Church World Service Policy Update August 2024


August 27, 2024

Tools and Resources to Take Action

Civic Engagement and Get Out the Vote

August Recess Congressional Advocacy

  • Use this brief guide detailing what you can do to advance welcoming policies this August.
    • See the latest policy asks that you can use to shape your message and the template email you can use to reach out to your Members of Congress.

Unaccompanied Children

  • Reach out to the Unaccompanied Children Ombuds Office. Anyone can contact the Ombuds Office, including unaccompanied children, sponsors, stakeholders, or other interested parties. There are currently two ways to contact UC Ombuds Office: 

Housing

  • Take action: Call on Congress to commit to maintaining and expanding funding for housing programs that are inclusionary of all individuals, especially refugees and newcomers!
  • Learn more: See CWS’s housing funding priorities for Fiscal Year 2025.

The Election and Civic Engagement

At the time of this writing, the election is just 71 days away (and early voting starts less than a month from now in some states). In five key states, the number of new U.S. citizen voters is greater than the number of votes that constituted the presidential margin of victory in 2020, meaning that New American voters have the power to decide the next president of the United States.

August Recess

We’re in the midst of the August recess, when members of Congress return to their home districts and states for a prolonged recess, often holding town halls and making themselves available to constituents. With elections looming, members of Congress tend to be especially keen to hear from potential voters. Many have been active throughout the month holding town halls and events. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives will be in recess until Monday, September 9.

Asylum and Border Policy

According to an August 16th data release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in July, the number of people CBP apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border fell to its lowest level since September 2020. In June, the Biden administration enacted an extreme rule that almost completely closes off access to asylum protections for many arriving at the U.S. southern border if arrivals reach a certain threshold. The administration quickly took credit for the decline, though there are likely a number of factors contributing to the falling number of people arriving at the border. Historically, border arrivals fall in the hottest months of the summer. Additionally, it is common for border crossings to decrease temporarily after major changes to U.S. policy as individuals assess the initial impact of new policies.

Additionally, the Biden administration has been moving aggressively to externalize the border, which may be deflating the number of displaced people who ultimately reach the United States. In July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced a deal between the United States and Panama in which the U.S. committed $6 million to the government of Panama to cover the costs of flights to remove people migrating through Panama. The first U.S.-financed deportation flight removed 29 Colombians on August 20th, and additional flights to Colombia, Ecuador, India, and China are set to take place in the coming weeks. The U.S. and Costa Rica are also purportedly considering a similar deal, and with pressure from the United States, Mexican migration officials have continued to foreground enforcement in their approach to migration.

Unaccompanied Children Updates

On July 1, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) published the Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule. The rule is a set of regulations and guidelines that codify standards for the placement, care, and services for unaccompanied minors, who remain in Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement’s (ORR) care and custody until they are placed in community with a sponsor, largely a family member. The rule also established the Unaccompanied Children Ombuds Office. 

The Unaccompanied Children Ombuds Office is independent and impartial to ORR. The Ombuds Office has the authority to receive reports concerning care and custody of unaccompanied children, investigate such reports, work collaboratively with ORR to address such issues, and draft reports concerning those efforts. As ORR sets up that office, they will stay in communication with stakeholders, including holding stakeholder listening sessions.

After the rule was published, the government asked the courts to allow this rule and the codified protections in it to replace the Flores Settlement Agreement portions that relate to protections for children in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The rule would leave in place Flores protections for children while they are in the care of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Unfortunately, a federal judge ruled to allow the government to partially terminate the Flores agreement as it relates to HHS and replace it with the Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule. 

In response to the rule going into effect CWS put out the following statement applauding many aspects of the rule. The rule implements many portions of the Flores Settlement and strengthens others. 

However, CWS also warned that “the government’s decision to terminate the aspects of the Flores Settlement Agreement that relate to the care of children in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and to replace them with this rule leaves critical gaps in oversight, transparency, and accountability for services rendered to unaccompanied minors. The government should be strengthening the tools it has available, including the new Ombuds Office, ensuring they have sufficient authority and independence to provide oversight and accountability for safe conditions of unaccompanied children in government care. Until satisfactory solutions are in place for issues of oversight and accountability, aspects of the Flores agreement that relate to HHS should remain intact.”

