Behind the Scenes Action Dominates
Immigration and Refugee Legislative Agenda

By Micheal E. Hill
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 -- 11:00 pm EST

Congress returned to Washington in January to convene the second session of the 111th Congress.  But up to now, immigration and refugee matters have taken a back seat to machinations over other legislative matters.

That may soon change.

With immigration advocates poised to march on Washington less than two weeks from now in an effort to pressure Congress and the White House to move on comprehensive immigration reform legislation, immigration and refugee issues have begun to heat up in Washington. 

The following is a brief summary of some of the issues bubbling up in Washington:

• Comprehensive Immigration Reform.  President Barack Obama has summoned Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security Chairman Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and  Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the White House for a Thursday, March 11, 2010, Oval Office meeting to discuss comprehensive immigration reform.  Ever since assuming the chairmanship of the Immigration Subcommittee in January of 2009, Chairman Schumer has promised to unveil a comprehensive immigration reform bill and begin to move it through the Senate.  After laying out his general principles for immigration reform last  June, Chairman Schumer has repeatedly set and missed self-imposed deadlines for action on comprhensive immigration reform.  He  is partnering with the Department of Homeland Security and Senator Graham in drafting the measure.
  
  
  Conventional wisdom would have us believe that only the narrowist of windows remains open for consideration of comprehensive immigration reform legislation during the remainder of the 111th Congress.

• Health Care Reform and Immigrants.  While much of the press and media attention on health care reform legislation has focused on the battle over the treatment of abortion under the bill, it has been little noticed that the issue of treatment of both legal and undocumented immigrants under the legislation is also a matter that could either propel or derail health care reform legislation.  Key members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) have quietly threatened to vote against the Senate-passed version of the health care reform bill if at least one of two problems with the measure are not resolved.  The first of these problems is the Senate bill's provision that would bar undocumented aliens from using their own funds to purchase health insurance products that are listed on the health insurance exchanges that the bill would be create.  The second of the problems is the Senate's refusal to include a provision in its bill that would repeal the five-year bar on legal immigrants' access to Medicaid.

• Immigration Restrictionst Amendments to Jobs and Tax Legislation.  The Senate this week, and in the coming weeks, is expected to take up jobs bills and tax extender legislation.  It is widely anticipated that immigration restrictionists in the Senate will offer immigration-related amendments during the debate on those bills.  The most widely anticipated amendments are those that would make the E-Verify system mandatory and nationwide.  But other amendments are possible, as well, including amendments that would codify a regulation currently in force that requires most federal contractors to use the E-Verify system;  deny tax credits to entities that do not use the E-Verify system; require that the E-Verify system be used for entities distributing unemployment compensation; and reinstitute or codify a  suspended SSA no-match rule.

Senate Passes Historic Health Care Reform Bill Containing Both Enhancements to and Restrictions on Immigrants' Access to Health Care, and Setting Up What Promises to be a Difficult January Conference
with the House of Representatives

By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, December 24, 2009 -- 1:07 pm EST

The Senate today passed a landmark health care reform bill containing a number of significant provisions relating to both legal and illegal immigrants' access to health care.  The Senate began this morning's vote on final passage of the measure at 7:10 am EST, passing it at 7:18 am EST by a vote of 60-39.  Shortly afterward, the Senate adjourned the first session of the 111th Congress.  The House is expected to reconvene the second session on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.  The Senate is expected to convene one week later, on Tuesday, January 19, 2010.

Today's final vote on the health care reform bill was anticlimactic; the Senate had signalled its support for the measure last Saturday when Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), who had been the last Democratic holdout for the measure, indicated his support for a compromise "Manager's Amendment" to the bill.  The Senate invoked cloture on the "Manager's Amendment" in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, December 21, 2009, and then plodded through several more procedural votes over the ensuing three day leading up to this morning's passage of the measure. 

As a general matter, the Senate-passed health care reform bill would require almost everyone living in the United States to purchase a qualified health insurance plan or face a tax penalty.  It also would establish health insurance exchanges, on which private sector insurance companies would list their health insurance products; establish health affordability tax credits to help persons who cannot afford health insurance purchase it; expand eligibility for Medicaid to a greater number of lower-income persons; and institute a number of requirements on insurance companies with respect to the benefits that they must offer.

