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☆ DACA ‘Dreamers’ Would Be Eligible for Government Healthcare Under New Rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A demonstration in Washington last year to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. WASHINGTON—Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will become eligible for government-subsidized healthcare benefits, including the Affordable Care Act, under a new Biden administration initiative announced Thursday. A proposed regulation, published by the Department of Health and Human Services, would make recipients of the program—immigrants in the country illegally who were brought as children—eligible for programs including Medicaid, the children’s health insurance program and subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Such a change has long been encouraged by Democrats and opposed by many Republicans.

☆ Abortion-Pill Ruling Draws Muted Response From GOP
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Former Vice President Mike Pence was one of a few Republicans to publicly comment on the decision. Republican lawmakers’ muted reaction to a federal judge’s ruling to suspend access to the abortion pill is the latest sign that the GOP’s legal success in limiting access to abortions is causing the party political headaches. Friday’s ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, suspends the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill, known as mifepristone, which is now used in a majority of abortions in the U.S. The judge, a Trump appointee who sits in Amarillo, Texas, delayed the impact of his decision for a week while the Biden administration appeals.

☆ U.S. Considers Asking Black Americans on Census if They Are Slave Descendants
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Paul Overberg | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. government is considering asking Black Americans on federal forms, including the census, whether their ancestors were enslaved. In a proposed update to how the government tracks Americans’ race and ethnicity, the Biden administration is asking the public for input on how it might go about differentiating Black people who are descendants of slaves in America from those whose families arrived more recently as immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean or other countries.

☆ Ukrainians Who Entered U.S. Via Mexico Get Reprieve to Stay in the Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Alicia A. Caldwell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ukrainians arriving at the Tijuana airport in Mexico after fleeing their country. Ukrainians who came to the U.S. via the Mexican border last year shortly after Russia invaded their homeland will be allowed to remain in the country longer under a reprieve announced by the Biden administration on Monday. Ukrainians given a one-year permission to live and work here legally—which had been set to expire in the coming weeks for thousands of people who arrived last year—will now automatically be given a one-year extension on their status.

☆ Biden Border Deterrence Plan Bets on Giving Asylum Seekers Legal Path to U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Eric Bazail-Eimil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Biden administration is making a wager at the border: that in order to convince migrants seeking asylum not to enter the U.S. illegally, they must be given another option. Last fall, facing a sudden and unprecedented spike in migrants from Venezuela crossing the border to seek asylum in the U.S., the administration set up a new program allowing Venezuelans to apply to move here legally on temporary humanitarian grounds. The program was paired with tough new border restrictions using Title 42, a pandemic-era health measure, meaning Venezuelans crossing the border could be turned back to Mexico before they could ask for asylum. More recently, the same border strategy was broadened to include migrants of several other nationalities.

Thousands of Ukrainian immigrants living in the U.S. are at imminent risk of losing their legal status because they entered the country in a brief window during which the U.S. government didn’t have a long-term plan in place to receive them. Last year, in the first months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands of Ukrainians with family or friends in the U.S. flew to Mexico, hoping they might be allowed to enter the U.S. from there.

☆ Supreme Court Cancels Arguments Over Pandemic-Era Immigration Policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jan Wolfe | Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Migrants being expelled from the U.S. and sent back to Mexico under Title 42 last month. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Thursday said it has removed from its calendar a case relating to the pandemic-era immigration policy known as Title 42, which allows migrants to be quickly expelled at the southern border without an opportunity to request asylum. The high court didn’t provide its reasoning for canceling the oral arguments scheduled for March 1, but the move came about two weeks after President Biden’s administration announced that in May it would end the national emergency declaration for Covid-19 on which the immigration policy is based.

☆ U.S. to Allow H-1B Workers to Renew Visas Without Leaving Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The State Department couldn’t confirm how many renewal applicants could participate in the pilot program. The State Department will begin allowing some work-visa holders to renew their visas without leaving the country, a department official said Friday. Employees working in the U.S. on H-1B or L-1 visas will be permitted to renew their status domestically under a pilot program the State Department hopes to launch later this year. H-1B visas, popular with the tech industry, are intended for foreigners with college degrees working in high-skilled occupations, while L-1 visas are used by foreign managers whose companies transfer them to the U.S.

