BuzzFeed: “Senators Propose Bipartisan Bill To Protect ‘DREAMers’”

A bipartisan bill to protect “DREAMers”—who were granted temporary protection against deportation under President Obama’s executive actions—was introduced this past Friday by Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin. The bill, called the BRIDGE Act, would effectively extend DACA protections for more than 740,000 young immigrants who have already taken advantage of the program by providing “provisional protected presence” for three years if applicants register with the government, pay the required processing fee, and pass a criminal background check. The senators introduced the bill in response to President-Elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to end the DACA program, although after the election he has made conflicting comments about what actions, if any, he will take. 

In a post-election interview with Time, President-Elect Trump said regarding DREAMers: “We’re going to work something out that’s going to make people happy and proud…They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen.” In statements on Twitter, Senator Graham calls the original DACA order enacted by President Obama “unconstitutional” and says that President-Elect Trump would be right to repeal it but that nevertheless Senator Graham says he does not "believe that we should pull the rug out and push these young men and women—who came out of the shadows and registered with the federal government—back into the darkness…These young people have much to offer the country and we stand to benefit from the many contributions they will make to America.” 

While the bill will need to be re-introduced next year to the new Congress, Senator Durbin tells reporters they didn’t want to wait. “There’s so much interest in this issue and so much anxiety over this situation,” he says. “We want to move to make this public. I can’t go anywhere without someone raising this issue.” Durbin says that they’re encouraged by Trump’s recent favorable comments on DACA and says that both Republican and Democratic legislators will support the BRIDGE Act. “Generally speaking most Republicans, even though they are reluctant to come to the floor and make a speech, feel it’s only fair…even if they have strong feelings against other parts of comprehensive immigration,” he tells BuzzFeed. “This is a very difficult group—once you meet them—to oppose.”

“Here’s what you’ve got to ask Republicans and Democrats: What do you do with these kids?” Senator Graham tells reporters. “Now, I’m not going to be part of a Republican Party that will take 700,000-plus young people who’ve done nothing on their own—they came here as small kids, they lived their life in America, they have no place else to go—and just ruin their lives.”

Many US mayors have also voiced support for DREAMers. In a letter signed by Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago, and mayors of other cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Houston, Trump was warned of the economic harm that would come from canceling DACA. “This program helps foster economic growth and enhances public safety and national security," the letter states, and claims that as much as $9.9 billion in tax revenue would be lost over four years and $433.4 billion in US gross domestic product would be wiped out over ten years if he cancels the DACA program.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) also praises the BRIDGE Act legislation, even though AILA notes it does not provide a solution for many undocumented families and other individuals who have lived and worked in the US for many years. “Keeping DACA going is not only the right thing to do, it is smart business,” AILA Executive Director Benjamin Johnson states. “The BRIDGE Act would offer protection to DREAMers for three years, during which time we hope that Congress will move forward on what is really necessary: smart, effective, and humane immigration reform.”

Immigration Wins and Losses

Navigating US immigration law can be daunting, complex, and, at times, frustrating—for both attorneys and foreign nationals. Immigration law changes and bureaucratic delays and hurdles can seem insurmountable. There are good and bad days for immigration cases, and today we take a look at some recent wins and losses in the world of immigration law.

Wins
Dario Guerrero Meneses is a third-year Harvard student. He is also an undocumented immigrant who left the US without travel authorization (effectively "deporting" himself) to take his dying mother to Mexico for alternative medical treatment. He said: "'I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself for letting her basically continue the decline in her condition[.]'" His mother died in August, and after being unable to reenter the US from Mexico for months, he was granted permission to return home, where he will have to reapply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for "Dreamers."

Will immigration reform be passed? Everyone (including us) has been asking this question since the Senate passed their own comprehensive immigration reform bill, S. 744, back in June 2013. President Obama promised and then delayed executive action. But a newly-released draft solicitation by US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) possibly hints at good news. The USCIS "Request for Proposal" is seeking a vendor who can produce a minimum of four million blank cards per year for five years, and nine million in the early stage. These appear to be cards that would be used for Green Cards and employment authorization documents—suggesting possible major executive action regarding immigration reform. A USCIS official says the vendor proposal was sought "'in case the president makes the move we think he will,'" and that the agency has not yet committed to buying these materials.

The Obama administration announced "The Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program" that "would reduce the lengthy delays facing thousands of Haitians who have already been approved to join family members in the United States and become legal permanent residents." While this is not part of President Obama's executive action on immigration reform, he could potentially enact similar measures to deal with the lengthy wait times that many foreign nationals experience in waiting to join family members in the US.

Losses
The practice of immigration law has many challenges, but most attorneys (okay, pretty much all) will never need to bring their four-week-old infant child to immigration court. This, however, happened to attorney Stacy Ehrisman-Mickle when an immigration judge in Atlanta denied her request to delay a hearing that fell within her six-week maternity leave. With her husband working out of town and no family in the area, she had no choice but to bring her newborn child with her. The judge then "scolded her for inappropriate behavior and commented that her pediatrician must be appalled that she was exposing the baby to so many germs in court[.]" Ms. Ehrisman-Mickle filed a formal complaint against the judge that day.

Overstaying the visa waiver program is taken very seriously by immigration authorities. Ben Sangari, a British man with plans to invest $1.5 million in the Buffalo area, found this out when he was stopped for a speeding ticket and is now in an immigration detention facility in Batavia, New York. While in detention he married his fiancée, who is from Buffalo, but an ICE spokesman said: "'After conducting a comprehensive review of Mr. Sangari's case, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has chosen not to exercise prosecutorial discretion in this matter. Additionally, under the visa waiver program, Mr. Sangari is subject to mandatory detention and his case is not eligible for immigration court hearings." 

In West Africa, the death toll from Ebola exceeds four thousand and the region's inadequate healthcare infrastructure is desperately struggling to deal with the crisis. Meanwhile in the US, Ebola fear is leading to hysteria and racism against Africans as well as backlash against immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

To end on a more positive note, kindergarten students in Texas won a competition to name a recently-adopted Mustang horse, as part of a program by the Laredo Sector Border Patrol. The horse's name: Bravo.