With regard to immigrants, the Senate-passed health care reform bill would exempt persons who are not lawfully present in the United States from the measure's general mandate that virtually everyone living lawfully in the United States be covered by a qualified health insurance plan.  The bill also would make legal immigrants eligible for the bill's health care affordability tax credits without having to wait for any length of time after entry to the United States.  And, perhaps most controversially, the Senate-passed bill generally would bar aliens who are not lawfully present in the United States from using their own funds to purchase health insurance products that are listed on the Health Insurance Exchange that the bill would create. 

The Senate-passed health care reform bill would establish a new citizenship and immigration status verification regime that is designed to ensure that persons who are not lawfully present in the United States do not receive health insurance products and benefits from which they are barred.  It would rely on the recently enacted Children's Health Insurance Program reauthorization bill's mechanism for verification and subject everyone who purchases health insurance through the exchange, who benefits from an exchange plan, or who receives an affordability tax credit to the new citizenship and immigration status verification regime.

Senate passage of its health care reform bill sets up what promises to be a difficult conference in January with the U.S. House of Representatives.


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President Signs Measure Expanding Refugee Resettlement and Public Entitlement Benefit Eligibility for Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrants

By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, December 21, 2009 -- 8:45 pm EST

President Barack Obama has signed into law a measure that expands the eligibility of special immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan for refugee resettlement and other entitlement benefits.  More specifically, the measure provides certain Iraqi and Afghan nationals who have been or will be admitted to the United States as special immigrants with the same eligibility for public benefits that refugees enjoy.  The special immigrant benefit provisions were enacted into law as part of H.R. 3326, the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.  The House of Representatives approved the final version of the measure on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, by a vote of 395-34.  The Senate cleared the measure for the President's consideration on Saturday, December 19, 2009, by a vote of 88-10.  The President signed the bill into law on Saturday, December 19, making it Public Law 111-118.

Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrants receive refugee and entitlement benefits  pursuant to Section 1244(g) of the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2007 (subtitle C of title XII of division A of Public Law 110–181; 122 Stat. 398), and Section 602(b)(8) of the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009 (title VI of division F of Public Law 111–8; 123 Stat. 809), respectively.  Prior to the enactment of H.R. 3326, those two laws provided that Iraqi and Afghan special immigrants could receive refugee and entitlement benefifts for up to eight months. 

Sections 8120(a) and 8120(b) of H.R. 3326 were first approved by the House of Representatives on July 30, 2009, when the House passed its version of the Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Appropriations bill.  The provisions were shepharded through the House by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA).  The original Senate-passed version of H.R. 3326 did not contain similar language.  Rather than convening a formal conference committee, negotiators for each of the two chambers reached an agreement on resolving differences between the House- and Senate-passed versions of the defense spending bill and moved that agreement in the form of a House amendment to the Senate amendment to the original House-passed bill.  That agreement is what has now been enacted into law.

The language on Iraqi and Afghan Special Immigrants is found on page 49 of the official print of H.R. 3326.


Official Text of H.R. 3326, Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill 

Official Text of H.R. 3288, Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act
Conference Report Accompanying H.R. 3288, Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act

By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, December 14, 2009 -- 9:00 am EST

Now that Congress has completed action on all of the fiscal year 2010 immigration- and refugee-related appropriations bills, the immigration- and refugee-related legislative agenda for the remainder of the first session of the 111th Congress has dwindled to just a trickle of items. 

Congress is expected to take action in the coming week on the following immigration- and refugee-related measures:

• Health Care Reform.  The Senate is expected to be in session seven days this week, continuing its consideration of health care reform legislation.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is having a difficult time assembling the 60 votes he needs to bring debate to a close on the mesaure. 

  The most widely anticipated immigration-related amendment is one that has been drafted by Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) that would allow states to waive the five-year-after-entry-bar to accessing Medicaid that most legal immigrants face under current law.  However, several other immigration-related amendments that are less generous to immigrants have been filed, including amendments by Senator John Ensign (R-NV) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) that would make it more difficult for immigrants seeking health care.
  
