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If you want to know how little the Biden administration cares about struggling American workers, please read the paragraph below, which was published in the Federal Register on March 29, 2022. That paragraph is buried 127-pages deep in a document that the federal government estimates contains 155,000 words, and that it admits would take the average reader about 10.3 hours to digest.

The 1996 Amendments and Expedited Removal. Before I get to the paragraph in question, some background is necessary.

The document in question is formally captioned Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers, but it is informally known as the Asylum Officer Rule.

The Asylum Officer Rule overturns more than 25 years of practice and procedure by allowing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum officers (AOs) to adjudicate the asylum claims of both illegal migrants apprehended by Border Patrol agents and inadmissible aliens encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the ports of entry who lack proper documents to be admitted to the United States.

In the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), Congress amended section 235(b)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to create what is known as expedited removal. The express purpose of that amendment was to speed the deportation of those aliens and to curb abuse of our generous asylum system by aliens who were simply coming to work.

Congresss expedited removal scheme in section 235(b)(1) of the INA allows CBP to quickly deport illegal aliens encountered at the borders and the ports without obtaining a removal order from an immigration judge (IJ) following removal proceedings conducted under section 240 of the INA, which is the rule for most other removable aliens.

Expedited removal, however, comes with a catch. That catch requires CBP officers and Border Patrol agents to refer aliens subject to expedited removal who express a fear of harm if returned or who ask for asylum to AOs at USCIS, for what is known as a credible fear interview.

The credible fear standard is low, defined by statute as a significant possibility, taking into account the credibility of the statements made by the alien in support of the alien's claim and such other facts as are known to the officer, that the alien could establish eligibility for asylum under section 208 of the INA.

At the end of that informal interview, the AO issues a determination on the aliens credible fear claim. Prior to the issuance of the Asylum Officer Rule, if the AO issued a positive credible fear determination, the alien would be referred to an IJ to apply for asylum in a section 240 removal proceeding, and if the AO made a negative credible fear determination, the alien could either ask for an IJ to review that decision or be removed.

Because the credible fear standard is so low, AOs made credible fear determinations in 81 percent of cases they considered between FY 2008 and FY 2019, and IJs found credible fear with respect to 2 percent more of those aliens 83 percent in total, according to DOJ statistics.

Removal hearings under section 240 of the INA are adversarial proceedings, during which an ICE attorney appears on behalf of the United States to cross-examine the alien and to offer country-conditions and impeachment evidence. ICE attorneys who disagree with an IJ asylum grant can appeal that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).

Congress in IIRIRA also amended section 240 of the INA to require IJs to order aliens who failed to appear at removal hearings removed in absentia.

Consequently, fewer than 17 percent of the aliens subject to expedited removal during that time period who received positive credible fear determinations from AOs and IJs were granted asylum. By contrast, more than 32.5 percent of those aliens were ordered removed in absentia when they failed to appear in court.

An Applicant for Asylum Is Not Entitled to Employment Authorization. As I noted at the outset, Congress was expressly concerned in IIRIRA that aliens were abusing the asylum system simply to work in the United States.

That was part of a general concern that Congress had about the effects of large-scale immigration to the United States on the wages and working conditions of American workers both U.S. citizens and lawfully admitted immigrants. As it explained in a conference report for the bill that would later become IIRIRA:

Large increases in immigration create problems as well as opportunities for the American society and economy. The Commission on Immigration Reform noted that immigrants often are a bright spot in today's all too often bleak urban environment, and that in areas where they concentrate, immigrants frequently establish new businesses and other employment-generating activities that promote the renewal of city neighborhoods and commercial districts. On the other hand, immigration has costs as well, many related to the fact that such a preponderance of immigrants (close to 9 million since 1980) are admitted without reference to their level of education or skills. The current cohort of immigrants is far more likely to have less than a high-school education than native-born Americans. This can have the effect of flooding the labor market for unskilled work, as well as creating pockets of impoverished immigrants who will be less likely to assimilate into the broader American society. [Emphasis added; footnotes omitted.]

To address such concerns, Congress in IIRIRA also amended the asylum statute at section 208 of the INA to add the following restriction on work authorization for aliens seeking such protection:

An applicant for asylum is not entitled to employment authorization, but such authorization may be provided under regulation by the Attorney General. An applicant who is not otherwise eligible for employment authorization shall not be granted such authorization prior to 180 days after the date of filing of the application for asylum.

