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|  | | MicEvHill.Com | | Covering Immigration and Refugee Legislative Matters from Inside the Beltway |
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Senate Rejects One Immigration Amendment, with Another On Deck, as it Takes Up Bill Appropriating Funds for EOIR, Alternatives to Detention, and SCAAP
By Micheal E. Hill
Thursday, October 8, 2009 - 9:15 am EDT
The Senate last night rejected an amendment 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. The Senate will take up at least one more immigration-related amendment today, a bid by Senators Vitter and Robert F. Bennett (R-UT) to require that the 2010 decennial census to enumerate the immigration status of persons during its enumeration of the U.S. population.
Yesterday's Senate action on immigration took place in connection with the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847, the Fiscal Year 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill (C-J-S Bill).
The measure that the Senate is considering would significantly increase funding for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), increase funding for alternatives to detention for immigration detainees, and maintain funding for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), a program that the Obama Administration sought to terminate.
Other immigration amendments are possible today, as well.
Summary of Immigration- and Refugee-Related Provisions
As reported by the Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Senate version of H.R. 2847 contains the following immigration- and refugee-related provisions:
Committee Consideration and Amendments
The Subcommittee took up H.R. 2847 on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 and the Committee took up the measure on Thursday, June 25, 2009. No immigration-related amendments were offered to the measure during either the Subcommittee’s or full Committee’s consideration of the measure.
- Executive Office for Immigration Review. The Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847 would appropriate $300.685 MILLION for the Department of Justice’s Administrative Review and Appeals section. The bulk of those funds are for the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). This is the same amount requested by the Administration and approximately $30.685 MILLION, or 11.2 percent, above the fiscal year 2009 appropriation.
Of the amount that the Senate bill would appropriate for EOIR, $4 MILLION would be transferred from the Examinations Fee account and the remainder would be directly appropriated.
The committee report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847 contains a number of directives with regard to EOIR. They include the following—
Personnel and Infrastructure Increases. The Committee recommendation includes $24.253 MILLION for personnel and infrastructure investments needed to efficiently process an increasing immigration adjudication caseload. Of this total, $10.250 MILLION is for the eWorld document management system to improve EOIR’s ability to store, distribute and archive its files.
Legal Orientation Program (LOP). The bill includes $6.5 MILLION, an increase of $2.5 MILLION, for the continued implementation and expansion of the LOP. The Committee report notes that the amount in the bill includes $2 MILLION "for Legal Orientation Programs for custodians of unaccompanied alien children to address the custodian's responsibility for the child's appearance at all immigration proceedings, and to protect the child from mistreatment, exploitation, and trafficking.
- State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. The committee report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847 notes that the measure includes $228 MILLION for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), a program for which the Obama Administration proposed zero funding. This would be a cut of $172 MILLION in the amount appropriated for SCAAP in fiscal year 2009.
- U.S. Marshall’s Service. The committee report accompanying the Senate Appropriations Committee-reported version of H.R. 2847 notes that the Committee "strongly supports the U.S. Marshal Service increase in funding for immigration enforcement." In justifying the increase in funding, the committee report stated that "[i]n the past, the U.S. Marshals Service was forced to divert resources from fugitive apprehension to address this growing, problem."
Click Here to see the text of the Vitter Sanctuary Amendment
Click Here to see vote information on the vote by which the Senate rejected the Vitter Sanctuary Amendment
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