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U.S. Rep.Veronica Escobar (D-El Paso) grew up with her parents and four brothers in El Pasos Lower Valley. They did not have much money, but they found their way with what theyhad.The congresswomansunwavering dedication to the region shines through in her commitment to keeping young talent in the area, create high-skilled jobs to help retain them, and usher the city into economic growth and prosperity.

CongresswomanEscobargraduated fromWilliam H. Burges High School and thenattendedThe University of Texas at ElPaso,where she received a bachelors degree in British and American Literature. Sheearned a masters degree in literature from New York University(NYU).After she graduated from NYU,she knew shedidnot want to pursue a doctorate in New York, deciding instead she would prefer a school in the University of California system. That plan was not to be, as she had a stopover in El Paso that resulted in Escobar becoming an English lecturer at UTEP and El Paso Community College to save for her doctoral degree.

I thought I was going to be an academic and I was ready to pursue adoctorate;Iwanted to be a professor for the rest of my life.I never imagined my life would take this kind of journey, saidEscobar in asit-downinterview with The Prospector.

In 1993,Escobar recounted thatduring her time as a teacher,she heardthen-Border Patrol ChiefSilvestreReyes(wholater served as Congressman for16thDistrict from1997 to 2013)publicly statethat he wanted to build awall between El Paso and Juarez.This event inspired her tojoinThe Border Rights Coalition,now known as the Border Network for Human Rights,where she became aself-describedhardcore activist.According to thecongresswomanthis is where she found her passion for civic engagement and wanting to help a vulnerable population but also wanting to make sure that our community did not become a xenophobic community.

In 1996,shegot involved withher first political campaign with Jose Luis Sanchez for the 16th Congressional District; the opponent was Silvestre Reyes. After the election,Escobar continued to volunteer at political campaigns for the next decade until she ran for El Paso County Commissioner. She served from 2007 to 2011 and then became El Paso County Judge from 2011 to 2017. Escobar originally ran for Congress in 2018 as a Democrat after former Congressman Beto ORourke (D-El Paso) decided to run for United States Senate.

During the interview, Escobar detailed some key issueson which she is currently working.

MilitaryReform

Escobar is currently on the Committee of Armed Services and Committee on the Judiciary in Congress.She is focused oncreating a safer environment for military individualsacross the nationas she aims to changea toxic cultureembeddedinto many military basesas part of the culture, she said.

I have had service members tell me Im not even going to bother reporting sexualharassmentbecause I see mypeers who report sexualassaultand not getjustice,Escobarsaid.One of the ways thecongresswomanisworking to change the cultureis by changing the way mentorship programs work in the military,making sure they arewell-funded and inclusiverather than dependentupon volunteers.She hopesto see anincreaseindiversityamongleadership andoverall tomakethe militarya safer space forservice members.

Immigration Reform

One of the biggest issuesEscobar is trying to shed a light on in Congress is the border and the process ofattainingasylum.She said shehas broughtroughly20% ofthe members of Congressto El Pasoto tourthe portsof entry, to show themthe perspective of law enforcement, attorneysand human rights activists.Escobarsaid shehas introduced abillin the U.S. Housethat is part of a suite ofbills focused of reforming the immigration system.

The Homeland Security Improvement Act(H.R. 3557)is focused on reforming theU.S.Department of Homeland Security toincreasetransparency, accountability, and community involvement, Escobar said.The bill alsofocuses on asylum seekers and the asylum process.

Under normal circumstances ifyoureanasylumseeker,you are essentially treated as a criminal, you are processed, you can be held in a processing facility for 10 hours for 10 days or,as we saw under the Trump administration,for weeks and then you are transferred to an ICE detention facility, Escobar said.So,we have to make a decision as a country as to whether we are going to criminalize everyone who comes across.I reject that notion;its not just inhumane,its not justunAmerican,its really expensive.

Escobar wishes toput Border Patrol back on the front lines,while also making the asylum process safe and whereasylum seekershave access to child welfare, legal, and adult welfare services.The bill seeksto remodel ports of entry tomake them seem more welcoming,while also making it so asylum seekers can be processed there instead of being moved from port to port, she said.

Forindividuals under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals(DACA), Escobarwantscomprehensive immigration reform,which would open up legal pathways for thoseseeking citizenship..The Build Back Better Act,a billpart of President Joe Bidens Build Back Better Plan,passed the U.S. House in November,and is currently awaiting a vote in the U.S. Senate. The bill, Escobar said, focuses on providing resources for family leave, immigration, and healthcare, as well as addressing climate change. The bill includes help for immigrants with work and travel permits, and relief from deportation for DREAMERS (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors), DACA recipients, farm workers, essential workers, and temporary permitholders, Escobarsaid.

