Thread: GOP Committee Revives Obama’s Catch-and-Release Asylum Rules

GOP Committee Revives Obama’s Catch-and-Release Asylum Rules


AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta25 Jul 20181,573The GOP-run House appropriations committee has voted to restore President Barack Obama’s 2014 catch-and-release rules by deliberately defunding Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ July asylum reform.

The Sessions reform ended Obama’s expanded asylum-rules which have encouraged tens of thousands of migrants from Central America to walk through the border wall by just declaring a “credible fear” of violence from spouses or criminal gangs. Recent media reports say that Sessions’ reforms are successfully sending the vast majority of migrants homewards before they can use the catch-and-release laws.

The vote “is just insane,” said Rosemary Jenks, policy director at NumbersUSA. “This needs to be taken out … this [bill] should not go to the floor with this abomination.”

The House Committee on Appropriations voted Wednesday afternoon to bar government officials from spending any time or money on Sessions’ reform. The vote was taken as legislators debate and vote on amendments to the 2019 spending bill. The bill will be reviewed next by the rules committee — which is controlled by House Speaker Paul Ryan — and then will be sent to the floor for a vote.

The pro-migration language is likely supported by a majority of the House. Nearly all Democrats and many business-first Republicans favor the large-scale migration of new workers, consumers, and possible future voters.

The critical amendment was proposed by North Carolina Democrat David Price. It was passed on a voice-vote with support from retiring committee chairman New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, and from the new chairman of the homeland defense subcommittee, Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder.

Josh Breisblatt@jbreisblatt

Replying to @jbreisblatt
this amendment fails and now we have @RepDavidEPrice has an amendment to revoke the new @USCIS memo implementing Matter of AB. This could be a huge amendment if passed. See more on this from @immcouncil http://immigrationimpact.com/2018/07/18/uscis-redefining-qualifies-asylum-guidance/ …

Josh Breisblatt@jbreisblatt

.@RepKevinYoder SUPPORTS the price amendment. He spoke of deep compassion for domestic violence victims. It would be a HUGE deal if this amendment passes. This would repeal Matter of AB guidance. Wow
4:01 PM - Jul 25, 2018

• 
  

The only GOP member who spoke out against the easy-migration rules was Texas Rep. John Carter.

Josh Breisblatt@jbreisblatt

· 25 Jul

Replying to @jbreisblatt
.@JudgeCarter is butchering asylum law here, in his comments attempting to oppose the Price amendment.

Josh Breisblatt@jbreisblatt

WOW the amendment PASSES, on a VOICE VOTE. The @HouseAppropsGOP committee just PASSED an amendment, defunding implementation of the Matter of AB memo by USCIS. WOW.
4:07 PM - Jul 25, 2018

• 
  31
• 
  30 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Price posted his amendment at his website, saying ” The first amendment offered by Rep. Price will prevent any funds to be used to implement Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ guidance that victims of gang violence and domestic violence will no longer qualify for asylum in the United States.”

In the hearing, Price urged that “prosecutorial discretion” be used to end the deportation of “non-criminal” illegal immigrants. “This has been the policy of past administration, what is going on now is the radical policy,” he said.

The amendment is needed because Sessions’ policy reverses Obama’s 2014 change and ignores the danger of gang violence in Central American countries, Price said. The administration is “giving those who seek refuge a virtual death sentence … [and is] one of the many heartless steps the Trump administration has taken,” he said.

“What Sessions has done would close the door almost completely,” he said.

Domestic violence “should be a factor in an asylum claim,” Yoder responded.

<font color="#111111"><span style="font-family: Georgia"><font size="3"><span style="font-family: inherit">

Sessions’ asylum reform is designed to repair the damage caused by Obama’s pro-migration policies.

Obama’s policies created a wave of Central American migrants who have clogged the nation’s asylum courts.

This rush of migrants has delayed migrants’ hearings for several years, forcing officials to hand out 400,000 work permits to asylum-seekers. That influx of cheap foreign workers depresses wages for blue-collar Americans while reducing the cost of services for upper-income Americans in New York and other wealthy cities.

Very few of the asylum-seeking migrants who get into the U.S. by claiming fear of gangs or spouses eventually win their asylum cases in the courts, said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Many migrants don’t even file their asylum cases with the courts, and instead disappear into the nation’s illegal immigrant population, he said.

