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Top Immigration & Refugee Legislative and Political Developments
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Procedural Manuevering on DREAM Act Begins in the Senate, Setting Up a Possible Key Vote as Soon as Friday
By Micheal E. Hill
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 -- 5:05 pm EDT
--Updated on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at 9:32 pm EST--
Just days before the 2010 mid-term elections, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) promised to bring the DREAM Act before the full Senate for a vote during the current "Lame Duck" post-election session. The Majority Leader has now made good on that promise. Senator Reid took the first steps toward bringing the DREAM Act before the Senate on Tuesday evening, November 30, in a move that could set up a key procedural vote on the measure as soon as Friday, December 3, or sometime early next week.
With mutliple versions of the DREAM Act to choose from, the Majority Leader chose to advance a new bill, S. 3992, a measure that was only introduced on Tuesday, November 30. The text of the new measure was not widely available at the time of this writing. However, it is believed that, like the original version of the DREAM Act, it would authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional permanent resident status, an alien who: (1) entered the United States before his or her 16th birthday and has been present in the United States for at least five years immediately preceding enactment of the Act; (2) is a person of good moral character; (3) is not inadmissible or deportable under specified grounds of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and (4) at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education or has earned a high school or equivalent diploma. It is believed that the measure, further, would provide for lifting the conditional residency status of students and adjusting them to permanent residency.
A big unanswered question at the time of this writing is whether S. 3992 contains two provisions that were included in the original version of the DREAM Act but have been left out of subsequent versions. The first of these is a provision that would amend the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to repeal the provision in that law that effectively prohibit states from providing in-state tuition for undocumented aliens unless the state provides in-state tuition to all citizens and nationals of the United States. The second of these is the question of what the bill's cut-off age is for DREAM Act beneficairies. The original version of the DREAM Act would have permitted persons who were up to age 35 to benefit from the bill. Subsequent versions of the bill reduced that cutoff age to 30 years-of-age.
Of course, it is possible that other significant changes have been made to the DREAM Act, as well, in this most recent version.
The impending floor action on the DREAM Act was triggered when Majority Leader Reid arranged for the introduction of the new bill (S. 3992) and moved to have the bill "read" the first time. It is likely that he will move to have the bill read a second time on Wednesday, December 1, then file a motion to proceed to the consideration of the bill, and then move to invoke cloture (shut down debate) on that motion. Under Senate rules, it takes two days for a cloture motion to "ripen" once it has been filed. Once it has ripened, a vote on cloture must occur.
Senate rules require the affirmative votes of 60 senators in order to invoke cloture (shut down debate) on a measure. Accordingly, Majority Leader Reid will need to convince 60 senators to vote in favor of invoking cloture in order to bring S. 3992 before the Senate.
Should the Senate eventually vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to consideration of the DREAM Act, an amendment process will be triggered, wherein senators will be free to offer amendments to make changes in the bill. Senate DREAM Act opponents have indicated they intend to offer a host of potentially crippling amendments to the measure if the process gets that far. In all likelihood, if cloture is invoked, Majority Leader Reid will attempt to negotiate a defined list of amendments that could be offered to the bill. Any such agreement would require the unanimous consent of the Senate, however. If no such agreement is reached, under cloture, the Senate would have up to 100 hours to debate the measure before a final vote occurred on the bill, as amended, if amended.
Should the Senate decline to invoke cloture, Senator Reid will have the option of trying at some later time to invoke cloture, thus bring debate to a close, on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill.
Secuing 60 votes to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to the consideration of the DREAM Act will be a daunting task, given that several of the 58 sitting Democratic senators are expected to vote against doing so. In any imaginable scenario, Majority Leader Reid will have to win the votes of at least a half-dozen Republicans in order to invoke cloture on the measure. At the time of this writing, Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Robert Bennett (R-UT) were the only Republicans who shad indicated support for it.