  The Senate is essentially in a deadlock on health care reform as it enters the week.  It is awaiting word from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the cost of a yet-to-be-publicly-revealed compromise amendment that would dump the public option in favor of permitting 55-64 year-old Americans to buy into the Medicare program.  In addition, the Democratic Leadership is mired in efforts to block a popular amendment that would allow for the reimportation of cheaper prescription drugs from outside of the United States.
  
  The bill that the Senate is considering is a substitute to H.R. 3590 that was offered by Majority Leader Reid.  The substitute is a mashup of two bills that were separately approved by the Senate Committee on Finance and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, with a number of new ideas thrown in by the Majority Leader. 

• Treatment of Human Rights Violators.   The House of Representatives this week is scheduled to take up a Senate-passed measure that is aimed at enabling the United States to better identify and punish persons in the United States who have committed human rights violations.  House action is set to take place in connection with S. 1472, the Human Rights Enforcement Act of 2009.  The Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent on Saturday, November 21, 2009.

Outside of the House and Senate chambers and committee hearing rooms, work continues in both the House and Senate to draft separate comprehensive immigration reform bills.  The major action on that front this week is expected to be Representative Luis Gutierrez's introduction on Tuesday of his comprehensive immigration reform bill, which he has titled, the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act", or "CIR ASAP".  The measure is expected to contain six titles, including titles on border security, detention, and enforcement; electronic employment verification; family, employment, and other visa reforms; legalization; future flows of U.S. workers from outside of the United States; and the integration of new Americans into the civic life of the United States.


Click Here to See This Week on the Hill

Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary questioned Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on a variety of immigration-related matters today during a nearly two-and-a-half-hour-long oversight hearing on the operations of the Department.  The Secretary's appearance before the Committee began this  morning shortly after 10:00 am EST this morning and concluded shortly before 12:30 pm EST.

Committee members posed a wide variety of questions of the Secretary during today's session, including questions about comprehensive immigration reform, the Department's policy of increasing jurisdictions participating in 287(g) programs, the Department's stepped-up policy of conducting enforcement audits on employers, Tthe REAL ID Act, and its policy of limited use of workforce raids.  The Secretary also came under questioning on the Department's immigration detention policies and practices.

Secretary Napolitano stepped up her defense of the Obama Administration's policies in her prepared statement before the Committee, asserting that the Administration has made great strides in improving the delivery of immigration services, reaffirming President Obama's support for the enactment of comprehensive immigration reform legislation that would include among its components the legalization of millions of illegal aliens, and defending what she calls her Department's robust immigration enforcement activities.

Secretary Napotliano said at today's hearing that the Administration's immigration posture, "if we are truly going to fix this broken system, Congress will need to act. Immigration reform must consist of a 'three-legged stool' that includes a commitment to serious and effective enforcement, improved legal flows for families and workers, and a firm but fair way to deal with those who are already here. And as I have always said, we must demand responsibility and accountability from everyone involved: immigrants, employers, and the government."

Senate Invokes Cloture on and Agrees to Proceed to Health Care Reform Bill

By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, November 30, 2009 -- 1:00 am EST

The Senate has moved a big step closer to passing a landmark health care reform bill.  But there is still a long way to go. 

The Senate on Saturday, November 21, voted to invoke cloture (bring debate to a close) on a motion to proceed to consideration of legislation that has become the vehicle for a health care reform bill assembled by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  The Senate invoked cloture by a party-line vote of 60-39.  The 60 votes that the Majority Leader mustered to shut down debate was the minimum that was needed.  Immediately following the vote to invoke cloture, the Senate agreed to the motion to proceed to the bill, and Senator Reid laid down a substitute amendment reflecting the text of his health care reform bill.  The Reid Substitute will be the vehicle for floor amendments beginning on Monday, November 30 -- a debate that will likely take up almost all of the remainder of the first session of the 111th Congress.
 