By blocking Sessions’ reform, “what this appropriations committee is saying is … that the [immigration agency] has to keep letting in people who are claiming asylum even though they are very unlikely to get asylum,” Krikorian said.

The growing population of Central Americans in the United States is also encouraging and funding the migration of their relatives and friends — including many parents and children. That chain-migration is bringing thousands of migrants and children up to the border in 2018 — but most are being stopped by Sessions’ asylum reforms.

Immigrants from Guatemala Meregilda Mejilla, right, and her daughter Maricelda, 6, wait with Ingrid Yanet Lopez Hernandez, left, and her children Jazmine, 7, Christian, 5, and Cristle Ordonez, 2, inside the central bus station after they were processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sunday, June 24, 2018, in McAllen, Texas,

The Washington-imposed economic policy of economic growth via immigration shifts wealth from young people towards older people by flooding the market with cheap foreign labor. That process spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor offered by blue-collar and white-collar employees. The policy also drives up real estate prices, widens wealth-gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and sidelines at least 5 million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with opioid addictions.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...-asylum-rules/

Congress Might Stop Jeff Sessions From Denying Domestic Violence Survivors Asylum — Here's How

BySETH MILLSTEIN
a day ago

Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images

In June, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered immigration officials to stop granting asylum claims to immigrants who are survivors of domestic abuse and gang violence. But on Wednesday, congressional lawmakers approved an amendment that would reverse this, and ban the government from using federal funds to deny asylum claims to domestic and gang violence survivors.

Sessions officially ordered the change in policy on June 11, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — one of several branches of the Homeland Security Department that oversees immigration-related matters — implemented it later that day.

"The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes—such as domestic violence or gang violence—or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim," Sessions wrote. Under the new policy, domestic and gang violence survivors must prove that their country's "government condoned the private actions [against them] or demonstrated an inability to protect" them in order to receive asylum.

In issuing the guidance, Sessions was overturning a 2014 decision by an immigration court, which had found that women who came to the United States to escape domestic violence in their home countries did in fact qualify for asylum.

CAP Immigration@CAPimmigration

· 25 Jul

Replying to @CAPimmigration
Passage of this amendment would be a HUGE deal for domestic violence survivors fleeing their home country to seek asylum in the US. According to data from 2016, El Salvador and Honduras were among the 10 countries with the highest rates of femicide —the murder of women—in 2016. pic.twitter.com/J4YPgICAog

CAP Immigration@CAPimmigration

.@RepDavidEPrice's amendment PASSES on a voice vote. This amendment will defund the implementation of the Matter of AB memo by @USCIS. A huge victory for domestic violence survivors seeks asylum in the US.
4:09 PM - Jul 25, 2018

• 
  27
• 
  See CAP Immigration's other Tweets

Twitter Ads info and privacy

But while debating a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, lawmakers Wednesday approved an amendment that — if passed by the full House of Representatives — would block Sessions' guidance from being implemented. The amendment in question was offered by Democratic Rep. David Price, and it would ban the Department of Homeland Security — and, by extension, USCIS — from using any federal funds to enforce Sessions' directive.

"The Attorney General took it upon himself to overturn a 2014 precedent that had finally clarified years of uncertainty surrounding domestic violence," Price said after introducing his amendment in a House Appropriations Committee meeting. "This policy change will lead to higher denial rates by USCIS officers who administer initial credible fear screenings, meaning some immigrants experiencing gang and domestic violence will be removed before even given the chance to pursue an asylum claim."

To the shock of observers, Price's amendment passed. This was a surprise in large part because Republicans have a majority on that committee — and every committee, as they control the House— and rejected several other Democrat-proposed amendments during that same meeting. But Price's passed via a voice vote, and as such, it will be included in the final DHS funding bill when the full House votes on it.

Midushi Pandey@midushipandey

In the past hour, these have passed in approps:

- Amendment overruling Sessions' cruel policy shift for asylum seekers who are domestic violence survivors
- Amendment barring shackling pregnant immigrant women in detention
- Amendment prohibiting deportation of DACA participants
Josh Breisblatt@jbreisblatt

Replying to @jbreisblatt @RepKevinYoder


This #DACA amendment PASSED by a VOICE VOTE

4:50 PM - Jul 25, 2018

• 
  2
• 
  See Midushi Pandey's other Tweets

Twitter Ads info and privacy

In addition to the adoption of the Price amendment, progressives enjoyed two more unexpected victories during Wednesday's committee meeting: An amendment from Rep. Yvette Clarke that bans officials from shackling pregnant immigrants was also passed, as was Rep. Pete Aguilar's amendment to shield DACA recipients from deportation. Both Clarke and Aguilar are Democrats.