Prior to Tuesday, November 30, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) had introduced four versions of the DREAM Act during the 111th Congress, a move that was made in order to keep his options open in case he needed to make changes to the bill in order to secure the votes of wavering senators. The four versions that he had introduced prior to Tuesday were S. 729, the original version of the measure, as well as S. 3827, S. 3962, and S. 3963. Each version made changes around the edges of the original version of the measure -- some big and some small. In the end, the Majority Leader chose to attempt to bring a fifth version, S. 3992, before the full Senate for its consideration.
The text of S. 3992 was not available at the time of this writing. Check back in this space on Wednesday, December 1. MicEvHill.Com will post the text as soon as it is avaiable.
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White House Steps Up Public Effort On the DREAM Act
By Micheal E. Hill
Tuesday, November 30, 2010 -- 4:15 am EDT
--Updated on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at 9:00 am EST--
According to the White House, the Obama Administration is actively engaged in the process of trying to win enactment of the DREAM Act, with stepped up public and private efforts to secure the requisite votes to pass the House and Senate. White House officials say that the Obama Administration effort is being spearheaded by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. White House staff says that Secretary Duncan's efforts are being supplemented by Secreatary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, the Pentagon, and by the President, himself.
While there were indications late last week that Congress could vote as soon as this week on the DREAM Act , those hopes had somewhat faded by late Monday. It still appeared at the time of this writing, however, that Congress is on track to vote on the measure prior to its expected late December adjournment.
At the time of this writing, a number of details about the impending DREAM Act votes were unclear.
First and foremost, it was unclear at the time of this writing what version of the DREAM Act will actually be voted on. When most people think of the DREAM Act, they think of either H.R. 1751, the "American Dream Act", which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Howard L. Berman (D-CA) on March 26, 2009, or S. 729, the "Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2009", which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) on March 26, 2009. However, it is highly likely that those will not be the versions of the measure that the House and Senate take up. Discussions are underway in both the House and the Senate on changes that might be necessary in order to secure the requisite number of vote in each chamber to pass the measure. And so the precise text that each chamber will consider is still a fluid question. Indeed, since he introduced the first version of this Congress on March 26, 2009, Senator Durbin has introduced three additional versions of the DREAM Act. Those three additional versions are S. 3827, S. 3962, and S. 3963. Each would make changes around the edges -- some big and some small -- of the measure.
The second big question that had yet to be resolved at the time of this writing is which chamber will vote first on the DREAM Act. Ever since Democrats seized control of the House and Senate following the 2006 mid-term elections, it has been the position of the House Democratic Leadership that the Senate should move first on any big immigration bill and that only after the Senate has passed a measure would the House take it up. The House Democratic Leadership took this position because it wanted to shield vulnerale Democrats from voting on a controversial immigration measure and taking the potential political heat that comes from such a vote if the Senate was not ultimately going to approve the measure, as well. Given that Congress is in a Lame Duck session, that calculaition may have changed. Accordingly, at the time of this writing, it was unclear whether the House would vote first on the DREAM Act or whether the Senate would do so.
The third big question that had yet to be answered at the time of this writing is whether there are 60 votes in the Senate and 218 votes in the House in favor of passing some version of the DREAM Act. Counting the votes in the House is particularly difficult, given that almost one-fourth of the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have been dislodged, losing their offices and work space while the House attempts to transition itself from the 111th to the 112th Congress. And the fact that so many Members and Senators are now "lame ducks" who will not be returning to Congress in the 112th Congress makes predicting how some of them will vote an arduous task.
Click on the play button, above, to see video of a DREAM Act webchat that senior White House advisor Cecilia Munoz engaged in on Monday, November 29.
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Possible Consideration of the DREAM Act Highlights Potentially Busy Immigration Week in the House of Representatives
By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, November 29, 2010 -- 8:45 am EST
--Updated on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at 9:59 am EST--
Congress returns to Washington this week for at least three weeks of session before it departs for a short Christmas break.
Possible consideration of the "DREAM Act" highlights what could be a busy immigration period in the House of Representatives this week.