That provision is known as the 180-day rule.

The Asylum Officer Rule. Which brings me to the Asylum Officer Rule, which the administration published in September 2022. As noted, prior to its publication, only IJs could grant asylum, and then only at the end of a removal hearing.

The Asylum Officer Rule, however, allows the AO who made the positive credible fear determination to then grant the alien asylum, following a nonadversarial interview (the Asylum Merits Interview, or AMI) at which the alien is permitted to have an attorney but at which no ICE attorney will be present. There is also no appeal and no guarantee of review of an AO asylum grant.

To speed the process under which the alien receives work authorization under the 180-day rule, the Asylum Officer Rule eliminates the current requirement that aliens seeking asylum file a formal Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal (Form 1-589).

Instead, the AOs written record of the positive credible fear determination shall be considered a complete asylum application for purposes of ... requests for employment authorization. In other words, the rule is deliberately written to undermine Congress work restrictions on asylum applicants in the 180-day rule.

And, to speed the process under which AOs grant asylum, the Asylum Officer Rule mandates that AOs must conduct the AMI within 45 days of service of the positive credible fear determination. Currently, it takes IJs on average about four years to adjudicate asylum applications in non-detained removal proceedings.

An asylum grant comes with an automatic grant of employment authorization, and that tight AMI deadline in combination with the directive in the Asylum Officer Rule that service of the AO credible fear determination will start the clock on the 180-day employment period will flood the labor market with illegal migrants, most of whom will have only entry-level work skills.

Finally, unlike the IIRIRA amendment to section 240 of the INA that requires IJs to order aliens who fail to appear deported in absentia, the only penalty that an alien who fails to appear for the AMI will face is the possibility not even the probability that the alien will be placed into removal proceedings before an IJ.

Remember the 180-day clock for employment authorization starts as soon as those aliens receive the written credible fear determination from the AO, so if they have weak or fraudulent claims (as most do), its in their best interest not to show up, because it will just give them more time to live and work here.

The One Paragraph. The Asylum Officer Rule notes that these changes could have a significant impact on the wages of low-skilled workers in the United States, but you have to dig 127 pages into that document to find that admission, in the one paragraph I referenced at the outset:

The impact on labor earnings developed above has the potential to include both distributional effects (which are transfers) and indirect benefits to employers. The distributional impacts would be felt by asylum applicants who enter the U.S. labor force earlier than under current regulations in the form of increased compensation (wages and benefits). A portion of this compensation gain might be transferred to asylum applicants from others who are currently in the U.S. labor force or eligible to work lawfully. Alternatively, employers that need workers in the U.S. labor market may benefit from those asylum applicants who receive their employment authorizations earlier as a result of the [rule], gaining productivity and potential profits that the asylum applicants' earlier starts would provide. Companies may also benefit by not incurring opportunity costs associated with the next-best alternative to the immediate labor the asylum applicant would provide, such as having to pay existing workers to work overtime hours. To the extent that overtime pay could be reduced, some portion of this pay could be transferred from the workers to the companies. [Emphasis added.]

In other words, the same illegal migrants whom Congress was concerned about the ones who are coming here to exploit the U.S. asylum system by working will plainly be placed on a fast-track to employment under the Asylum Officer Rule, and that will reduce the wages of the next-best alternative to the immediate labor the asylum applicant would provide, i.e., struggling American workers.

But, hey, look on the bright side big businesses will benefit, because they wont have to deal with that pesky next-best alternative American labor, and theyre going to save some serious overtime money, to boot.

Here are the real-world consequences of all that bureaucratese:The minimum wage in my current home state of North Carolina is $7.25 per hour, or $14,500 per annum, eight hours per day with 50 work weeks per year. Thats just a little more than I earned in my first clerical job out of college in 1988, when I was paid a salary of $13,500 per annum.

Adjusted for inflation, my 1988 salary works out to $34,721 in today, and I can assure you that I struggled to get by on that, in a roach-infested apartment with a roommate and a lot of cheese sandwiches. That $14,500 annual hourly minimum wage in 2023 would work out to just $5,249 in 1988 dollars, meaning the local blood bank would have seen a lot of me (and my left arm).

