For a brief moment last week, it looked as if Congress might actually fulfill, in part, the basic responsibility of keeping Americans safe in an emergency. A $10 billion deal was reached to restock supplies of COVID vaccines, therapeutics, and tests, using revenue from canceling previously issued relief funds. It’s ridiculous that the government needs to “pay for” lifesaving items, and worse, funding for global vaccines was left on the cutting-room floor, taking the “pan” out of pandemic and ensuring fertile breeding grounds for more mutations that will eventually come ashore.
But just when we were celebrating with the tiniest of flags Congress’s ability at least to minimally function, even that ground to a halt. The pandemic funding vote, which the Senate attempted to squeeze in before confirming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, was abandoned, because Republicans sought an amendment to extend the Title 42 policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. Title 42 allows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to expel migrants and asylum seekers through the Public Health Service Act of 1944, a measure initially intended to prevent tuberculosis outbreaks. It has been in effect to stop the spread of COVID-19 for two years, but the administration has announced it would end on May 23. A new book on immigration appeals to Americans’ hearts. A book by Ali Noorani, president & CEO of the National Immigration Forum, uses stories, history and the unsettling present to convince Americans that enacting humane immigration reform would be in line with the best traditions of America.
Nearly everything Ali Noorani writes about in his new book Crossing Borders: The Reconciliation of a Nation of Immigrants describes a place he visited personally, giving the book a journalistic sensibility and the benefit of a longtime observer’s touch. This pays benefits on the book’s first page when he describes a trip to Honduras: “In our effort to learn about the root causes of Central American migration to the United States, we expected a sense of fear and hopelessness to run through our meetings. Instead, we met people of determination, focus, and pride. Who wanted more for their country. Who didn’t want to leave their homes. But were leaving because of the failure of institutions—in Honduras and the United States.” Noorani shows that violence is a significant driver of migration from Central America: “In 2017, El Salvador had the highest homicide rate in the world. Honduras ranked number four, with Guatemala at fourteen. Overall, at least 17 of the top 20 most homicidal countries in the world are located in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.” In March 2022, there were “87 gang-related killings over weekend” in El Salvador, according to National Public Radio. The president's comments at the podium and the government's actions in the courtroom, according to immigration activists and Democrats, are at odds. President Biden threatened to expose President Donald J. Trump's "moral and national humiliation" in his immigration policy. But that was not Mr. Biden's legal team's argument in a federal courtroom earlier this year. A three-judge panel of the United States Supreme Court The case was heard in January by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Judge Justin R. Walker, a Trump appointment, was perplexed. In Judge Walker's courtroom, government lawyers were trying to uphold a Trump-era public health rule that allows the US to send away migrants without giving them the option to seek asylum. He claims that the administration is moving too slowly on promised improvements and is far too prepared to rely on Trump-era initiatives in the interim. "The only way I know if I'm reading a Biden or Trump administration brief is by looking at the signature block," said Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer. Winners of a visa lottery, including those increasingly at risk in Ukraine, were astonished to learn that their green cards were still being processed by federal lawyers. The administration is moving too slowly on promised reforms, he says, and is far too willing to use Trump-era policies in the meantime. "The only way I know if I'm reading a Biden or Trump administration brief is by looking at the signature block," said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union. And winners of a visa lottery, including those increasingly at risk in Ukraine, were surprised to see federal lawyers continue to delay the processing of their green cards. Are Biden and Trump on the same page when it comes to immigration? Mr. Biden has made moves to reverse most of his predecessor's immigration plan. Mr. Biden has made efforts to reverse most of his predecessor's immigration policy, including broad prohibitions on Muslim-majority nations and a law that allows officials to reject green cards to immigrants who are in need of government assistance. According to the Migration Policy Institute, he has made nearly 300 executive acts on immigration. Mr. Gelernt, who represents families who were separated at the border in 2018, said no.
Children and teenagers are protected from the Trump-era border rule, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. White House spokeswoman Vedant Patel adds, "Making the necessary reforms isn't going to happen tomorrow." Mr. Biden cautioned weeks before taking office that undoing Trump-era policies would take time, in part because he believed that doing so too soon might encourage migrants to cross the border. However, because to the Trump administration's pandemic limitations, she was denied entry to the United States. When Mr. Biden was elected, she had high hopes because he had praised the visa lottery during his campaign and even proposed expanding it by 25,000 visas. The Biden administration was ordered by two judges to handle the backlogged visas this year. The court orders have been appealed by Justice Department lawyers. They claim that the government still lacks the resources necessary to process visa applications without causing future lottery winners to be delayed. The lawyers also claimed last month that the orders would jeopardize the president's power to impose future travel restrictions on other visa applicants, such as Russian officials who have been sanctioned by the US for invading Ukraine. Mr. Demchenko remarked from his house, "We always have our suitcases ready and our clothing ready to go." His wife persuaded him to end the phone interview. While Mr. Biden established a task force last year to help reunite juveniles separated from their parents as a result of Mr. Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, the government abandoned settlement talks with the families of some of the 5,500 children late last year. He informed them that they needed to retreat to the bomb shelter. During President George W. Bush's administration, George Lynden Melmed served as the head counsel for the government's legal immigration agency. He claims there was a disconnect between a presidential candidate's agenda and his legal team's approach while in power. "Writing talking points is easy; running an agency is far more challenging," he explains. During President George W. Bush's administration, Lynden Melmed, who served as general counsel for the government's legal immigration department, said there had been a disconnect for years between a presidential candidate's program and his legal team's approach while in office. However, the administration withdrew from the talks in December and has been attempting to persuade judges to dismiss cases filed by families against a variety of defendants, not only the government. Mr. Biden did not indicate he would withdraw the regulation during his presidential campaign, but he did pledge to restore the asylum procedure, which many migrants who were subject to the public health order were denied. The administration can no longer use the regulation to deport migrant families to countries where they face persecution or torture, according to a federal appeals court. When she was a senator, Vice President Kamala Harris went even further, accusing the Trump administration of exploiting a limited public health power as a broad immigration tool. Judge Walker reminded Ms. Swingle that the Biden administration had previously argued that returning migrants to Mexico while they await asylum cases would not "align with the administration's values" due to the risk of violence and sexual assault from cartel members on the Mexican side of the border. Ms. Swingle, on the other hand, cited the public health emergency as a rationale to keep Mr. Trump's border restrictions in place. |