Escobar is on the ballot in the Democratic primary March 1, running for reelection of her seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 16thCongressionalDistrictof ElPaso.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar discusses military funding, immigration, bipartisanship, and student loans in an interview with The Prospector.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and Editor-In-Chief of The Prospector newspaper, Alberto Silva Fernandez, have a one-on-one interview and discuss topics such as military funding, immigration, bipartisanship, and student loans.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and Editor-In-Chief of The Prospector newspaper, Alberto Silva Fernandez, have a one-on-one interview and discuss topics such as military funding, immigration, bipartisanship, and student loans.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and Editor-In-Chief of The Prospector newspaper, Alberto Silva Fernandez, have a one-on-one interview and discuss topics such as military funding, immigration, bipartisanship, and student loans.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and Editor-In-Chief of The Prospector newspaper, Alberto Silva Fernandez, have a one-on-one interview and discuss topics such as military funding, immigration, bipartisanship, and student loans.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and Editor-In-Chief of The Prospector newspaper, Alberto Silva Fernandez, have a one-on-one interview and discuss topics such as military funding, immigration, bipartisanship, and student loans.

AlbertoSilva Fernandezmay be reached at[emailprotected].

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Escobar aims to improve conditions for military and immigrants - The Prospector

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A progressive group that views immigration enforcement agencies as a "threat" to civil liberties secured a $158 million taxpayer-funded contract to help unaccompanied minors avoid deportation, records show.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded the Vera Institute of Justice, a left-wing nonprofit thatbacksdefunding thepolice, the contract in 2021 to "provide immigration related legal services to unaccompanied minors,"accordingto USASpending, a federal contract database.

"The Vera Institute of Justice is a behemoth progressive nonprofit based out of New York City with well over a $140 million budget, which they use to fund a slate of progressive causes and initiatives across the country," Jason Hopkins, an investigative associate with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told Fox News. "Whether that be criminal justice reform, bail reform and also immigration."

Border Patrol agents detain migrants after crossing the Rio Grande natural border between El Paso, state of Texas, US, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on Jan. 22, 2021. (David Peinado/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Hopkins said the institute gets around half of its funding from the federal government. In fact, between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, nearly $137 million of the group's $174 million in revenue came from government grants, the institute's most recenttax formsshow.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO RECEIVE ESTIMATED $5.6 MILLION IN TAXPAYER MONEY FOR FOR DEPORTATION LEGAL DEFENSE: REPORT

"The $158 million is just the latest in the hundreds of millions that they provided to Vera for their services," Hopkins said.

The contract, which hasn't been previously reported, began on March 30, 2021, and has a potential end date of March 30, 2022.

Beginning around the start of the contract, HHS rerouted $2 billion intended for health initiatives including expanded COVID-19 testing to help deal with the surging border crisis and unaccompanied minors. The department did not respond to a request for comment.

Every year, "thousands of immigrant children are placed into court proceedings in which government prosecutors seek to deport them unless those children can prove they have a right to stay in the United States," a Vera Institute spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

HOMELAND SECURITY LAUNCHES 'CLIMATE CHANGE PROFESSIONALS PROGRAM' AMID HISTORIC ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS SURGE

"Many children face these immigration proceedings alone," she continued. "Many children have legal options that establish their ability to remain in the United States (such as refugees, trafficking victims, and survivors of crime and abuse), but these options are nearly impossible to access without the assistance of trained attorneys. Other children require legal assistance to seek to voluntarily repatriate to their countries of origin."

The spokesperson said the contract was awarded to "provide legal orientation services and, in some cases, legal representation, to children in removal proceedings and detention." She said that "a vast majority of federal funding" they receive is subcontracted to legal service providers throughout the country who provide the services in HHS facilities and immigration courts.

A group of asylum seekers from Mexico, Cuba and Haiti are detained by U.S. Border Patrol in San Luis, Arizona, U.S., April 19, 2021. (REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo)

The federal government has funded such initiatives since the mid-2000s. The recent contract appears to be the Vera Institute's highest value contract for a single year,accordingto a review of USASpending records.

MORE THAN 47,000 MIGRANTS RELEASED INTO US BY BIDEN ADMIN IN 2021 FAILED TO REPORT TO ICE

Hopkins' group, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, estimated that taxpayers will locally dish out at least $5.6 million in some cities for a deportation legal defense initiative Vera is involved with, Fox NewsDigital reportedTuesday.