☆ U.S. Business Owners Pay Premium to Hire Migrant Workers in Extremely Tight Labor Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Santiago Pérez | Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Migrants who come to the U.S. to find work are now being hired more quickly, at higher pay and under better working conditions than at any time in recent memory. In many cases, employers and economists say, migrant workers are being paid as well as their American counterparts. Job vacancies in the U.S. increased to 11 million at the end of December, according to the Labor Department. While the tightness appears to be easing in the white-collar job market, employers say finding hourly wage workers remains a challenge. Many small businesses say they are unable to hire enough native-born and naturalized workers and are paying a premium for migrant workers.

☆ Migrants Are Doing Better Than Ever Thanks to Tight Labor Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Santiago Pérez | Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Alejandro Mayorkas Faces GOP Investigations, Liberal Anger Over Southern Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Tarini Parti | Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas has been under fire for what some say isn’t enough action on curbing illegal border crossings. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is emerging as the Biden administration’s biggest target for House Republicans, who seek to make him the first cabinet secretary impeached in more than a century. His GOP critics—and some centrist Democrats—say the secretary hasn’t done nearly enough to curb record illegal crossings at the southern border and prepare for the coming end of Title 42, the pandemic-era measure that allows the government to rapidly turn away migrants seeking asylum. Mr. Mayorkas is also drawing criticism from other factions of his own party, who say he hasn’t made a clean break from former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

☆ Former Brazilian President Bolsonaro Seeks to Remain in the U.S. Longer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, center, outside a vacation home where he is staying near Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 4. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro , who narrowly lost re-election last year and has been vacationing in Florida since the beginning of this month, has applied for a tourist visa to prolong his stay in the U.S.Mr. Bolsonaro’s immigration lawyer, Felipe Alexandre, confirmed the former president’s intention to remain in the U.S. at least temporarily. He said the U.S. government received Mr. Bolsonaro’s application for a six-month tourist visa on Jan. 27 and it should provide an answer within several months.

☆ Migrant Arrests Fell by Roughly Half in January After New Enforcement Measures
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Alicia A. Caldwell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Illegal crossings at the southern border have dropped to roughly half the levels seen in December, after the Biden administration rolled out new border-enforcement measures earlier this month. Arrests across the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen to between 4,000 and 5,000 a day in January, down from about 8,000 to 9,000 a day last month, according to three federal officials familiar with the unpublished data.

☆ New Program Allows Small Groups of Americans to Sponsor Refugees
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan , thousands of Afghan families came to the U.S. as refugees, overloading the U.S. refugee-resettlement system. Small groups of Americans will be able to directly sponsor refugees under a new program the Biden administration introduced Thursday. Under the program, called the Welcome Corps, groups of at least five Americans can band together to sponsor refugees from around the world who are approved by the State Department to resettle in the U.S.

☆ Senators Pursue Deal on Border Security and Path to Citizenship for Dreamers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Eliza Collins | Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SOMERTON, Ariz.—A bipartisan group of senators is pushing ahead in the new Congress with efforts to reach an agreement on border security and immigration policy, after talks ran out of time last year. The lawmakers recently visited the southern border in Arizona and Texas, in the face of sharp political divides over how to handle a record number of illegal crossings that have strained border staff and facilities. The lawmakers say they see an opening for compromise on an issue that has vexed Capitol Hill for decades, following last year’s bipartisan work to pass a gun-control law.

☆ Biden Visits Southern Border While Facing Criticism From Both Parties
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Catherine Lucey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden was greeted in El Paso on Sunday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who handed him a letter outlining issues on the border. WASHINGTON—President Biden made his first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, amid criticism from both parties of his immigration policy and as the administration begins a new push to drive down illegal crossings. Mr. Biden arrived Sunday afternoon in El Paso, Texas, which in December saw a surge of mostly Nicaraguan migrants. He is stopping there on his way to Mexico City, where he will meet Monday and Tuesday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for the North American Leaders’ Summit.

☆ Biden Administration Leans on Trump-Era Policies to Combat Migrant Wave
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Tarini Parti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—President Biden announced his administration’s broadest effort yet to deter migrants seeking asylum at the southern border, expanding its use of several Trump-era border control measures the president had previously decried. Beginning on Thursday, the administration will use a pandemic-era border measure known as Title 42 to rapidly expel migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the countries that have posed the greatest challenge to the administration in the past year. The administration is taking the step even as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in the case and the administration has argued that the measure is no longer justified on public-health grounds and must end.