The outcome of this evening's cloture vote was in doubt for much of the day on Saturday.  As the day began, Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) were the only Democratic senators whose votes were in doubt; all of the other 58 senators who caucus with the Democratic party had already announced that they would support invoking cloture.  Senators Landrieu and Lincoln announced their support for invoking cloture during the course of this afternoon's debate, removing much of the drama that had been present over the last week. 

The health care reform bill  that the Senate has agreed to take up contains a number of provisions relating to immigrants' access to health insurance.  The measure's immigration-related provisions are substantially similar to those that were contained in the Senate Finance Committee's health care reform bill.  However, there are some changes around the edges.


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Senate Next Week Expected to Begin Parliamentary Wrangling Over Health Care Reform Bill Containing Restrictions on Immigrants' Access to Health Insurance


By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, November 12, 2009 - 7:30 am EST

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has taken the initial steps that he must make in order to bring his yet-to-be-unveiled health care reform bill before the full Senate.  As a technical matter, the Majority Leader placed the House-passed version of H.R. 3962, the "Affordable Health Care for America Act", on the Senate legislative calendar, starting a three-day clock that would enable him to attempt to bring the bill before the Senate as soon as Tuesday, November 17, 2009.  However, as a practical matter, the bill will become mired in complex parliamentary wrangling that will prevent the Senate from addressing the substance of the Senate's health care reform bill until after Thanksgiving Day, at the earliest. 

Few details about the Senate's health care reform bill were available at the time of this writing.  However, it is anticipated that its immigration-related provisions will be closely (if not identically) patterned after the immigration-related provisions that are contained in S. 1796, the "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009", which the Senate Committee on Finance approved in October.  That measure contains a number of provisions that are strongly opposed by the pro-immigrant advocacy community.

The "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009" contains a number of immigration-related provisions and impacts.  More specifically, it would:

House Passes Landmark Health Care Reform Bill That Leaves Intact Provisions that would Increase Increase Immigrants' Access to Health Insurance Benefits


By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, November 9, 2009 - 1:00 am EST

The House of Representatives has passed a landmark health care reform bill that would require every person in the United States to purchase health insurance, establish a new entitlement to federal health care affordability subsidies for lower income individuals and families, and enact significant new consumer reforms to protect the rights and benefits of the insured.  The House passed the measure late in the evening on Saturday, November 7, 2009, by a vote of 220-215.

For the most part, the House-passed health care reform bill would provide legal immigrants with the same access to its benefits that U.S. citizens would enjoy, while barring federal health care affordability subsidies to persons who are not lawfully present in the United States.  Unlike the health care reform bill that has been reported by the Senate Committee on Finance, the House-passed measure defies the wishes of President Barack Obama by permitting illegal immigrants to purchase health insurance products with their own funds. 

Immigration restrictionists inside and outside of Congress are extraordinarily critical of the House-passed bill's immigration provisions.  They have excoriated the bill because it does not extend to health insurance benefits an existing five-years-after-entry bar for legal immigrants who seek access to public benefit programs.  They also have been extremely critical of the bill for permitting illegal immigrants to use their own funds to purchase health insurance products that are listed on government-run health insurance exchanges.  And, while the bill would impose a citizenship and immigration status verification regime on individuals before they could access federal health insurance affordability subsidies, immigration restrictionists complain that the regime is too weak and that it should be extended to all aspects of health insurance.

Now that the House has passed its version of health care reform legislation, the next step in the process is for the full Senate to take up its version of the measure.  That could occur sometime in the next few weeks.

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By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, November 2, 2009 - 7:00 am EST

Congress has approved a measure that continues stop-gap fiscal year 2010 funding for the nation's refugee admissions, overseas refugee assistance, and refugee resettlement programs.  Thursday's Congressional action cleared the measure for the President's expected signature.  President Obama is expected to sign the measure before the weekend is over.

In addition to containing a set of provisions that continue fiscal year 2010 funding for the nation's refugee programs, the stop-gap funding measure that Congress has cleared also provides continuing funding for the other departments, agencies, programs, and activities of the federal government that have not yet had their regular fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills enacted into law.  The stop-gap measure, called a continuing appropriations resolution, will fund these federal agencies, departments, programs, and activities through December 18, 2010.

