nationally than men, polling indicates that higher shares of mothers than fathers are resistant to vaccinating their kids…

Troves of misinformation, language barriers and fears around immigration enforcement are hampering efforts to vaccinate Hispanic communities against COVID-19, challenging the Biden administration’s push to crush the virus as a dangerous new variant quickly spreads…

President and Administration

President Biden said on Wednesday, 6/23, that states could draw from $350 billion in federal stimulus money to shore up police departments and vowed to crack down on gun dealers who fail to run background checks…

 The administration unveiled a raft of measures to prevent people who lost income during the pandemic from losing their homes on Thursday, 6/24, including extending nationwide eviction and foreclosure bans until 7/31…

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday, 6/25, that the Justice Department is filing suit against the state of Georgia over its sweeping election law recently passed by Republicans, alleging it violates the federal Voting Rights Act by seeking to disenfranchise Black voters…

On Thursday, 6/24, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed whether to hear a case that could settle whether states can exclude religious schools from publicly funded voucher programs… 

A Pennsylvania school district violated a high school cheerleader’s First Amendment rights when officials punished her for a profane, off-campus social media post, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, 6/23…

Congress 

Democrats are expected to bring a $715 billion infrastructure bill to the floor this week, the product of work by two committees…

According to a summary circulating, the budget plan under development by Senate Budget Chairman Bernie Sanders would overshoot Biden’s proposed spending by nearly $1.6 trillion over a decade, costing $6 trillion and adding $3 trillion to deficits…

Democrats suffered one of the biggest setbacks of Biden’s presidency last week when all 50 Republicans blocked Democrats’ voting rights bill from advancing to floor debate…

Last week, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) outlined a proposal for curbing prescription drug prices as pressure builds on Democratic lawmakers to use the reforms to pay for infrastructure…

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nominations of David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and Ur Jaddou to be director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services…

House Democrats are creating a new select committee to investigate the deadly 1/6 insurrection, including the federal government’s response…

A House committee approved far-reaching legislation to curb the market dominance of tech giants, including Google and Facebook…

Education

Today, 5/28, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that the Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDE) now has full access to all federal education pandemic relief funds earmarked for the Commonwealth and other education program grant dollars…

The Education Department is planning to amend the regulations for Title IX put into place under the Trump administration and intends to release its proposed rule next May…

The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced the nomination of President Biden’s pick to oversee higher education policy James Kvaal, with bipartisan support in April, along with that of deputy secretary pick Cindy Marten…

In a new report, at-risk students were about half as likely as their peers to feel confident that they could find academic/advising support, and were more likely to prefer automated services like chatbots and phone menus compared to groups…

Last week, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona held a virtual roundtable conversation with rural students from grades 6-12...

Last week, the Education Department began its negotiated rule-making process by holding three days of public hearings, with commenters discussing topics for federal student aid regulations…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update 6/24/21

Today, 6/24, President Joe Biden celebrated a deal with a group of Democratic and Republican senators on a $579 billion infrastructure plan, saying it would create millions of jobs while fulfilling a major piece of his economic agenda…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said they’ve agreed on a strategy to twin a bipartisan infrastructure package and a budget resolution setting up fast-track legislation with the rest of Biden’s $4 trillion economic plan…

President Biden made clear his support for the physical infrastructure package is contingent on Congress also passing companion legislation with funding for other key priorities included in his American Jobs Plan and the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan -- particularly those known as “soft” or “human” infrastructure…

Highlights of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework include…

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced 38-26, a five-year, $547 billion surface transportation bill largely along party lines this month with support from two Republicans only - Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Jenniffer González-Colón (R- PR)…

Weekly Update 6/21/21

California

Recall candidates seeking to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom must furnish five years of tax returns, Secretary of State Shirley Weber said last week…

Californians will soon need to certify that they are looking for work to keep the unemployment aid flowing…

California residents over age 50 would be newly eligible for the state’s Medicaid program regardless of immigration status under a budget plan that cleared the Legislature last week…

Officials unveiled a new system Friday, 6/18, through which Californians can access a digital copy of their COVID-19 vaccination record…

Coronavirus

The sharp decline in routine childhood immunizations following stay-at-home orders last spring reversed considerably by the fall…

The CDC Foundation has released a new report on the “Intentions and Views around COVID-19 Vaccination Among K-12 Populations”…

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have sought medical care for post-COVID-19 health problems that they had not been diagnosed with before becoming infected with the virus, according to the largest study to date of long-term symptoms in COVID-19 patients…