☆ Biden Administration Expands Title 42 Migrant Expulsions to More Countries
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Michelle Hackman | Tarini Parti | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Biden administration is expanding its use of a pandemic-era border measure known as Title 42 to begin rapidly expelling migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, while opening a new legal path for up to 30,000 migrants from those countries to enter the U.S. a month. The new policy represents the broadest effort yet that the Biden administration has undertaken to deter migrants seeking asylum from crossing the border illegally. It also relies on an expanded use of Title 42 as a border-control measure, even while the administration is arguing in court that the measure is no longer justified on public-health grounds and must end. The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Title 42 in February.

☆ Biden Administration Proposes Higher Fees for Employment Visas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A proposal would raise fees for H-1B visas, a favorite among tech and financial companies along with universities and other nonprofit research centers. WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is proposing to raise the fees companies must pay for employment-based visas to fund the agency that oversees legal immigration, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. Under the proposal, the primary fee for an H-1B visa would jump to $1,595 from $470. The visa, which allows immigrants with college degrees to live and work in the U.S. for as long as six years before becoming permanent residents, is a favorite among technology and financial companies along with universities and other nonprofit research centers.

☆ Arrests, Deportations of Immigrants in U.S. Illegally Increased in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Arrests and deportations of immigrants in the country illegally increased in the second year of the Biden administration, though both remained below Trump- and Obama-era levels, according to new annual figures released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday. ICE made 143,000 arrests and 72,000 deportations in the 2022 fiscal year that ended in September, the agency said. That was up from 74,000 arrests and 59,000 deportations the previous year, which comprised most of President Biden’s first year in office.

☆ Partisan Splits Scuttle Year-End Action on Immigration Policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—A political logjam over the southern U.S. border has once again prevented Congress from making changes to the immigration system, with prospects for next year only growing dimmer. Farmers, military veterans, tech companies and immigration advocates had all pinned their hopes on Congress to pick up any of several bipartisan immigration proposals during their lame duck session, before Republicans assume control of the House in January. But a $1.65 trillion omnibus spending package, the last bill to pass before this Congress adjourns, contained no significant immigration measures.

☆ Supreme Court Leaves Pandemic Border Controls in Place
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Jess Bravin | Michelle Hackman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A surge of migrants reached the southern U.S. border in recent days, including at El Paso, Texas, ahead of the expected end of a policy intended to reduce border crossings. WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court left pandemic-era border controls in place Tuesday while it considers whether nearly two dozen Republican-led states can intervene in a lawsuit over the so-called Title 42 regulations’ legality. By a 5-4 vote, the court court acted in the wake of a temporary stay that Chief Justice John Roberts imposed on Dec. 19, two days before the policy was set to end. Border officials had already started observing an increase in border crossings in the days ahead of the policy’s expected end on Dec. 21, with at least 10,000 additional migrants waiting in Mexican border cities with the expectation that the measure would soon be lifted.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer brought up two rival amendments related to preserving the Title 42 immigration rule. WASHINGTON—Senators closed in on passing a $1.65 trillion spending bill just ahead of the Christmas holiday and a looming winter storm, after breaking an impasse related to immigration policy. In a compromise, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) brought up two rival amendments related to preserving the Title 42 immigration rule, after Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) insisted on a vote for his bill as a condition for moving ahead. Both the Lee amendment and one from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.) and Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asked lawmakers to stay close to the Senate floor so that they could vote quickly. WASHINGTON—Senators broke an immigration-related impasse Thursday morning, reaching a deal on amendments that clears the way to pass a $1.65 trillion spending bill just ahead of the Christmas holiday and a looming winter storm. “We will vote on all of the amendments in order and then vote on final passage,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said on the Senate floor Thursday. Mr. Schumer said that an immigration amendment from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I., Ariz.) and Sen. Jon Tester (D., Mont.) would be added to the list of amendment votes ahead of final passage, alongside one by Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) that had frozen Senate business as Senate Democrats scrambled to keep it from passing.

WASHINGTON—Senate Democratic leaders hope to break an impasse Thursday morning over a sprawling spending bill that has put the federal government on the precipice of a partial shutdown just before the Christmas holiday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) closed Wednesday’s legislative day without an agreement on the terms for cutting off debate and proceeding to a vote on a $1.65 trillion government funding bill for fiscal 2023. The bill, which would keep the government funded beyond Dec. 23, also carries $45 billion in aid for Ukraine and NATO allies, and would finance big increases in military and domestic spending, including military pay raises.

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