Congressional action on a continuing appropriations resolution was necessary because Congress has not completed work on all of the 12 regular appropriations bills that fund the activities of the federal government for fiscal year 2010.  The continuing appropriations resolution gives Congress time to complete work on those measures.

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President Signs DHS Appropriations Bill Extending E-Verify & Three Expiring Visa Programs and Providing Relief to Widows and Orphans of Deceased U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents


By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, October 29, 2009  -  10:50 pm EDT

President Barack Obama has signed into law the fiscal year 2010 bill that funds the nation's border enforcement, interior immigration enforcement, and immigration services functions, clearing the bill for the President's expected signature. 

The President acted in connection with H. Rept. 111-298, the conference report accompanying H.R. 2892, the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.  The bill contains a three year-long extension of the controversial E-Verify Program, as well as three year-long extensions of the EB-5 Investor Visas Regional Centers Program, the Special Immigrant Non-Minister Religious Worker Visa Program, and the Conrad 30 State J-1 Visa Program. 

The President signed the measure into law on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, making it Public Law 111-83.

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By Micheal E. Hill
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 - 9:15 am EDT

It is looking inreasingly like Congress will not be able to complete action on the individual fiscal year 2010 appropriations bills that fund the nation's refugee admissions, overseas refugee assistance, and refugee resettlement programs and that Congress, instead, will be forced to fold spending for those programs into a small omnibus fiscal year 2010 appropriations bill. 

Insiders speculate that Congress will try for another week to enact as many as possible of the 12 regular appropriations bills that fund the federal government's operations.  But these insiders believe that a combination of GOP slow-down tactics on the Senate floor and the Senate's impending consideration of health care reform legislation soon will force Congress to abandon efforts to enact each of the 12 measures indivdually.  They go on to assert that the abandonment of efforts to enact the individual bills will require that Congress, instead, assemble a package consisting of the yet-to-be-enacted appropriations bills -- a package that has been affectionately dubbed, a "Minibus" appropriations bill.

Yet to be enacted as separate measures are the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations bill, which funds the nation's refugee admissions and overseas refugee resettlement programs and activites, and the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which funds the nation's refugee resettlement programs and activities.  Both of these bills are often controversial and often attract numerous amendments.

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The full House of Representatives on Friday passed a measure that would dramatically inrease penalties for alien smuggling, including providing for up to one year imprisonment for someone who is convicted of "transiting" close family members.  Friday's House floor action occurred in connection with H.R. 3619, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010.  The House took up the measure on Thursday, October 22, 2009, passing it one day later by a vote of 385-11.

The alien smuggling provisions in H.R. 3619 are found in Title XII of the measure.  That title, which is comprised of the text of the House-passed version of H.R. 1029, the “Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2009”, would dramatically increases penalties for alien smuggling.

In addition to the alien smuggling provisions found in Title XII of the measure, the full House agreed to two amendments to the measure that have immigration implications: an amendment by Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL) relating to U.S. immigration policy toward Haiti and an amendment by Representative a Glenn C. Nye (D-VA) aimed at ensuring that provisions in the bill relating to safety do not negatively impact the Coast Guard's mission to prevent maritime illegal immigration and alien smuggling.  The House agreed to both amendments by a voice vote.

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President Signs DHS Appropriations Bill Extending E-Verify & Three Expiring Visa Programs and Providing Relief to Widows and Orphans of Deceased U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents

By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, October 29, 2009  -  3:50 pm EDT

President Barack Obama yesterday signed into law the fiscal year 2010 bill that funds the nation's border enforcement, interior immigration enforcement, and immigration services functions, clearing the bill for the President's expected signature. 

The President acted in connection with H. Rept. 111-298, the conference report accompanying H.R. 2892, the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.  The bill contains a three year-long extension of the controversial E-Verify Program, as well as three year-long extensions of the EB-5 Investor Visas Regional Centers Program, the Special Immigrant Non-Minister Religious Worker Visa Program, and the Conrad 30 State J-1 Visa Program. 