"Vera Institute of Justice has an initiative called Safety and Fairness for Everyone," Hopkins told Fox News on their state-based endeavors. "This began several years ago, and it focuses on providing taxpayer-funded legal representation to aliens even illegal aliens that are placed in deportation procedures."

Theimmigrationreform group said this initiative used public funding in 50 jurisdictions, including 22 that are considered formal partners with the Vera Institute.

Asylum-seeking migrants are taken to a van after they crossed into El Paso, Texas, U.S., and turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents to request asylum, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico May 14, 2021. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez (Reuters)

"What they've done is frankly very smart," Hopkins said. "It's sort of a bottom-up approach."

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"Instead of being funded by the federal government and kind of trickling down, this is more of a grassroots approach where they're going from city to city, county to county and getting these local city governments to create a deportation fund that's in part funded by taxpayers," he continued.

Hopkins added that immigration anddeportationare civil matters and that the government isn't required to provide individuals with a taxpayer-funded attorney. He pointed out that the Vera Institute's website notes that "is committed to ensuring that every person facing deportation receives legal representation regardless of history with the criminal legal system."

Hopkins told Fox News: "That really opens up the door tois this an illegal alien who's been charged, convicted of murder, rape and any other heinous crime? Vera is very open that they really don't care about their criminal history."

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Left-wing group secured $158 million taxpayer-funded contract to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation - Fox News

Introduction

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1990, temporary protected status (TPS) is a program that allows migrants whose home countries are considered unsafe the right to live and work in the United States for a temporary, but extendable, period of time. Though they are not considered lawful permanent residents or U.S. citizens, many have lived in the United States for more than twenty years. TPS holders now total more than three hundred thousand.

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The program has received bipartisan support since its creation, but it has also sparked controversy. President Donald Trump sought to end TPS for hundreds of thousands of migrants as part of his broader efforts to restrict immigration, but his attempts were delayed by court challenges. President Joe Biden promised to overhaul Trump-era immigration policies and expand protections. He has granted TPS status to two additional countries, which could more than double the number of TPS holders, and proposed legislation that would provide many of them a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

More on:

United States

Immigration and Migration

Central America

El Salvador

Haiti

TPS is a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program that allows migrants from designated countries to reside legally in the United States for a period of up to eighteen months, which the U.S. government can renew indefinitely. During that period, TPS holders are eligible for employment and travel authorization and are protected from deportation. The program does not include a path to permanent residency or U.S. citizenship, but TPS recipients can apply for those designations separately.

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Congress established TPS as part of the Immigration Act of 1990 to provide humanitarian relief to citizens whose countries were suffering from natural disasters, protracted unrest, or conflict. That same year, the program was offered for the first time to Salvadorans fleeing civil war. It has been broadly supported by Democrats and Republicans for more than three decades. A similar program, known as deferred enforced departure (DED), offers a temporary stay of removal for migrants facing political or civil conflict in their home countries; DED is implemented by executive order and does not have a legislative basis.

Other countries have implemented similar forms of relief. Some European states offered temporary protection to tens of thousands of refugees from the Balkans in the early 1990s, and Turkey offers temporary protection to millions of migrants who have fled Syrias civil war. Meanwhile, in 2021, the Colombian government granted ten-year temporary legal status, which allows access to employment opportunities and social services, to more than one million Venezuelan migrants fleeing political and social unrest.

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Once a country receives a TPS designation, any citizen of that country who is already physically present in the United States is eligible to apply for the program provided they meet certain requirements set by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a DHS agency. Disqualifying factors include criminal convictions in the United States and participation in terrorist activities.

The authority to grant a country TPS designation is held by the secretary of homeland security, who can extend it indefinitely if they determine that conditions in the country prevent individuals from returning home safely. Reasons for TPS designation include:

More on:

United States

Immigration and Migration

Central America

El Salvador

Haiti

Once a countrys designation expires, individuals return to the immigration status they held prior to receiving TPS, which for most migrants means reverting to undocumented status and facing the threat of deportation to their country of origin. They can apply for work or student visas, if eligible, though those are temporary. However, those whose spouses or adult children are citizens or legal residents could be eligible to stay in the country legally.

According to the most recent numbers released by DHS, in March 2021, approximately 320,000 migrants [PDF] from ten countries live and work in the United States under TPS. President Bidens extension for Haiti and new designations for Myanmar and Venezuela, however, mean an additional 479,600 individuals could be eligible for TPS.

Nearly 94 percent of current TPS holders are from El Salvador, Haiti, or Honduras. Hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans have been allowed to stay in the United States since devastating earthquakes rocked El Salvador in 2001. Haiti was first assigned TPS after a massive 2010 earthquake destroyed much of the country and received it again in 2021 following multiple natural disasters and violent political upheaval. Honduras and Nicaragua were given TPS after a hurricane battered the region in 1998. Since the George H.W. Bush administration, the U.S. government has granted TPS to nineteen countries, including Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kuwait, Liberia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone.

Today, TPS holders are spread out across the country, with the largest populations concentrated in California, Florida, New York, and Texas. On average, TPS recipients have spent more than twenty years in the United States. But for those whose countrys TPS designation is set to expire, there are few options to remain, especially for previously undocumented residents. In June 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that being granted TPS does not override a previous unlawful entry into the country, which in practice disqualifies many migrants seeking to transition from TPS to permanent residency.

Proponents of TPS assert that it is an effective humanitarian tool for people living in the United States who are unable to safely return to their home countries. El Salvador and Honduras, for example, are two of the worlds most dangerous countries; both are plagued by high levels of violence linked to criminal gangs. Meanwhile, civil war in South Sudan rages on, while Yemen remains embroiled in a humanitarian crisis. As such, migrant rights supporters have advocated for reforming TPS to make it easier for migrants to obtain permanent residency [PDF].

Some experts also point to the economic benefits of having a larger immigrant population, as the vast majority of TPS holders are employed. In many cases, prospects for work in their home countries are grim: the World Bank put unemployment in Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, at 14.5 percent in 2020. TPS holders removal could hurt the economies of U.S. cities with many TPS beneficiaries, such as Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, advocates say. A 2017 report by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center found that ending TPS for Salvadorans that year would have resulted in more than $673 million in turnover costs, as roughly 88 percent of Salvadoran TPS holders were employed. Furthermore, removing TPS holders from the United States could damage already weak economies in their home countries. Remittances, a large portion of which comes from the United States, make up roughly 23 percent of Haitis gross domestic product (GDP).

Some critics, however, argue that an originally temporary designation should not become a de facto permanent program. Many who favor limiting it say that the savings and skills TPS beneficiaries have acquired while in the United States can benefit their origin countries. Certain policymakers have maintained that ending TPS designations after a set period is consistent with the programs goal of providing a temporary safe haven for individuals rather than creating a path to permanent residency. In 2017, then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said TPS is inherently temporary in nature, and beneficiaries should plan accordingly that this status may finally end.

Immigration restriction was central to Trumps campaign platform, and he took numerous steps to boost immigration enforcement and reshape asylum policy, including seeking to end TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants. In late 2017, his administration terminated the TPS designations for Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan. The following January, it terminated the protections for Salvadorans, who account for more than half of all TPS holders, and in April, it terminated TPS for Nepal and Honduras. DHS said that these countries had recovered enough for migrants to safely return and gave them between twelve and eighteen months to remain in the United States and plan for their repatriation.

However, the terminations were challenged by multiple lawsuits, many of which argued that the decisions infringed on individuals constitutional rights and were racially discriminatory. In one instance, a California court temporarily barred the government from implementing terminations for El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Sudan after several TPS holders claimed the terminations were racially motivated. In other cases, TPS holders from different countries united to file a joint case against the Trump administration. Due to a court-imposed delay [PDF], none of the administrations TPS terminations were implemented, though several of the lawsuits are still pending.

Biden promised to reverse Trumps restrictive approach to immigration. Since taking office, he has renewed TPS protections Trump tried to end and expanded the program to several additional countries. In March 2021, his administration granted TPS designations to Myanmar and Venezuela due to ongoing humanitarian crises, and in May, it announced a new eighteen-month designation for Haiti following weeks of political unrest there. DHS has also extended TPS benefits for nine other countries, including El Salvador, Nepal, and Somalia, all of which are being hit hard by COVID-19. In El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, for example, more than fourteen thousand people have so far died due to the disease. Migrant rights advocates, including many U.S. mayors and other local government leaders, have urged the administration to grant TPS to additional countries suffering from war and natural disasters, including Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Guatemala.

Bidens campaign promises included comprehensive immigration reform; he unveiled his full plan in January 2021. Among other provisions, it aims to establish an eight-year path to citizenship for nearly eleven million undocumented immigrants (including certain TPS holders who have resided in the United States since 2017), reduce visa backlogs, and deploy new technologies to increase security at the southern U.S. border.

A subset of the bill, known as the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, would create a conditional permanent resident status for migrants, including DED and TPS holders, that would last up to ten years; it passed the House of Representatives in March 2021. A previous version passed the House in 2019 but failed to progress in the Senate. Bidens Build Back Better infrastructure plan also included a provision to provide TPS holders with a path to citizenship. However, the administration has acknowledged that none of these provisions are likely to pass the Senate in the current congressional session.