The Price, Clarke and Aguilar amendments are not law yet. Although they were successfully inserted into the DHS funding bill, that bill will now have to be approved by the full House, then the Senate, and finally, President Trump. This may not be as difficult as it sounds, however: The DHS bill also includes $5 billion in funding for Trump's proposed border wall, as well as an additional $3.7 billion for DHS's overall discretionary funding for 2019.

https://www.bustle.com/p/all-the-brands-giving-away-free-lipstick-for-national-lipstick-day-9870794

Republicans Voted to Block Jeff Sessions’ Attacks on Asylum-Seekers Fleeing Domestic Violence

“I have great compassion for those victims of domestic violence anywhere,” said GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder.

NOAH LANARDJUL. 26, 2018 1:50 PM

Evan Vucci/AP

A bipartisan group of representatives in Congress voted on Wednesday to block part of the Trump administration’s latest attack on migrants entering the country as asylum-seekers. Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions used his control over America’s immigration court system to rule that people fleeing domestic and gang violence will rarely be eligible for asylum. On Wednesday afternoon, the House appropriations committee voted across party lines to block the Department of Homeland Security from using any funds to implement Sessions’ decision, which is known as “Matter of A-B-.”
The amendment passed by the appropriations committee on Wednesday appears unlikely to become law, and would only apply to DHS, not the immigration courts that are part of Sessions’ Justice Department. But it is still a rare case of Republicans opposing the Trump administration’s attacks on migrants.

“It’s a rebuke from the Congress to the attorney general for his interpretation set forth in Matter of A-B-,” says Gregory Chen, the director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, a group that represents more than 15,000 attorneys and law professors. “And that is a significant step to recognize, even if it’s just at the committee level.”


Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), who introduced the amendment, said on Wednesday that there was “no doubt” that Sessions’ decision “diminishes the already limited likelihood” that people fleeing gang and domestic violence will receive protection in the United States. “We’re not going to let this draconian directive stand,” he said.

Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kansas) joined Rep. David Price in supporting the measure. “As the son of a social worker, I have great compassion for those victims of domestic violence anywhere,” he said, “especially as it concerns those nations that turn a blind eye to the crimes of domestic violence.” Yoder cited his vote for the Violence Against Women Act as one of the reasons why he was backing the measure. (In 2013, Sessions was one of 22 Republican senators who voted against reauthorizing that law.)

The last time President Donald Trump wrote the world “asylum” on Twitter was nearly five years ago. He was tweeting about Edward Snowden fleeing to Russia, not US immigration policy. Amidst Trump’s incessant calls to “build the wall” and MS-13 fear mongering, it can easy to lose sight of the fact that his administration is working to systematically undermine longstanding protections for asylum-seekers.

Earlier this month, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, a DHS agency, told its asylum officers that Sessions’ decision meant that people fleeing domestic and gang violence would, in most instances, no longer qualify for asylum or and that those migrants could not establish the “credible fear” that prevents them from being quickly deported. Mother Jones reported on Thursday that:

Government data on the impact of the change is not yet available, but interviews with lawyers across the country suggest that the new standards are leading to more asylum-seekers’ cases being rejected during the credible fear interviews that determine whether someone can move forward with an asylum claim. Carlos García, a South Texas immigration lawyer who has been working with separated parents at Port Isabel, has seen an “overwhelming” number of credible fear denials since Sessions’ decision, known as Matter of A-B-. “It’s devastating,” García says.

Price made clear on Wednesday that Matter of A-B- is part of broader attack on asylum seekers. “It’s just one of the many heartless steps the Trump administration has taken to abandon our country’s promise to be a source of refuge for those escaping persecution and oppression,” he said.