While these latest updates on the Ombuds Office are certainly a step in the right direction, CWS will continue to monitor how ORR keeps closing these critical gaps in oversight, transparency, and accountability. 

Housing Updates

CWS continues to urge Congress to robustly fund programs such as Housing Counseling Assistance, Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity programming, and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which can have an especially significant impact on housing access for refugees and other newcomers. To learn more about the HUD programs for which people of varying immigration backgrounds and statuses are eligible, see this resource from Refugee Housing Solutions.

Appropriations Update

The new fiscal year begins on October 1st. With the looming November elections creating uncertainty about the office of the president and the composition of Congress, it is highly unlikely that Congress will pass each of the twelve appropriations bills that make up the federal budget before the deadline of midnight on September 30th. To avoid a government shutdown in absence of a finalized budget for Fiscal Year 2025, Congress is expected to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR). A CR maintains Fiscal Year 2024 funding levels for a short period, giving Congress additional time to pass the final budget.

Should Congress pass a CR, it can include additional funding or authorization language exogenous to the prior fiscal year’s budget in the form of “anomalies.” The following funding and authorization language should be included as anomalies to the CR:

  • Language to restore access to certain ORR and mainstream benefits for arriving Afghans and extend benefits reauthorization for arriving Ukrainians through September 30th, 2025.
  • An additional $2.9 billion for the Refugee and Entrant Assistance (REA) account, which funds the Office of Refugee Resettlement, supporting communities around the country providing core services to certain forcibly displaced newcomers. In its FY 2025 bill, the Senate Labor Health and Human Services subcommittee allocated $2.9 billion fewer dollars for REA than the $9.3 billion that the administration requested for the account in the President’s Budget Request. The subcommittee itself even noted its decision to underfund the account in its report on the bill.
  • A $200 million allocation for the office of the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE), which supports the evacuation and relocation of certain Afghans at risk of facing violence from the Taliban.

Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela (CHNV) Parole Program Pause

The Biden administration has temporarily paused a private sponsorship parole program that has allowed certain Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans to access temporary protections in the U.S. The pause is due to an internal investigation of potential fraud in sponsor applications. The investigation is focused on sponsor applicants, not beneficiaries receiving parole through the program. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate found approximately 6% of applications from potential sponsors were found to have duplicate or otherwise recurring information (i.e., one sponsor applying for multiple different beneficiaries). DHS has been screening applications to protect against this form of fraud, and there is no evidence that any of the fraudulent applications have resulted in a beneficiary arriving in the U.S. In fact, only 24% of all applications have made it through the screening stage.

In a statement, DHS noted the pause was due to an “abundance of caution” and made clear there are no identified concerns in the screening and vetting process for CHNV entrants, which is separate from the screening of U.S.-based supporter applications: “DHS has not identified issues of concern relating to the screening and vetting of beneficiaries.”

Background on the CHNV Parole Program

Nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) or their immediate family members who hold a valid passport and have a sponsor in the U.S. who has agreed to provide financial and resettlement assistance are eligible to apply for a two year period of parole, or temporary protection in the U.S. Parolees receive work authorization and protection from deportation for the duration of their parole. Beneficiaries must travel to the U.S. via commercial air at their own expense and must pass extensive vetting and screening procedures. Sponsors for the program must hold lawful status in the U.S., demonstrate proof of financial capability to support those whom they sponsor, and pass security and background vetting designed to recognize human trafficking and exploitation risks. The program has welcomed approximately 30,000 individuals a month since it launched in early 2023.

Work Authorization Update

Access to work authorization is an important aspect of economic self-sufficiency and community integration for arriving asylum seekers and other newcomers. Severe processing backlogs within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have led to significant delays in access to work authorization for both new applicants and those seeking to renew existing work permits. Many individuals with valid Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) are at risk of losing their eligibility for work authorization due to USCIS’s inability to renew their EADs in a timely manner. To prevent eligible workers from losing their authorization to work due to backlogs, USCIS automatically extends the validity of work permits for 180 days beyond their official expiration date. Given the significant scale of current backlogs, a mere 180-day extension of eligibility is not enough to prevent many workers from losing their eligibility to participate in the formal workforce. In response to the insufficiency of the 180-day extension, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a temporary final rule lengthening the automatic extension of eligibility for applications filed between October 27th, 2023 and September 30th, 2025 from 180 to 540 days.