President Joe Biden urged unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated, warning that a highly transmissible variant of the virus could cause more deaths…

President and Administration

Technology developed with U.S. research grants will be blocked from being manufacturing overseas as part of President Biden’s supply-chain initiative…

Last week, the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the Final Rule for the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program, which will direct $268 million for expanding broadband to eligible historically minority-serving institutions (MSIs), Black Colleges or Universities (HBCUs), and Tribal Colleges or Universities (TCUs)…

On Thursday, 6/17, President Biden signed legislation that made June 19 a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., after the House and Senate passed the bill in votes earlier this week…

The Biden administration released a new broadband mapping tool that shows high-speed internet needs in rural areas, as part of its push for $2 trillion legislation to fix America’s infrastructure…

The Senate confirmed former National Security Agency (NSA) deputy director Chris Inglis to be the national cyber director, leading the new Office of the National Cyber Director inside the White House…

The Biden administration is readying to implement the president’s executive order requiring federal contractors to lift the minimum wage for government contractors to $15, from its current level of $10.95, as the Labor Department sent its proposed rule to the White House for review…

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia last week, ruling 9-0 that a Catholic social services agency, which believes marriage is between a man and a woman, has a right to exclude same-sex couples from becoming foster parents - and that the city violated the organization’s First Amendment rights when it froze an existing contract due to the policy…

Congress 

Bipartisan infrastructure negotiations continued last week with lawmakers and the White House still not on the same page when it comes to paying for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending…

The House Appropriations Committee is slated to begin marking up its fiscal 2022 budget this week with the hope of having all 12 bills done by mid-July…

Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY), one of the leaders in Congress behind the push for an expansion of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, is considering proposing a one-time wealth tax on the richest Americans…

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is expected to force a vote on whether to move forward with debate on S. 1 - the For the People Act - tomorrow, 6/22, bringing to a head a legislative drama that has been unfolding for months…

By almost every measure, 2021 has already been a terrible year for gun violence…

Missouri has become the latest state to throw down a broad challenge to the enforcement of federal firearms laws, as Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country intensify their fierce political counterattack against President Biden’s gun control proposals…

Democrats are preparing to vote on a scaled-down guns bill - most likely a curtailed plan to boost background checks for firearm buyers…

Last week, President Biden elevated Amazon critic and anti-monopoly advocate Lina Khan to chair the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…

 In an unclassified FBI threat assessment on QAnon sent to lawmakers last week, the FBI warned that online QAnon conspiracy theorists may carry out more acts of violence as they move from serving as "digital soldiers" to taking action in the real world following the 1/6 U.S. Capitol attack…

Education

Title IX’s protections against sexual discrimination and violence extend to gay and transgender students, the Department of Education announced last week, in an interpretation of the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County…

Last week, Secretary Cardona held a virtual roundtable conversation with a diverse group of early childhood stakeholders and leaders who bring perspective from the experiences of early educators, families, and communities during the public health emergency…

 A group of Democratic lawmakers introduced the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act of 2021 last week which would double the Pell Grant over a five-year period and extend eligibility to undocumented students…

The Office of Federal Student Aid at has updated two of its quarterly portfolio reports with new figures on student loans, showing that the federal student aid portfolio has increased by $49 billion since this time last year…

Mental Health

Inside Higher Ed recently released their latest print-on-demand compilation, "Taking a Holistic Approach to Student Wellness”…

Emergency room visits following suspected suicide attempts by teenage girls spiked in the first months of 2021, compared with rates in 2019, the CDC reported on Friday, 6/18…

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has announced Vibrant Emotional Health will be the administrators of the new 988 dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline…

Weekly Update 6/14/21

California

California is appealing a federal judge's ruling last week that overturned the state's longtime ban on assault-style weapons, and will ask the appeals court to stay the district court's ruling, which would extend the 30-day stay and leave the laws in place during the appeals process…

California health officials issued new COVID-19 test guidelines last week that distinguish between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals…

Trying to stay away from the phrase “vaccine passport,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday, 6/14, that California is on the cusp of releasing an electronic system that will allow businesses to confirm that their customers have received their shots…

On Wednesday, 6/9, a bipartisan group representing the state’s 13 largest cities backed the state legislature’s plan calling for $1 billion in spending annually for the next four years to boost local government efforts on homelessness…

The Biden administration is returning nearly $1 billion in federal funds to a California high-speed rail project that had been clawed back by the Trump administration…

Coronavirus

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced new rules stating that fully vaccinated higher-education campuses can mostly drop COVID-19 safety measures…