If that 2023 minimum-wage worker could work just 20 extra hours per week for a 50-week year at time-and-a-half ($14.50 per hour), it would add an additional $14,500 per annum to his or her bank account, meaning the worker would bring home $29,000 per annum. For many, thats the difference between struggling and homeless.

The Center made these points and others in its response to this plan when it was proposed, so the Biden administration knows its Asylum Officer Rule which places illegal migrants on a fast-track to work authorization will make the plight of already struggling American workers all the worse. As this one paragraph demonstrates, however it simply doesnt care.

Read more:
Biden Admin. Admits Its 'Asylum Officer Rule' Will Further Impoverish ... - Immigration Blog

The following statement was issued by Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), demanding that any spending package include strong policy changes that will end the Biden administration's dangerous border policies:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --"Nationwide encounters of illegal aliens attempting to enter the country, once again, exceeded 300,000 in October, while House Republicans are set to approve another Continuing Resolution (CR) that continues to fund the Biden administration's disastrous border policies into February 2024.

"Even as top national security experts issue dire warnings of terror threats posed by our wide-open borders, congressional leaders are again failing to use the CR as an opportunity to force the Biden administration to end policies that place our nation in grave danger. While the Biden administration must take responsibility for the policies that resulted in 309,221 border encounters last month, Congress must be held accountable for their complicity. House Republicans have squandered a full year of their two-year control without passing a budget that forces the administration to end its reckless border and immigration policies. Halting the Biden Border Crisis was an explicit promise they made last year when they asked American voters to entrust them with the leadership of the House.

"H.R. 6363, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, extends the budget enacted by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in 2022 into 2024. Rather than including changes needed to regain control of our borders by ending the mass release of illegal aliens, stopping asylum abuse, and limiting parole, this bill would reinforce the status quo.

"This failure is particularly egregious as the House has already passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, which contains strong provisions to do exactly that. By the time the CR expires in February, nearly one million new illegal aliens will have been apprehended crossing our borders illegally, and countless more 'gotaways' will have found their way into the interior of the country even as hostile nations and their proxy terror groups openly threaten the American people.

"The House leadership must insist that the language of H.R. 2 be included in any spending package moving forward, and the Biden administration and Senate Democrats must be forced to accept real border and immigration enforcement."

Contact: Joey Chester, 202-742-1827, [emailprotected]

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

Link:
FAIR: Congress Prepares to Fund the Border Crisis Into 2024 While ... - PR Newswire

As our country continues to struggle with historic teacher shortages, we ought to consider an untapped pool of aspiring teachers: Young immigrants who want to become educators.

They can connect with other newcomers by sharing their stories and serving as role models, like the ones I had when I arrived in Queens from Ecuador at the age of 14.

The bustling pace of rush-hour commuters, the tangled mix of languages and the loud rhythm of a sleepless city disoriented me for months.

Thanks to Mr. Bello, my supportive math teacher at Newcomers High School in Queens, I was able to quiet the cacophony with the anonymity of numbers.

Mr. Bello taught me much more than trigonometry and geometry. He taught me about probability, and helped me see that I could succeed as an undocumented student despite the uncertainty of my status.

Mr. Bello, himself an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, helped me build confidence in my potential, which allowed me to face a higher education and workforce system that systemically shuts doors to undocumented immigrants.

Another teacher, Mr. Palau, an immigrant from Paraguay, patiently guided me through my college application process. He made sure I understood that I was eligible for the in-state tuition rate despite my undocumented status.

Eventually, I qualified for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. That allowed me to get a work permit and pursue a career in the immigration research field.

Today, I am the project director at the Initiative on Immigration and Education at the City University of New York (also known as CUNY-IIE), which produces research and resources that center the strengths of immigrant communities.

In this role, I see firsthand the importance and urgent need in our schools for more teachers like Mr. Bello and Mr. Palau.

Related: Teachershortagesare real, but not for the reason you heard

Congresss inability to pass any kind of immigration reform that would help undocumented immigrants become teachers makes easing the path of immigrants into educator roles a tough ask, especially as the 11-year-old DACA program is in peril of being eliminated for good by judicial decree.