If the House takes up the DREAM Act this week (and that is a big if), it likely would not do so until Thursday, December 2 or Friday, December 3. The timing of when the House takes up the measure is likely to depend in large part on what the House Leadership finds when it completes its whip count on the question of whether there are 218 votes in the House to pass the bill.
H.R. 1751, the "American Dream Act", was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Howard L. Berman (D-CA) on March 26, 2009. While it had 134 cosponsors at the time of this writing, it is unlikely that the original version of the bill is the version of the measure that the House ultimately will take up. A similar bill, H.R. 6327, was introduced by Representative Charles K. Djou (R-HI). The major difference between the two bills is that H.R. 6327 does not contain a provision that is in H.R. 1751 that would ease restrictions on states that permit undocumened aliens to pay in-state tuition rates rather than full tuition rates. While it is highly unlikely that the House Democratic Leadership would take up a Republican-sponsored measure, it is widely believed that the tuition provision may windup being dropped in the version of the measure that comes to the House floor.
In addition to possibly taking of the DREAM Act, the House could take up three other measures this week that contain significant immigration and/or refugee-related provisions. These include --
- a continuing appropriations resolution that is expected to appropriate stop-gap funding for the functions of the federal government for the first several weeks of December;
- a measure providing for permanent resident status for Haitian orphan earthquake victims who have been adopted by U.S. citizens or permanent residents; and
- a bill that would require nonimmigrant students who are admitted to the U.S. to study English to do so at accredited institutions.
Click Here to See a Detailed Summary of Possible Immigration Action This Week on the Hill
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Immigration Makes a Brief Appearance on the Weekend's
Sunday Public Affairs Programs
By Micheal E. Hill
Monday, November 29, 2010 -- 1:55 am EDT
After months of absence from the Sunday public affairs programs, the subject of immigration returned to them on Sunday, November 28, with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) all making comments about immigration during their Sunday appearances.
The following is a summary of the immigration-related comments made on the November 28 public affairs programs:
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FOX - FOX News Sunday. Among the guests appearing on the November 28, 2010, edition of FOX's "FOX News Sunday" were Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who predicted the failure of the DREAM Act during the 111th Congress' lame duck session, and Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who boasted about her opposition to comprehensive immigration reform as evidence of her independence from President Obama.
- NBC - Meet the Press. Appearing on the November 28, 2010, edition of NBC's "Meet the Press" was Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who indicated that his opposition to bringing up the DREAM Act had a bearing on his decision to oppose swift consideration of the START Treaty that is pending before the Senate.
Click on the play buttons, above, to video clips of the three senators' appearances.
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Potential Pathways Emerge for House and Senate Consideration of
the DREAM Act During Post Election "Lame Duck" Session
By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, November 18, 2010 -- 10:15 am EST
While a vote in either chamber during the Lame Duck session is far from certain, a picture of how the House and Senate might maneuver to secure floor votes on the DREAM Act during the Lame Duck session of the 111th Congress became a bit clearer on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, November 17, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced on Twitter, the popular microblogging platform, that he intends to bring a standalone version of the DREAM Act before the Senate sometime during the Lame Duck Session. Should the Majority Leader do so, it will be a fulfillment of a promise he made to Latinos just days before the November 2 election in which he upset Sharron Angle to win a fifth six-year term in the U.S. Senate.
In the meantime, a trial balloon was floated on Wednesday describing a potential procedural maneuver that the House Democratic Leadership might employ in December to bring the DREAM Act before the full House of Representatives for a floor vote. The maneuver would bring the measure up under a procedure that would require a simple majority for passage and block House Republicans from offering amendments or a motion to recommit.
The Senate. Just days before the 2010 mid-term elections, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) promised to bring the text of S. 729, the DREAM Act (or provisions drawn from the DREAM Act), before the full Senate for a vote during the post-election session. It was unclear at the time how he would do this. His options ranged from attempting to revive the Department of Defense Authorization Bill during the lame duck session and then trying to attacah the DREAM Act to that measure, or attempting to bring the measure before the Senate as a standalone measure. On Wednesday, Majority Leader Reid indicated that he would attempt to bring the measure before the Senate as a stand-alone measure.
