6 Senators Say They’ve Reached Immigration Deal
Six senators say they’ve reached a bipartisan agreement to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation and strengthen border security. The lawmakers say they’re seeking enough support to push the deal through Congress.
The significance of their agreement was initially unclear. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said no deal has been reached and said the White House would keep working toward an agreement. Three Republican and three Democratic senators have been working for months on a plan to protect people who arrived in the U. S. as children, many illegally. The senators say the deal also revamps a visa lottery and rules helping immigrants’ relatives enter the U.S.
Washington State Regularly Gives Drivers’ Info to Immigration Authorities
Few states have been as forceful in their opposition to President Donald Trump’s ramped-up immigration-enforcement policies as Washington.
The licensing department has regularly been providing Immigration and Customs Enforcement with photos and driver’s-license applications, according to department spokesman Brad Benfield.
From 20 to 30 times a month, a state agency has been giving residents’ personal information, arrest and deport people, to federal immigration-enforcement officers. Then, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses that information as evidence that someone doesn’t belong in the U. S.
Norwegians Reject Trump’s Immigration Offer
Many Norwegians rejected on Friday a suggestion by U. S. President Donald Trump that they would be more welcome to move to the United States than immigrants from “shithole countries” such as Haiti or African nations.
Trump mentioned Norway in derogatory comments about other countries of migration as U. S. senators briefed him on Thursday on a newly drafted bipartisan immigration bill, according to two sources who asked not to be identified.
“On behalf of Norway: Thanks, but no thanks,” tweeted Torbjoern Saetre, a politician representing Norway’s Conservative Party in a municipality near Oslo.
ICE 7-Eleven Raids Showcase New Immigration Strategy
When federal immigration agents raided dozens of 7-Eleven stores across the nation this week, it was the first, high-profile example of how the Trump administration is changing work site enforcement. Previous administrations focused either on employers or workers, but President Trump is targeting both groups.
“This shows that there are no longer any priorities. Everyone is a priority,” said Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan group that researches immigration issues.
Thomas Homan, ICE’s acting director, has said he will “significantly” increase work site raids because immigrants will be more hesitant to illegally enter the U. S. if there are no jobs for them. He told the conservative Heritage Foundation in October that he ordered ICE agents to ramp up their work site investigations by “four to five times.”
Trump is Quietly Swamping Visa Applicants in Extra Paperwork
The H-1B visa, which allows American companies to hire skilled foreign workers, from engineers to fashion models, is under siege. Last year, Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order suggested that H-1Bs should be more difficult to get. But obtaining an H-1B visa has already quietly become more cumbersome.
One indicator of that is a spike in “requests for evidence,” which are notices the US Citizen and Immigration Services department sends to H-1B applicants requesting more information. Such requests, known as RFEs, are a routine part of the visa process. Their purpose is to ensure that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency (USCIS) only grants visas to people who meet the criteria. But lawyers who represent H-1B applicants say they are now getting more unwarranted requests. The increase in RFEs should assuage critics of the program, who have long complained H-1Bs are a way for employers to import cheap labor at the expense of American workers.
For those awaiting work permits and the companies wanting to hire them, an RFE is bad news. While it doesn’t necessarily derail a petition, it makes the process longer and more expensive. H-1B hopefuls will also be watching approval rates. USCIS approved more than 90% of the H1B applications it processed in fiscal 2017, but that rate dipped below 85% in the first two months of fiscal 2018.