Rep. John Carter (R-Texas) spoke briefly to oppose the measure. But no members could be heard saying “nay” when the amendment was put to a voice vote. Chen was a bit surprised. “We did not expect that there would be agreement on this amendment in the way it passed without significant objection,” he says.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics...stic-violence/

Caught: GOP Traitor Sneaks Through Amnesty Bill Letting Anyone into the US

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. The GOP truly thinks they can get away with pushing amnesty through because they don't believe you're paying attention.The major amnesty bills were just the beginning. Conservatives like you raised your voices and forced the Republicans to vote down all of the amnesty bills that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell brought to a vote.The establishment knows they can't win in the light of day, so now they're pushing amnesty in the shadows.

As you know, Congress is in the middle of what is known as Appropriations Season. This is when committees and sub-committees decide what will be in the spending bills that come to the floor in September.Yesterday, while debating the Homeland Security spending bill, the Democrats introduced an amendment. They wanted to expand the United States' asylum policies to help more migrants get into the country.Currently, in order to get asylum at the Southern Border, a migrant has to prove that they are being specifically targeted in their home country, usually as a means of political or religious persecution. The Democrat amendment -- written by Rep. David Price (D-NC) -- would expand this to also grant asylum for victims of gang violence and domestic abuse.

This would open the border wide up. Instead of only granting asylum to people who are being persecuted for their faiths or political beliefs, the Democrat plan would give amnesty to any migrant who claims their spouse beats them. No proof or evidence required.

If this bill passes, every single illegal alien and migrant would have a path to be able to stay in the US!I have tremendous sympathy for real victims of domestic violence. But that doesn't qualify someone for entry into the United States and this plan is so broad, there is no telling how many illegal aliens would try to abuse it.

Already, migrants are showing up to the US border with scripts telling them how to game the system. If this new Democrat plan, all someone would have to do is tell Border Patrol that their husband/wife hit them, and they'd be welcomed in.

Want to know what is even more pathetic? A Republican committee just approved this resolution! That's right, unless we rise up and stop it, this Democrat amendment will be included in the next spending bill.

The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee held the vote. Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS) -- shown above -- chairs the subcommittee and allowed the Democrat amendment to receive a vote. But instead of actually counting the yeas and nays, Yoder held a voice vote.This is important. Under a voice vote, the committee members basically shout out their votes. It is then up to the chair to decide which side has more support, based upon nothing but listening to Congressmen yelling "yea" and "nay." In a voice vote, there are no recorded vote tallies. Republicans often use this tactic to pass liberal bills out of committee without forcing GOPers to have to go on the record. It's nothing but cowardice.

We have no idea which Republicans in the subcommittee voted for this monstrosity, but Yoder felt that the votes were there, so he passed it through.This plan would open up the floodgates to make it even easier for illegal aliens and migrants to enter the US, and the GOP didn't even record the vote.

They think they can get away with this. They think they can vote to open up the illegal immigration flood gates without consequence.

Luckily, this is still in the subcommittee level. The next step will be a hearing in the full House Appropriations Committee, and then onto the House floor for a full vote. We are already hearing that Democrats are going to be pushing a similar amendment in the Senate.

If this passes, the country will be lost. There would be no need for illegal immigration. Migrants would just be able to show up at the border and claim spousal abuse or that there was a gang in their neighborhood. That's all they would need to say to be allowed into the US.I warned you that the GOP was working on a behind the scenes amnesty surrender. This is it.It is not to late to stop this, but we need to act right now!It's time to fight,

Joe Otto
Conservative Daily

Originally Posted by MW

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times. The GOP truly thinks they can get away with pushing amnesty through because they don't believe you're paying attention.

I don't think that is what they are thinking.

It is more like


The GOP truly thinks they can get away with pushing amnesty through because, they know Conservatives will not vote for D's, therefore they can be a liberal with an R after their name, do the work of a liberal, run a campaign as an R and keep on getting elected.


In other words what we have is a UNI-Party---as George Carlin said "It's a Big Club and you ain't in it". The Big Club only wants our vote.

Worth repeating:

The House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee held the vote. Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-KS) -- shown above -- chairs the subcommittee and allowed the Democrat amendment to receive a vote. But instead of actually counting the yeas and nays, Yoder held a voice vote.This is important. Under a voice vote, the committee members basically shout out their votes. It is then up to the chair to decide which side has more support, based upon nothing but listening to Congressmen yelling "yea" and "nay." In a voice vote, there are no recorded vote tallies. Republicans often use this tactic to pass liberal bills out of committee without forcing GOPers to have to go on the record. It's nothing but cowardice.