In order to prevail, Senator Reid will likely have to win the votes of at least 60 senators in order to break a filibuster that likely will be mounted by DREAM Act opponents. That will be a daunting task, given that he is expected to lose the votes of a number of the 58 Senate Democrats who will be in the Senate at the time the vote is held and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) is the only Republican at the time of this writing who seems certain to support it. Most Senate observers expect that he will need to win the votes of at least seven or more Republicans.
The House of Representatives. House Democrats have floated the idea of employing a parliamentary maneuver in December that would bring the DREAM Act before the full House for a floor vote. The procedure that the House Democratic Leadership is rumored to be considering using would entail bringing the Senate Amendments to H.R. 5283, the Help Haitian Adoptees Immediately to Integrate Act of 2010 or the HAITI Act, to the House floor and then offering the DREAM Act as an amendment to that Senate-approved legislative package. One of the advantages of that procedure is that it would enable the House Democratic Leadership to bring the measure to the House floor under a set of parliamentary procedures that would bar any amendments from being offered to it. Another advantage -- and perhpas the most important advantage -- is that it would bar Republicans from offering a motion to recommit the measure to a House Committee. Republicans have made skilfull use of the Motion to Recommit (MTR) parliamentary device over the last four years to embarrass the House Democratic Leadership and effectively block the passage of bills that otherwise might have won the support of a majority of the House.
H.R. 5283 was introduced in the House by Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE). The House of Representatives passed it on July 20, 2010, by a voice vote. As passed by the House, H.R. 5283 would have authorized the Secretary of Homeland Security to adjust to permanent resident status an alien who was paroled into the United States pursuant to the humanitarian parole policy for certain Haitian orphans announced on January 18, 2010, and suspended as to new applications on April 15, 2010. In order to be eligible, an alien would have had to apply for adjustment, be physically present in the United States when the adjustment application is filed, and be admissible as an immigrant. The House-passed version of the measure would have deemed that any alien applying for relief has satisfied the requirements applicable to adopted children if, before the alien is 18 years of age, he or she adjusts to permanent resident status and is adopted by a U.S. citizen (which may occur before, on, or after status adjustment). It, further, would permit a parent or legal guardian to apply on behalf of a minor, and it would prohibit any derivative immigration benefits for the birth parent of an alien adjusted under this Act. The Senate added relatively minor amendments to the House-passed version of the bill, approving its amendments to it on August 4, 2010. The Senate-passed amendments to the measure would impose several restrictions on Haitian children who can benefit from the bill that are not contained in the House-passed version. For instance, the Senate-passed version places a deadline of three years for potential beneficaries to apply for adjustment of status. It also caps at 1,400 the number of chidlren whose status can be adjusted under the measure. And it requires that children benefiting from the bill be under the age of 18 and unmarried. The House-passed version contained no such restrictions.
The potential procedural move has drawn fire from Representative Fortenberry, who has written the House Democratic Leadership criticizing the idea.
Notwithstanding intrigue over the parliamentary procedure that the House Democratic Leadership will employ if it decides to bring the DREAM Act before the full House of Representatives, there is a serious question as to whether the house Democratic Leadership has sufficient support from within the House Democratic Caucus to pass the measure.
Introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 1751, the American Dream Act, by Representative Howard L. Berman (D-CA), the measure had 134 cosponsors at the time of this writing. Proponents of the measure will need the affirmative votes of 218 Members in order to pass it. This will be a daunting task, given that few House Republicans are expected to support it, a substantial number of the 255 sitting Democrats have spotty records on immigration, and that a number of "lame duck" Democrats who were defeated for reelection in the 2010 mid-term elections may be eying come-back bids in 2012.