The President signed the measure into law on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, making it Public Law 111-83.

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Obama Defends Raids, Reaffirms Support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and Sets a Timeline of One-to-Two Years for Enactment of CIR


By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, October 19, 2009  -  9:45 pm EDT

President Barack Obama last week defended his Administration's immigration enforcement policies, reaffirmed his support for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation, and set a timeline of one-to-two years for enactment of CIR legislation.  The President's comments on immigration reform were made yesterday during a town hall meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The President's defense, reaffirmation, and timeline came during a response to a question that was asked by one of the attendees at the Town Hall meeting.

A questioner at the Town Hall meeting noted that there are a lot of cases of "mothers losing their children because of immigration."  She told the President that "the kids are lost in the system" and that she didn't think it was fair.  She pleaded with the President to find a way "to keep the families together."

In an extended response to the questioner, President Obama told the audience that the problem is complicated.  He said that, in the short-term, his Administration was trying to "apply our immigration laws in a humane way that recognizes you don't want to just snatch a child from a mother if the chil is a U.S. citizen, even if the mother may not be."  The President went on to say that the long-term solution to the problem is comprehensive immigration reform.  He outlined a familiar prescription for such reforms, including strengthening the borders and strengthening employment-based immigration enforcement.  He told the audience that "[t]he third thing, then, is we've got to figure out" how to deal with the 10 to-15 million undocumented workers living here.

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Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Immigration Task Force Chairman Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) this week unveiled ten "core principles" that will be embodied in the comprehensive immigration reform bill that he is drafting. 

Representative Gutierrez unveiled his principles in front of thousands of pro-immigrant advocates at a rally and prayer vigil that took place on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building.  The Congressman was joined at the vigil by Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Congressional Asian and Pacific American Caucus Chairman Mike Honda (D-CA), and others.  He told reporters that he would likely introduce the bill sometime around Thanksgiving.

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The Senate Committee on Finance last week approved the Baucus Health Care Reform bill, doing so on Tuesday, October 13, 2009, by a vote of 14-9.  All 13 Democrats on the Committee voted in favor of the proposal, as did one Republican, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME).  Yesterday's action was but a formality, however.  Even as the vote was being cast, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) was working to put together a compromise bill that melds the work of the Senate Committee on Finance with the bill approved earlier this year by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

The Senate Finance Committee-approved measure contains a number of provisions relating to immigrants' access to health insurance and health care.

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Senate Clears Measure Containing a Month-Long Extension of E-Verify, Religious Worker Visa, and Two Other Expiring Immigration Programs

Senate Homeland Security Committee Approves Bill Repealing and Replacing Some of the REAL ID Act Driver’s License Standards

By Micheal E. Hill
September 21, 2009 -  7:00 am EDT

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has approved legislation that would repeal a number of the standards for driver’s licenses and state issued identification cards set by the Division B of P.L. 109-13, the REAL ID Act of 2005, and replace them with requirements that the bill's proponents contend are less onerous. 

Committee action occurred on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, in connection with S. 1261, the “Providing for Additional Security in States' Identification Act of 2009” or “PASS ID Act”, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI).  The Committee approved the measure by a voice vote.

At the time of this writing, there was no word on when the full Senate will take up the measure.

See Pages 881-882 of the August 3, 2009, edition of the Weekly Legislative Update for more information.

MicEvHill.Com added a number of documents to its "Top Immigration and Refugee Legislative Documents" page , including the text of the Reid "Manager's Amendment" to the Senate health care reform bill; the text of President Barack Obama's statement in support of the Reid "Manager's Amendment"; the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the "Manager's Amendment" to the health care reform bill.  Also added last week was the official text of H.R. 4321, the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009" (The CIR ASAP Act); along with  a summary of the measure and a section-by-section summary of the bill that was prepared by Greg  Siskind.  Other key immigration- and refugee-related legislative documents added last week include the unofficial text of the compromise version of H.R. 3326, the Fiscal Year 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act, which contains language expanding benefit eligibility for special immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan; and the official text of H.R. 3288, the Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which funds the nation's fiscal year 2010 refugee admissions, refugee assistance, and refugee resettlement operations.    --  Click Here to See the Latest Top Immigration and Refugee Legislative Documents