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What Is Temporary Protected Status? - Council on Foreign Relations

-> This article is part of Documenteds Glossary. We want to make it easier to understand the U.S. immigration system. If you want to know more about different visa types and immigration terms,please check our updated library here.-> To find useful information for immigrants, such as where to find free food or legal representation, check out ourMaster Resource Guide.

Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, IIRIRA, was enacted during the Clinton administration with the objective to strengthen immigration laws by increasing enforcement resources, expanding the definition of who was considered deportable, and instituting harsher penalties for illegal immigration.

The nearly 300-page IIRIRA detailed significant changes to Title 8 of the United States Code, which governs immigration and nationality. Scholars and immigration attorneys consider it along with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which was passed the same year to be the catalyst behind the modern system of immigration enforcement.

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Both acts made deportation much more common and laid the groundwork for harsh interior enforcement that would characterize Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency created seven years later after the attacks of 9/11.

IIRIRA also made it much more difficult for people living in the country illegally to obtain legal status by requiring them to prove their deportation would cause substantial hardship. In addition, it put in place 3 and 10 year bans on re-entry for individuals who had remained in the United States illegally for more than six months or more than one year, respectively.

The effects of increasing border security led to a surge of apprehensions. The measures also affected legal immigrants in the country. Longtime legal permanent residents became, suddenly, vulnerable to deportation if they had committed crimes, some of which were non-violent.

Also read: What Happens if You Overstay Your Tourist Visa

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IIRIRA: Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, explained - Documented - Documented NY

On Wednesday, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda, joining a long and growing list once limited to former presidents and military leaders.

Shortly after Reids death, legislators from both sides of the aisle sung the Nevada Democrats praises. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Reid would be in his prayers, that he was a good man who fought hard for his causes, and that he will be missed. Chuck Schumer, who holds Reids old job in the Senate, said that his friend always looked out for people.

Schumers praise for his old friend and mentor is more insightful than he might have imagined. Reid once championed meaningful immigration reform that would have benefited Americans, especially blue-collar workers. Eventually, Reid drifted over to the extreme left, and supported illegal immigrant amnesties as well as more employment-based visas.

In 1993, about six years after Nevada voters promoted him from the House of Representative to the Senate, Reid introduced a far-reaching comprehensive immigration reform bill that Democrats, especially former President Barack Obama and Schumer, would prefer to forget about. As per a press release issued from his office, Reid outlined what he called the first and only comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress, the Immigration Stabilization Act of 1993.

The first item of business the press release addressed was to overhaul the nations immigration laws and begin a massive scale-down of immigrants allowed into the country from approximately 800,000 to 300,000. Legal immigration reduction groups have been lobbying for similar reductions for years. The current 1 million-plus annual lawful permanent residents is an unsustainable level since chain migration eventually converts the initial 1 million immigrants into about 3 million. A Princeton University study found that, on average, each immigrant petitions slightly more than three family members to join him in the U.S.

Another long-sought change reductionists have favored for decades is ending birthright citizenship. Reid wanted it clarified that a U.S.-born child to an alien mother who is not a lawful resident should not be considered a U.S. citizen. If ISA were approved, Reid said the incentive for pregnant alien women to enter illegally, often at risk to mother and child, for the purpose of acquiring citizenship for the child and to then receive federal benefits would be eliminated.

Other Reid recommendations have a familiar ring: a crack down Reids wording on illegal immigration, then an estimated 3.3 million, ending asylum fraud along with the phony claims that allow unqualified aliens to enter, excluding aliens who cannot financially support themselves without assistance, and beefing up border security.

For a period, too short as things turned out, Reid was committed to rational immigration.

In his 1994 Los Angeles Times op-ed, Reid scorned his colleagues for their failure to reduce legal immigration, and he urged lawmakers to reject unfounded racism charges to act quickly to pass ISA. He concluded that the real injustice to future Americans would be to do nothing [to reduce immigration].

Reid was a spot-on prognosticator. Congress did nothing, and in the three decades that have passed, the illegal immigrant population has quadrupled from 3 million to nearly 12 million. The border that Reid wanted to reinforce is a horror show as officials predict that 2 million aliens will cross illegally this year.

In his official statement about Reids death, President Joe Biden praised him for his power to do right for the people. Reid was, Biden concluded, a giant.

Had Reid stuck to his 1993 immigration wish list, he would have done right for the people, and could truly be remembered as a giant.

Instead, Reid dropped the ball and platitudes being heaped on him aside was just another politician whose views shifted with the Capitol Hill winds.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.

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Joe Guzzardi: The late Harry Reid once championed pro-American immigration reform - Today's News-Herald