Currently, immigrant educators may be granted work permits only if they qualify for DACA or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which has been extended to people from 16 countries. State and local lawmakers and policymakers can and should be creative in expanding options.

The situation is urgent. According to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, the state needs to hire 180,000 new teachers over the next decade to keep up with the demands of the workforce. Enrollment in New York States teacher education programs has declined by 53 percent since 2009.

Most disconcerting for our newest students: There is a significant shortage of bilingual teachers. In 2022-23, approximately 134,000 students who were enrolled in New York Citys public schools identified as English Language Learners, yet the United Federation of Teachers reported that the school system had fewer than 3,000 certified bilingual educators.

This shortage intersects with a political and social upheaval in the city. Since April 2022, New York has received more than 116,000 asylum seekers, including approximately 20,000 children who have now entered the public school system.

The majority of these students are from Latin America and the Caribbean and speak languages other than English.

Bilingual education is considered the best approach for immigrant students, according to Tatyana Kleyn, professor of Bilingual Education & TESOL at The City College of New York. Kleyn favors bilingual education because it allows students to continue learning in their home language while they also learn English.

For all New York teachers, an initial certification is valid for just five years. From there, they are expected to get a professional teaching certificate. For a while, DACA beneficiaries were not eligible for professional certification.

In 2016, the New York State Education Department began to allow undocumented students who are DACA beneficiaries to get professional teaching certificates.

Last year, the state expanded that guidance, allowing undocumented students without a social security number (and who are not DACA holders) to do fieldwork in certain schools and obtain initial certification.

These are two steps in the right direction.

Related: OPINION: In an era ofteacher shortages, we must embrace and develop new ways to unleash educator talent

However, undocumented educators who are not DACA holders cant make use of their education degree and initial certification because they do not have access to work permits.

In addition, some undocumented immigrants just missed the cutoff for DACA or have not been allowed to apply due to the litigation battles about the program.

Our working group, UndocuEdu, produced a report in 2021 titled The State of Undocumented Educators in New York that outlines the challenges undocumented educators face navigating teacher education programs.

One suggestion in the report is to eliminate testing fees for NYS certification exams for those in financial need.

Another recommendation is for policymakers to create municipal or state exceptions so that our citys schools can hire educators who have training and certification but lack a work permit.

State legislators and advocates in New York are already discussing the creation of municipal work permits for recently arrived asylum-seekers.

We urge the city and state to embrace these types of solutions and find others to address the current educational need. Its time to give more opportunities to a group of trained educators who are already in our communities.

Now more than ever, we need to expand our teaching pool for students who urgently need help. Undocumented teachers can become the Mr. Bellos and Mr. Palaus that every immigrant student deserves.

Daniela Alulema is project director of the CUNY-Initiative on Immigration and Education in New York City.

This story about immigrant teachers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechingers newsletter.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn't mean it's free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

Join us today.

Link:
OPINION: To solve teacher shortages, lets open pathways for ... - The Hechinger Report

Gov. Hochul, who had pursued the idea of issuing state-approved work papers to migrants, took the plan off the table Monday, saying she would not have been able to protect New York employers from criminal exposure under federal laws.

Im constrained by the law, Hochul said at a news conference in Midtown Manhattan, two months after sheindicated she was looking into thepermitting concept. Pursuing it has led us to the conclusion that I cannot protect employers under this scenario.

Thousands of asylum seekers have been languishing for months in the city without federal work authorization, with the city and state marshaling significant resources to shelter the arrivals.

Asylum seekers must wait for months to get their work papers approved: the standard 150-day gap between when migrants submit asylum papers and work permit applications is complicated by a backlogged work authorization system, creating extensive delays.

Changes to the 150-day gap are subject to the whims of Congress. Immigration reform efforts have long been deadlocked in Washington.

New York officials have spent the last year calling on the federal government to expedite asylum seekers work authorizations, finding limited success. At one point, Hochul warned the White House that she may be having to begin to distribute state work papers. (The White House said it would not encourage such an effort.)

But on Monday, Hochul said the plan was not tenable. She said the state had considered an approach in which it would have hired the migrants directly and then subcontracted them to employers.

I cannot indemnify or protect the employers from any kind of federal prosecution for violating immigration laws, Hochul said. Thats the only barrier. And its a big one.