The Weekly Legislative Update for the week of November 30 2009, has been posted.  The document  contains a comprehensive preview of the week-to-come, as well as a complete review of the week-that-was, in immigration and refugee legislation. -- Click Here to See This Week's Weekly Legislative Update

As the first session of the 111th Congress begins to wind to a close, MicEvHill.Com's "Over the Horizon" page has been updated to look at the potential immigration- and refugee-related legislative agenda that could be left undone.  --  Click Here to See "Over the Horizon"

Correction!  MicEvHill.Com has revised its preliminary analysis of the immigration-related provisions in the Reid Health Care Reform bill to correct an erroneous interpretation that it initially made about language on Page 331 of the bill.  MicEvHill.Com initially interpreted the language as exemptng nonimmigrants from the bill's health insurance mandate.  The page contains no such provision.  We apologize for any inconvenience, hardship, penalty, or other cataclysmic result that our error might have caused our readers, and we have severely disciplined the offending author. --  Click Here to See the Revised Preliminary Analysis 

MicEvHill.Com has posted steaming video of Lou Dobbs' CNN retirement announcement.  See MicEvHill's Top Story, to the left.

MicEvHill.Com's "Recent Hill Activity" page has been updated to include the immigration- and refugee-related legislative actions that have occurred through Saturday, November 7, 2009.  --  Click Here to See Recent Hill Activity

MicEvHill.Com is experimenting with adding live streaming video of the proceedings of the House of Representatives and Senate during immigration- and refugee-related debates to its lineup of services.  We invite you to check it out and let us know how it works for you on your computer. -- Click Here to Try Out This New Feature  

MicEvHill.Com added a new page, called "Top Immigration and Refugee Legislative Documents," to its lineup.  The new page will provide viewers with access to key legislative documents relating to immigration- and refugee-related legislation, including many documents that you may not be able to find elsewhere.  --  Click Here to See Top Immigration and Refugee Legislative Documents

The Senate has cleared for the President's expected signature the final version of the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act, which contains numerous immigration provisions.  MicEvHill.Com has prepared a summary of the immigration-related provisions in the bill and a side-by-side comparision of key immigration provisions in the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Act.  --  Click Here to Read More

The legislative text for the Senate Finance Committee-approved  healthcare reform bill has been finalized. -- Click Here to See the Text of Bill

The House has agreed to the conference report accompanying the FY '10 Homeland Security Appropriations bill.  The measure contains a number of significant immigration and refugee provisions.  -- Click Here to See a Summary of Today's House Action

The conference report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Security Appropriations Bill has been printed.  --  Click Here to see the text of the conference report

House and Senate conferees agreed to a compromise version of the Fiscal Year 2010 Homeland Security Security Appropriations Bill, stripping from it almost all of the controversial immigration policy provisions that were included in the Senate-passed version of the measure.  However, the acheivement of an agreement is only the first step in what may prove to be a complicated path to enactment for the Homeland Security spending measure.  --  Click Here to see a summary of the conference agreement

The Senate rejected an amendment to the C-J-S Appropirations Bill offered by Senator David Vitter (R-LA) to bar Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) funding to jurisdictions that have a "sanctuary" policy barring local law enforcement personnel from communicating with Department of Homeland Security enforcement personnel.  --  Click Here to see the text of and vote results on the Vitter Amendment

A Senate Judiciary Committee panel held a hearing on October 8, 2009, on faith-based perspectives on comprehensive immigration reform.  --  Click Here to See Recorded Video of the Hearing

A Senate Judiciary panel held a hearing on October 6, 2009, on human rights violations and asylum titled, No Safe Haven: Accountability for Human Rights Violators, Part II." -- Click Here to See Recorded Video of the Hearing

President Obama has set the goal for refugee admissions to the United States in fiscal year 2010 at 80,000 admissions.  -- Click Here to See the FY '10 Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions