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Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo, visited Laramie Wednesday to offer praise and encouragement to the students and faculty of Slade Elementary for their Blue Ribbon achievement a program that recognizes public and private K-12 schools and their academic excellence.

Following that presentation, Barrasso commented on more politically pressing issues regarding immigration and his recent visit to the Donna processing facility in Texas.

Its heartbreaking and its overwhelming, Barrasso said.

He and 17 other Republican senators traveled to the southern border to see firsthand the immigration crisis that has allegedly worsened under President Bidens administration. Barrasso said he witnessed nearly 4,000 individuals, many minors and many keeping warm under insulation blankets.

Jesse Moreno, border patrol agent for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, confirmed in a brief phone conversation on Thursday that the Donna facility is built to accommodate approximately 1,000 and under COVID restrictions, 250. As of Tuesday, it is currently accommodating 4,100.

There are reasons that we have asylum laws, Barrasso said, claiming many of the migrants currently seeking entry into the states arent for political or safety issues.

Barrasso said he spoke with several border patrol personnel and even observed a night patrol where he witnessed traffickers and smugglers on the other side of the river taunting border agents. He also claimed, per the patrol officers, the Remain in Mexico program was successful because they were forced to wait for adjudication outside the border.

John Sandweg, former acting director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during President Barrack Obamas administration, stated the Remain in Mexico program and Title 42, both programs adopted under the Trump administration, created an anomaly in the amount of immigrants waiting in Mexico for asylum.

I think thats playing a big role and artificially increasing the (Biden) numbers, Sandweg is quoted on CNN Politics.

However, the fact remains that approximately 9,700 migrants crossed the border in February, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, and average 500 unaccompanied migrant children under the Biden administration. Experts say these numbers will likely surpass those in 2019 during the same interval of time considering there are already 7.49% unaccompanied migrants as of 2021 year-to-date data compared to 8.25% in 2019.

Those are the Biden numbers, Barrasso said. He added that as a result, approximately one-third of patrol personnel perform patrol duty to keep out traffickers and smugglers.

Two-thirds are now working as escorts or day care personnel, Barrasso said for unaccompanied migrant children. Here lies the biggest problem, according to Barrasso.

Our immigration system does need reform, Barrasso said in a 2019 address to the Senate, and again Wednesday. But for Barrasso, reformation comes after security.

The first thing we have to do is secure the border, he said, More are coming every day.

As for reformation, the caseload is expanding exponentially and currently backlogged by over 1.3 million cases, according to data configured by TRAC, a non-partisan information site about U.S. federal immigration enforcement.

According to the Honorable Dana Leigh Marks, U.S. immigration judge in the Department of Justice, moving the immigration court systems outside of a law enforcement agency (Department of Justice) would help speed up immigration/asylum cases processes.

Barrasso responded to this fact by referring to a recent proposal introduced by Lindsey Graham which would end the abuse of the asylum system and establish refugee application and processing centers outside of the States. The legislation is known as the Secure and Protect Act of 2021 (S.1494).

Earlier this year, Wyoming State Senator Anthony Bouchard publicly announced his intentions to run against Representative Liz Cheney in the 2022 Republican primary.

When asked if he thought Bouchard had a reasonable chance running against Cheney, Barrasso said its too early to say.

When I was re-elected in 2018, I had five others who ran against me who wanted to have me fired so they could have the job, Barrasso said while laughing.

He added there are 14 months between now and election and a lot can happen during that time.

He said that in the meantime he is working diligently with Cheney and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo, on long-term income possibilities.

Currently the state is fighting President Bidens oil and gas moratorium, which according to the University of Wyoming Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, could cost the state nearly $12.9 billion in tax revenue.

We have a delegation of three people [and] we are working fully closely together on energy issues, Barrasso said.

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Barrasso weighs in on immigration reform | News | wyomingnews.com - Wyoming Tribune

In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew discusses a package of changes to voting rules signed into law on Thursday by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and compares them with other Republican proposals around the country that could make voting more difficult. The Georgia law contains a number of controversial provisions, including giving more authority over the state elections board to the state legislature (instead of the secretary of state) and banning volunteers from giving food or water to people waiting in line to vote.

The gang also looks at the challenges facing the Biden administration in dealing with the surge of migrants at the southern border and immigration reform more broadly. There does not appear to be a general consensus among Democrats about how to address immigration reform. And in the near term, the U.S. is seeing the largest increase in migrants at the southern border in 20 years, according to the secretary of Homeland Security.

You can listen to the episode by clicking the play button in the audio player above or bydownloading it in iTunes, theESPN Appor your favorite podcast platform. If you are new to podcasts,learn how to listen.

The FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast is recorded Mondays and Thursdays. Help new listeners discover the show byleaving us a rating and review on iTunes. Have a comment, question or suggestion for good polling vs. bad polling? Get in touch by email,on Twitteror in the comments.

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Politics Podcast: Democrats Are Struggling On Immigration Policy - FiveThirtyEight

CALDWELL Last year brought a perfect storm of perils for farmworkers in the United States, with the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme heat and smoke from wildfires.

Teresa Romero, the third president in the history of the United Farm Workers since its inception in 1962, said in a speech Tuesday to University of Idaho students and staff, that the last year and beyond has revealed a need for immigration reform, wage reform and protections from employer abuse for farmworkers.

The universitys College Assistance Migrant Program brought Romero to speak in recognition of National Farmworker Awareness Week. Romero spoke to the group of attendees over Zoom.

{div class=page title=Page 1}{div class=layoutArea}{div class=column}Teresa Romero is the first immigrant woman to become president of a national union in the United States. She is the third president of United Farm Workers since its inception in 1962.{/div}{/div}{/div}

Field workers cannot shelter-in-place or work from home, Romero said. They are essential workers, they must go to their jobs to feed America, unfortunately they are still not treated as essential workers (by) the federal government.

Romero said the federal government has not done enough to hold agriculture employers accountable for their workers safety.

In April last year, the farmworker labor organization sued the state of Washington over what it claimed to be deficiencies in COVID-19 protections for domestic and seasonal workers. The lawsuit led the state to issue new guidelines for worker housing.

After a year of struggling to avoid COVID-19 while on crowded transportation systems, in multigenerational housing and trying to balance child care as working parents, Romero said there needs to be some relief for workers.

For Romero, this work is personal.

It is because I am a Latina and an immigrant, she said.

Romero is the first Latina and first immigrant woman to become president of a national union in the United States. She replaced Arturo Rodriguez as the organizations president in December 2018.

Romero is passionate about helping women immigrants in the agriculture industry, because she sees herself in them. She came to the United States from Mexico nearly 40 years ago while in her early 20s in search of a better life, she said. She didnt speak English, but pushed herself to learn seven new sentences per day in her first years in the United States.

As president of the labor organization, Romero has focused on making agriculture work equal between men and women. This equality is as a way to ensure women are no longer enduring verbal, mental and sexual abuse while at work, Romero said in her bio provided to the University of Idaho.

FARM WORKFORCE MODERNIZATION ACT

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The bill, that has yet to be introduced in the Senate, would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented agriculture workers and their families if they stayed in U.S. agriculture. It would also make changes to the H-2A program, which brings foreign workers to work in U.S. agriculture fields for part of the year.

It would free farmworker children from the fear of seeing their undocumented parents going to work in the morning and not knowing if they will return home at the end of the day because of the constant threat of deportation, Romero said.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, was a co-sponsor of the bill that had support of over 30 Idaho agricultural groups. However, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said he would not support that version of the bill in the Senate. Hes working on a Senate version of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.

Crapo has said in the past that he wont support amnesty nor giving advantage or benefit toward citizenship for anyone who crosses the border illegally, according to a March 24 email from Crapos office. Those entering must get in the end of the line and following the legal process by applying for a green card, permanent status or citizenship.

The Senate is out of session for more than a week, but a spokesperson from his office said Crapo wants to improve the situation with farm employers and workers. They said Crapo would be working on revising the path to citizenship component of the bill.

Rachel Spacek is the Latino Affairs and Canyon County reporter for the Idaho Press. You can reach her at rspacek@idahopress.com. Follow her on twitter @RachelSpacek.

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United Farm Workers leader calls for immigration, wage reform in University of Idaho speech - Idaho Press-Tribune

Weve all heard of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but how was it established? What is currently going on with the policy?

Lawyer, University of Idaho alumnus and DACA recipient Luis Cortes Romero provided answers during a keynote awareness event last week.

Cortes Romero is a partner at Immigrant Advocacy and Litigation Center in Seattle where he practices immigration law and advocates human rights.

There is one really important thing that happened with the DREAM Act, Cortes Romero said. It put a name to a certain population of the immigrant community, the people who were brought over as kids and were raised in the U.S., Dreamers.

According to Cortes Romero, the DREAM Act gave migrants a sense of identity and purpose.

Back in 2001, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act was proposed, but never passed the Senate. It wouldve granted undocumented immigrant students temporary legal status.

Fast forward to 2005, and student groups began to utilize activism to gain momentum, eventually forming the largest youth-led community, United We Dream.

