Congressional State of Play and Appropriations Update
The final session of the 118th Congress is in its final days, and members are eager to finish outstanding business and make it home before the holidays. Extra incentive is a federal funding deadline of Friday, December 20 – the House and Senate need to pass some sort of spending deal by then or risk a government shutdown. Lawmakers are also eager to move emergency disaster aid and the annual must-pass defense bill (titled the “National Defense Authorization Act” or NDAA) before wrapping things up for the year.
CARE Authorization Act
As is so often the case, these large spending deals contain within them crucial funding, legislation, and oversight language that has a direct impact on refugees, immigrants, and the communities working to welcome them. The NDAA, which passed the House 281 to 140 on December 11, is set to pass the Senate on Wednesday and be signed into law by President Biden.
Among numerous other provisions, this year’s NDAA contains the text of the CARE Authorization Act, a key priority for refugee advocates that codifies the office responsible for ongoing Afghan relocation and resettlement efforts for at least three years into Trump’s second term. The bipartisan bill demonstrates the broad bipartisan support for the ongoing resettlement of Afghan allies and helps preserve efforts that remain underway to relocate those who remain in the region and in danger.
Refugee and Immigrant Funding Priorities
In addition to the NDAA, Congress is also negotiating a “Continuing Resolution” or “CR,” that would extend 2024 base-level funding through March of 2025 as negotiations continue around a full-year spending bill. This is now the second CR of this fiscal year, something that is becoming a norm as members slowly work their way towards consensus around spending levels on a host of key accounts.
On November 26, the Biden administration released an ambitious $24 billion “anomaly” request, with provisions it hoped to see Congress add to the CR. The administration’s request included emergency funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to support eligible arrivals, including refugees, asylees, SIVs, Ukrainian and Afghan parolees, Cuban and Haitian entrants, and unaccompanied children. The request also included a reauthorization of eligibility for arriving Ukrainians entering under the Uniting 4 Ukraine (U4U) parole program. U4U arrivals have been cut off from support since eligibility lapsed on September 30.
Negotiations around the CR (and whatever is attached) are set to continue right up to the Friday deadline. On Tuesday evening (December 17), Congressional leaders released the text of the CR, which included economic aid to farmers and a host of other issues but lacked any emergency support for the Office of Refugee resettlement. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, Donald Trump and JD Vance voiced their disapproval of the package, saying that Congress should instead support a pared-back CR that includes a debt limit increase. It appears that House Republican leaders will need to craft a new CR and gather support from enough members of Congress to pass the stopgap measure, though it remains unclear if they will be able to do so in time to avert a shutdown by the midnight deadline on Friday.
119th Congress and Budget Reconciliation
As negotiations continue in the waning days of this Congress, many eyes have already turned towards the next one. The 119th Congress will be sworn in on January 3, and will represent a Republican trifecta – the GOP will have the White House as well as majorities in the Senate (53 Rs to 47 Ds) and House (220 Rs to 215 Ds). These are exceedingly slim majorities – and will be made even slimmer in early 2025 because the incoming administration has appointed three Republican representatives to serve in his cabinet. These seats won’t be replaced until at least April, leaving the House majority at just 217-215.
Nevertheless, incoming Republican leadership is set on moving rapidly in the new Congress to use a tool called “budget reconciliation” to avoid the filibuster in the Senate and pass massive spending bills that are likely to help fund the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans, increase border wall construction, and potentially slash key assistance programs and refugee accounts. The reconciliation process has numerous limits and procedural hurdles – and advocates will have many opportunities to push back as it moves forward. With such slim majorities, every vote will matter and advocacy will be of critical importance.
Ways to take action:
- Sign up to join a community preparing to mobilize in response to attacks on refugee resettlement and humanitarian protection
- Urge your members of Congress to take action in the final days of the year to support refugees and newcomers before Trump takes office
- Read about CWS and Refugee Council USA post-election Congressional priorities
- Learn more about budget reconciliation and its possible impact on immigrant communities
Asylum and U.S.-Mexico Border Update
President-elect Trump announced on social media that he will nominate Rodney Scott to lead Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Scott was previously chief of Border Patrol from January 2020 through June 2021 and oversaw the expulsion of at least 13,000 unaccompanied children under Title 42. He was also head of the San Diego Sector when agents fired tear gas at migrants attempting to enter the United States. As reported in November, the Trump administration has selected Stephen Miller as White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Tom Homan as White House “border czar,” and Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security Secretary.