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Congress Returns to Washington for Post-Election
"Lame Duck" Session
Wednesday, November 17, 2010 -- 9:15 am EST
While Congress returned to Washington this week to begin a post-election session of undetermined length, little legislative activity on immigration is expected to occur this week. Congress is expected to take a break during the Thanksgiving week and return in December, when real legislating is expected to occur on a host of matters, including resolving (or not resolving) the fiscal year 2011 appropriations bills, resolving the controversy over how to extend the Bush tax cuts, and determining whether to hold votes in the House and Senate on the DREAM Act. The only thing certain is that the 111th Congress will adjourn before January 3, 2011, when the 112th Congress is set to convene.
A number of immigration and refugee matters have yet to be resolved in the 111th Congress and could see action during the post-election session:
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The DREAM Act. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) has reversed course and now is fully supporting bringing the DREAM Act before Congress during the Lame Duck session. Representatives of the CHC met with President Barack Obama on Tuesday, November 16, and discussed the issue with him, to an uncertain conclusion. CHC Members contend that the President will work to bring the measure up during the Lame Duck Session. However, the White House has sent signals contrary to that assertion. In any event, it is unclear whether there are sufficient votes in either the House or the Senate to pass the measure were it to be brought up.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has promised to bring S. 729, the DREAM Act (or provisions drawn from the DREAM Act), before the full Senate for a vote during the post-election session. It is unclear, however, how he would do this. He could attempt to bring it up as a stand-alone measure. Or he could attempt to do so as part of the Department of Defense Authorization Bill, a measure that was blocked from the Senate floor just before Congress adjourned for the mid-term elections. However he decides to proceed, the measure likely would come up under circumstances requiring 60 votes in order to prevail, a requirement that would necessitate proponents winning he votes of at least four-to-five Republicans.
House Speaker Pelosi has indicated a desire to bring the DREAM Act up in the House, during the Lame Duck session. But she also has indicated that she will wait for the Senate to act on controversial measures during the Lame Duck Session before bringing them to the House floor, throwing into doubt whether she is serious about bringing the DREAM Act before the full House for a vote.
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Refugees and SSI. Refugee advocates are hoping to find a vehicle to extend Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits eligibility for about 5,000 elderly disabled refugees whose eligibility for the program is limited by law and that expired at the end of September, 2010.
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Undocumented Aliens and 9/11 First Responders. The Senate could take up H.R. 847, the "James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act," which the House of Representatives passed prior to its adjournment for the mid-term elections. As passed by the House, the measure would establish a program, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, to treat and monitor individuals who have medical problems resulting from the toxins released by the 9/11 attacks or the subsequent debris removal. The House-passed version of the measure would not bar undocumented aliens from receiving assistance under the program, a matter that was the subject of considerable controversy in the House.
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Fiscal Year 2011 Immigration- and Refugee-Related Appropriations. It appears unlikely at the time of this writing that Congress will complete action on any of the 12 appropriations bills that fund the federal government's operations before the beginning of the new fiscal year. Consequently, Congress is expected sometime next month to enact either a stop-gap funding measure to fund the federal government's operations into 2011.
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The Dust Begins to Settle on the Republican Win of Control of the House and its Deep Cut Into the Democratic Majority in the Senate
By Micheal E. Hill
Saturday, November 20, 2010 -- 1:30 am EST
It has been nearly three weeks now since the nation voted in the 2010 mid-term elections.
There was still one disputed Senate election at the time of this writing. However, the seat is certain to be won by a Republican. Accordingly, it is that Democrats will have a 53-47 organizational majority in the Senate during the 112th Congress.
The outcome of five House races were still in doubt at the time of this writing. MicEvHill.Com estimates that once those races are finalized (some might not be finalized until after January 3, 2011, when the new Congress is sworn in), Republicans will have gone from a 178-255 minority in the 111th Congress to a 243-192 majority in the 112th Congress. Should these numbers pan out, the Republicans would have picked up a net of 65 seats in the mid-term elections, which would make it the second largest pickup of seats since World War II. However there is a possibility that Republicans might pick up two fewer seats, depending on the results of two razor-thin races in New York.