Last week, the U.S. State Department loosened its travel warnings for nations around the world including France, Canada and Germany, in a move that could loosen airline restrictions for people wanting to go overseas as the COVID-19 pandemic eases in parts of the world…

The Biden administration plans to purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to distribute to other nations, significantly adding to its ongoing efforts to inoculate populations around the world…

The Paycheck Protection Program loans (PPP) - created to help small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns - allow for most of the loans to eventually be forgiven and many recipients assumed that the money would be tax free…

President and Administration

President Joe Biden laid out his first regulatory to-do list Friday, 6/11, detailing his ambitions to dramatically expand the scope of the federal government’s involvement in education, healthcare, and the environment, among other areas…

Lisa Hone, a longtime Federal Communications Commission attorney with deep expertise in broadband policy, has joined the National Economic Council team to steer the Biden administration's broadband expansion efforts…

Last week President Biden said his administration will defend at the U.S. Supreme Court a law that excludes Puerto Rico from a federal program that provides benefits to low-income elderly, blind and disabled people, adhering to the same policy as former President Trump…

Last week, the Biden administration outlined a swath of actions and recommendations meant to address supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and decrease reliance on other countries for crucial goods by increasing domestic production capacity…

The U.S. economy’s rebound from the pandemic is driving the biggest surge in inflation since August 2008 with consumer prices rising in May by five percent from a year ago…

Last week, the Biden administration withdrew a rule proposed by the Trump administration that aimed to limit eligibility for Agriculture Department food assistance…

Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland unveiled two proposals meant to help curb gun violence…

The Department of Justice said in a court filing last week that it intends to “vigorously” defend an exemption to Title IX that allows religious colleges to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students…

Last week, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s first two judicial nominees with modest Republican support, the start of what Democrats intend to be a sprint to fill scores of federal vacancies and rebalance the ideological makeup of the courts after the Trump era…

Congress 

A group led by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have come up with an infrastructure framework…

The Senate Commerce panel’s chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and ranking member, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) are pushing to authorize $78 billion over five years for rail, freight, and safety programs in surface transportation legislation…

Legislation that would invest $50 billion in wastewater infrastructure over the next five years was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, 6/9, despite pushback from Republicans…

Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wants to start marking up fiscal 2022 spending bills in July…

A bipartisan group of negotiators is making headway on sweeping police reform legislation as they narrow in on a compromise over one of the most challenging issues plaguing the talks: qualified immunity…

Last week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered an urgent call for Democrats not to abandon their marquee election reform bill in favor of more narrow legislation preferred by their party’s powerful and well-known centrist, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)…

Congress must direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to designate at least some “forever chemicals” as hazardous wastes and seek data on those chemicals’ uses and their health effects, state and water utility officials told a Senate committee Wednesday, 6/9…

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) says that bipartisan talks on background checks of private gun sales have stalled…

Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he opposes ending the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funds for abortions except in the case of rape or incest or to save the life of the woman…

Corporal punishment would be banned in schools that receive federal funding under legislation announced last week…

Last week, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill that aims to continue feeding school children over the summer months as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reinstated a 2015 rule which lets the agency suspend housing grants to municipalities that don’t actively combat housing discrimination, but eased compliance requirements for grant recipients…

Last week, Rep. Mike Levin’s Training in High-demand Roles to Improve Veteran Employment (THRIVE) Act was signed into law by President Biden…

Education

Last week, the Department of Education held five days of public hearings, during which it heard from 600 individuals about how it can improve Title IX enforcement, following a directive from President Biden to re-examine the controversial regulations put in place by the Trump administration…

Through the pandemic, schools in Republican states offered in-person learning at nearly twice the rate of those in Democratic states, according to new data, amounting to an estimated 66 additional days - or 432 hours - of face-to-face instruction for those students…

Despite agreement between Democrats and Republicans, a provision that would make Pell Grants available for short-term programs was ultimately excluded from the U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness Act (“Endless Frontiers Act”)…

The Department of Education announced it will be making changes to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid in phases, with full simplification of the form occurring a year later than Congress intended…

The Education Department’s What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) recently released a new practice guide, “Designing and Delivering Career Pathways at Community Colleges”…

Last week, the Department of Education announced a series of actions it is taking to advance equity in education and ensure schools across the nation are serving all students…

On Friday, 6/11, the Education Department announced more political appointees that will lead various parts of the agency, including in the Office of Civil Rights, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Evaluation and Policy Development, and Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education…