The 119th Congress begins on Friday, January 3 with narrow Republican majorities in the Senate and House. Passing a massive border and immigration bill is a top priority. The Senate can pass budget-related bills with a simple 50 majority vote via a process called reconciliation and is expected to do so to fund hardline immigration restrictions like mass deportations and construction of the border wall. In addition to the border funding package, House Republicans intend to reintroduce H.R. 2, Secure the Border Act, a bill that severely restricts asylum, restarts ‘Remain in Mexico,’ and requires family detention, among other provisions. President-elect Trump is also expected to sign several executive orders immediately following his inauguration on January 20, including one that will “seal the border.”
According to CBS News, apprehensions at the southern border are on pace to reach fewer than 50,000 in November 2024. The last time arrivals were this low was in the summer of 2020 after migration sharply dropped due to COVID-19. Since the presidential election, there has been no increase in arrivals at the southern border as anticipated, but caravans in southern Mexico continue to develop. At the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration officials continue to deny access to asylum, including to families fleeing violence in Mexico.
Ways to take action:
- Urge your members of Congress to protect funding for welcoming programs and reject any efforts to restrict asylum
Housing Update
At the close of November, President-elect Trump announced his nomination for Scott Turner to become the next secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Turner’s experience comes from the Texas state legislature, the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute (a new right-wing think tank), and the NFL. During his former administration, Trump’s track record supported cuts to HUD funds that would have impacted vulnerable populations accessing housing vouchers and other urgent resources. With regard to Project 2025 and potential shifts, the housing space could see bans to federally assisted housing who have undocumented family members, eliminate funding to boost affordable housing, and repeal rulings that prevent segregation.
Ways to take action:
- Continue to uplift the federal priorities for newcomers through crucial HUD programming and other housing funds to protect housing access and equity.
Unaccompanied Children Update
CWS, along with World Relief, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), hosted a Senate Congressional briefing concerning the urgent need to reunite Afghan children and parents who have been separated for years. Following the fall of Kabul in August 2021, thousands of unaccompanied Afghan children – children under 18 years of age who arrived without a parent or legal guardian – were evacuated to the U.S. while their family remained in Afghanistan. Many other children were left behind in Afghanistan after their parents were evacuated to the U.S. A majority of these children and parents are still waiting to be reunited with immediate family who were left overseas. That means many of them have been waiting more than three years to be reunited.
The briefing featured experts focusing on the importance of reuniting these children with their families. It also provided an overview of who separated Afghan children are and the challenges they face as they wait to be reunited with parents or legal guardians. It explored a brief history of why these children were separated, examples of the lives of these children three years after the evacuation, and how organizations like PANA, IRC, World Relief, and CWS support their well-being. Remarks included ways in which Congress can support the reunification of these families as well as how Congress can hold the administration accountable for reuniting these families.
Speakers asked Senators to Support the Reunification of these Children with their Families in these three specific ways:
- Pass the CARE Authorization Act
- Robustly fund the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) in upcoming funding bills or continuing resolutions
- Continue oversight of both the Biden and the Trump administration to ensure children and families get reunified.
Work Authorization Update
The Department of Homeland Security recently finalized a rule that will protect access to work authorization for many eligible immigrant workers. The rule is set to protect hundreds of thousands of people applying to renew their Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) who were at risk of losing their ability to participate in the formal economy because of severe backlogs and slow processing times at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
USCIS’s inability to renew EADs in a timely manner has placed many individuals’ with valid EADs at risk of losing their work authorization. In 2016, recognizing that it wasn’t able to process many renewal applications in time to prevent their expiration, USCIS established a policy of automatically extending the validity of work permits for 180 days beyond their official expiration date. Now, given the growing scale of current backlogs, a mere 180-day extension is not enough to prevent many workers from losing their work authorization. In response to the insufficiency of the 180-day extension, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now finalized a rule to permanently increase the automatic extension of eligibility from 180 to 540 days.
See Church World Service’s public comment in support of lengthening the automatic extension period.