In 2008, former U.S. President Barack Obama ran a campaign promoting immigration reform. Near the end of Obamas first term, the public become aware of reports that his administration was deporting more immigrants than any other president in the history of the country, according to Cortes Romero.

People no longer bought Obamas pro-immigrant rhetoric. Dreamers and immigration activists began referring to Obama as Deporter-in- Chief and staged protests outside his headquarters.

Later in 2012, Obama announced new immigration policy, DACA, which would protect young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.

DACA is not a green card and its not citizenship, Cortes Romero said. You get basic building blocks of life, a work permit, a social security number and thats basically it.

First, individuals submit an application, a process requiring an extensive amount of personal information. Afterwards, applicants visit an immigration office where their photos and fingerprints are taken and a thorough background check is conducted.

The fate of DACA was challenged in 2017 after the Trump Administration said they would end the DACA program.

Cortes Romero was a lead lawyers on a lawsuit against former U.S. President Donald Trump to prevent DACA from ending.

He couldnt end the program just like a light switch, essentially that is what he was doing, he was just turning it off and on, Cortes Romero said. Thats not how you end government programs, people rely on this.

After winning the case, Cortes Romero found himself arguing for the continuation of DACA inside the U.S. Supreme Court. There he found support from 143 businesses including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks and Twitter, which rely on DACA recipients as part of their workforce.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of DACA recipients in 2020, blocking the Trump Administrations plan to end the DACA policy.

Now, the House of Representatives has passed the American Dream and Promise Act.

If passed by the Senate, theAmerican Dream and Promise Act would provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and undocumented immigrants.

While being a DACA recipient has become more common and accepted, Cortes Romero said, there is still progress to be made.

Date updated in photo caption

Evelyn Avitia can be reached at [emailprotected] or on Twitter @Eavitia_

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What is DACA? Immigration lawyer breaks it down during DACA Awareness Week - Argonaut

NEW YORK President Joe Biden wants Congress to act on immigration reform that would allow Indian American doctors and other professionals to expeditiously get their green cards, according to his spokesperson Jen Psaki.

"He believes that there should be faster processing, that our immigration system is broken at many levels," she said at a briefing March 24.

"He is eager to for Congress to move forward with action there."

Psaki was replying to a question about a demonstration in Washington, D.C., by Indian doctors who had been in the frontlines of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, asking for the elimination of country quotas for green cards that would enable them to get permanent residence status faster.

Asked about the delays in processing work authorization for spouses of those holding H1-B and L-1 visas, Psaki said: "The reason we want to push for action on immigration (legislation) on the (Capitol) Hill is to move forward with expediting the processing and doing that on several levels, including a number of the visas.

"That's part of the reason why we think that's such an important piece to move forward on."

A group of Indian doctors held a demonstration outside Congress last week demanding the removal of the country quotas to expedite their green cards.

Last month, Democrats introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress that would remove the country quotas for green cards.

While spouses of citizens are not restricted by the quotas, all other countries except Canada and Mexico are each allowed only 26,000 green cards each year and this has created a huge backlog for applicants from countries like India, while some nations do not use their full quota.

According to the State Department, Indians with advanced degrees whose immigration applications were approved in 2009 and skilled workers and professionals whose applications were okayed in 2010 are still waiting for their green cards.

Those wait times are only for those whose applications are already approved, and it could run to centuries for those in the immigration queue.

The immigration reform bill faces an uphill battle because Republicans demand that it include stringent restrictions on illegal immigration and the backing of some members of that party would be required in the Senate.

Earlier, legislative action to remove country caps failed in the last Congress because the Senate and House of Representatives versions of the bill had differences that were not reconciled in time and it lapsed.

The Senate in December 2020 and the House in 2019 had passed the separate versions of the bill.

H-1B visas are for professionals and L-1 visas are for those transferred by their companies to the U.S.

Their spouses had been allowed to work in the U.S. under regulations introduced by former President Barack Obama, but his successor Donald Trump had tried to ban work authorization for them.

In its first week in office, the Biden administration killed Trump's effort and continued to make the spouses, most of them Indian women, eligible to get work permits.

The San Jose Mercury reported last month that the Citizenship and Immigration Service had attributed the work authorization "delays to 'Covid-19 restrictions, an increase in filings, current postal service volume and other external factors'.

The newspaper added that the agency said that it had redistributed workloads and staff were working extra hours to reduce the delays.

Read more from the original source:
Biden in Favor of Immigration Reform to Speed Up Green Cards for Indian Americans - India West