From an immigration perspective, some of the results of the 2010 mid-term elections were stunning and will have a significant impact on the course of immigration-related legislation in Congress.
Click Here to Read More...
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| New Today! |
| New! MicEvHill.Com has posted its "Today on the Hill" page for today, reflecting the anticipated (lack of) immigration- and refugee-related legislative activity in Congress for Tuesday, November 30, 2010. -- Click Here to See the Most Recent Edition of "Today on the Hill" |
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| New Yesterday! |
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MicEvHill.Com has added a number of important documents to its "Top Immigration and Refugee Legislative Documents" page, including the text of H.R. 1751 and H.R. 6327, two different versions of the DREAM Act; the text of S. 1338, a bill requiring nonimmigrant students who come to the U.S. to study English to do so in accredited English instruction programs; the text of a release by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Republican Jeff Sessions that lists ten criticisms of the DREAM Act; a DHS Office of Inspector General report on management challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security; the text of the Senate Amendments to H.R. 5283, the Help Haitian Adoptees Immediately to Integrate Act of 2010 or the HAITI Act; and much more. -- Click Here to See the Most Recently Added "Top Immigration and Refugee Legislative Documents"
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MicEvHill.Com has posted its "Today on the Hill" page for today, reflecting the anticipated (lack of) immigration- and refugee-related legislative activity in Congress for Monday, November 29, 2010. -- Click Here to See the Most Recent Edition of "Today on the Hill" |
MicEvHill.Com has posted its "This Week on the Hill" page for this week, reflecting a detailed listing of the possible legislative action on immigration- and refugee-related matters during the week of November 29, 2010. -- Click Here to See "This Week on the Hill" for the Week of November 29, 2010 |
MicEvHill.Com has posted video excerpts of the immigration-related comments made by guests on the November 28, 2010, Sunday public affairs programs. -- Click Here to See Video of the Immigration-Related Comments Made on the November 28, 2010, Sunday Public Affairs Programs |
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| New Last Week! |
| MicEvHill.Com has posted a presentation on the use of immigration in the 2010 mid-term elections. Each day between now and the date in January when the 112th Congress is sworn-in, MicEvHill.Com will feature a different Member-Elect. -- Click Here to See the The Presentation on The Use of Immigration in the 2010 Mid-Term Congressional Elections |
MicEvHill.Com has posted a link to a letter from Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) criticizing the House Democratic Leadership's apparent intention to use his Help Haiti Act as a vehicle for House floor consideration of the DREAM Act. -- Click Here to See the Text of the Fortenberry Letter to the House Leadership |
MicEvHill.Com has posted an update of efforts underway to bring the DREAM Act up for votes on the House and Senate floors during the lame duck session of the 111th Congress. -- Click Here to See a Look at the Potential Lame Duck Immigration Legislative Agenda |
MicEvHill.Com has posted a look a the possible immigration- and refugee-related legislative agenda facing the 111th Congress as it returns for a post-election "lame duck" session. -- Click Here to See a Look at the Potential Lame Duck Immigration Legislative Agenda |
MicEvHill.Com has posted a revised analysis of the impact of the 2010 mid-term elections on immigration and refugee legislation during the coming 112th Congress. -- Click Here to See the Revised Analsyis |
MicEvHill.Com has posted a link to its final "scoreboard" showing the projected new balance of immigration power in the House as a result of the 2010 mid-term election races that have been decided so far. -- Click Here to See the House Balance of Power Scoreboard |
MicEvHill.Com has posted a link to its final "scoreboard" showing the projected new balance of immigration power in the Senate as a result of the 2010 mid-term election races that have been decided so far. -- Click Here to See the Senate Balance of Power Scoreboard |
MicEvHill.Com has posted a link to its final "scoreboard" showing the projected partisan makeup as a result of the 2010 mid-term election races that have been decided so far. -- Click Here to See a Look at the Balance of Partisan Power Scoreboard |
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