No state has ever tried to supersede the federal governments role as the dispenser of work papers, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell University. He said the approach that Hochul described likely would have invited long-running litigation, and would not have helped the state in the short-term.

Since spring 2022, more than 139,000 asylum seekers have arrived in New York City, and about 66,000 remain in the citys overstretched shelter system, according to government tallies. The population of the shelter system has jumped from below 50,000 in July 2022 to about 120,000 this month.

Read the original:
Hochul says NY will not give state work permits to migrants: 'I'm ... - New York Daily News

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday said that the number of illegal immigrants evading Border Patrol agents and escaping into the country is a source of "great concern" for the agency, as he told lawmakers that threats from the other side of the border are "consuming" FBI field offices.

Wray testified to lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee about "worldwide threats" to the U.S. Chairman Mark Green asked Wray about the numbers of gotaways illegal immigrants at the border who evaded Border Patrol which have exceeded 600,000 in FY 23. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources tell Fox News there have been over 47,000 gotaways since the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.

Green said the number of gotaways since the beginning of the Biden administration could be well over two million.

HOUSE HOMELAND CHAIR GREEN TO WARN US IS AT ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS TIMES' IN HISTORY DURING THREAT HEARING

"Can the FBI guarantee American people that known or suspected terrorists, including any from Hamas or other terror groups, are not amongst those gotaways?" he asked.

"Well, certainly the group of people that you're talking about are source of great concern for us. That's why we're aggressively using all 56 of our joint terrorism task forces," Wray said.

READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP

He later said that "any time you have a group of people in the United States that we don't know nearly enough about, that is a source of concern for us from a perspective in our lane of protecting Americans."

Wray testified that there has been an increase in the number of known or suspected terrorists attempting to cross the border in the last five years the number of those encountered on the terror watchlist hit record numbers in FY 23.

Wray said he couldnt speak to why that is, but added "the threats that come from the other side of the border are very much consuming all 56 of our field offices, not just in the border states."

FBI DIRECTOR WRAY WARNS TERROR THREAT TO AMERICANS AT 'WHOLE OTHER LEVEL' AMID HAMAS-ISRAEL CONFLICT

The testimony comes amid renewed concern, particularly from Republicans but also from within the Biden administration, about the potential for terrorists to use the border to gain access to the United States, particularly as Border Patrol agents are dealing with record migrant numbers.

There were over 249,000 migrant encounters in October alone, after an FY 23 which broke records for migrant encounters. Republicans have pinned the blame on the Biden administration for its policies, while the administration says it needs immigration reform and more funding to address a "broken" immigration system.

Those concerns about terrorism have been renewed in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israel. Green told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that the U.S. is at "heightened risk," and said the "open door policy" at the border is largely to blame.

Wray has previously told lawmakers in the Senate that the threat of a terror attack against Americans has been raised to a "whole other level" due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He said the most immediate concern includes homegrown violent extremists who are inspired by foreign terrorist organizations, or by domestic violent extremists who are targeting Muslim or Jewish targets.

A CBP memo warned fighters from Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups may seek entry into the U.S., although the agency said last month it has had no indication of fighters attempting to enter the U.S.

"CBP has seen no indication of Hamas-directed foreign fighters seeking to make entry into the United States," a CBP spokesperson said at the time.

The Department of Homeland Securitys FY 24 threat assessment warned that agents have encountered a growing number on the watch list and warned that "terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States."

"Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States," the assessment also said.

However, the agency has also stressed that it works "tirelessly to screen, vet, and prevent anyone who poses a threat from entering the country" and that encounters of known or suspected terrorists are rare with watchlist encounters also including those associated with known or suspected terrorists, including relatives.

"Our border security efforts include biometric and biographic screening and vetting," a DHS official said. "CBP screens and vets every individual encountered, and if an individual is determined to pose a potential threat to national security or public safety, in coordination with the Joint Terrorism Taskforce (JTTF), we either deny admission, detain, remove, or refer them to other federal agencies for further vetting and prosecution as appropriate. "

Fox News' Aubrie Spady and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.

Original article source: FBI Director Wray says border gotaways a source of 'great concern' for agency

Originally posted here:
FBI Director Wray says border gotaways a source of 'great concern' for agency - Yahoo News