Interior Enforcement

The Republican Study Committee's budget proposal for FY2020 suggests reducing low-skilled immigration, requiring all businesses to use E-Verify, and increasing both border and interior enforcement. The budget outline provides a starting point for House GOP lawmakers considering the committee is comprised of 140 Republican House Members, or more than 70% of the caucus.

The National ICE Council endorsed a resolution introduced by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) that would express Senate opposition to the targeted harassment of ICE officers and employees.

The House of Representatives passed Rep. Clay Higgins’ (R-La.) H.Res. 990 today, expressing its support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. The House Resolution passed with a 244-to 35-vote, winning support from most House Republicans, while most House Democrats voted "Present".

Despite a swath of protests across the country, the majority of registered voters support keeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement according to a new poll conducted by Politico and Morning Consult. The poll found that 54% of registered voters support keeping ICE, while only 25% support getting rid of ICE.

Six Georgia counties have recently signed 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today, bringing the total number of agreements to 66.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested arrested 97 suspected illegal-alien workers last Thursday, in the largest workplace raid in a decade, at a cattle-slaughter facility in northeast Tennessee just outside Knoxville. The agency worked with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to execute a federal criminal search warrant of the facility.

Pres. Trump urged Congressional Leadership to block funds from going to jurisdictions operating under sanctuary policies, specifically calling out city officials in California, New York, Denver, and Colorado, for their repeated refusal to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Justice Dept. filed a lawsuit against the state of California yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Eastern California, requesting that the court issue a state-wide preliminary injunction to block enforcement of sanctuary policies the state passed last year, allegedly obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law. The sanctuary policies include HB 450, SB 54, and AB 103.

ICE agents arrested 21 people after raiding some 98 7-Eleven convenience stores in 17 states early Wednesday morning. The agents gave the franchise owners and managers three days to produce documentation of their employees’ immigration statuses.

Border apprehension statistics hit a 45-year low in FY2017 according to an annual report released by the Department of Homeland Security. Border agents apprehended 310,531 foreign nationals attempting to illegally cross the border compared to more than 415,000 over the same period the year before.

Today, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke announced that they will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) status for Haitians. The immigrants protected under this status will have 18 months to make arrangements to leave the U.S. and head back to their home country.

According to the State Department only 1,242 refugees were admitted into the U.S. in October 2017 compared to the 9,945 admitted in Oct. 2016 under the Obama administration. This 87% decline can be contributed to Pres. Trump’s executive order for tougher vetting procedures for refugees and capping the number of refugees to 45,000 for the fiscal year.

Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas) Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 3711) which would require all businesses to use E-Verify within two years. This bill would fulfill NumberUSA’s top enforcement priority.

This week the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) upheld the Dept. of Labor’s (DOL) decision to deny DDM Hauler Inc.’s request for seasonal H-2B workers. The DOL claims that the employer did not show proof that they had tried to hire American workers first by placing ads in the local newspapers as required.

Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation that the agency will increase worksite immigration enforcement in the coming months. He said this is an effort to reduce illegal immigration by eliminating the jobs magnet.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB54 into law on Thursday, which places limitations on California’s state and local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws and cooperating with ICE. The sanctuary state bill will take effect starting Jan. 1, 2018.

Last night the Trump administration submitted its report to Congress that will set the refugee cap for FY 2018 to 45,000, a drastic decline from the 85,000 Pres. Obama set in FY16. Under the Refugee Act of 1980 the president has the power to set the refugee admissions cap and this is the lowest cap since the program began in 1975.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) supports Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas) Legal Workforce Act, which would require all employers to use E-Verify within two years. The bill would fulfill NumbersUSA's top enforcement priority by eliminating the jobs magnet for illegal aliens.

The Evangelicals for Biblical Immigration (EBI) sent a letter to Pres. Trump and GOP leadership advising them that they believe the Bible does not support open border ideals or should be used to support amnesty programs such as DACA. This letter comes as the Trump administration is finalizing their plan to end Pres. Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said yesterday that Texas and the nine other states will not delay the Sept. 5 deadline for Pres. Trump to end DACA. If the administration continues to issue work permits under DACA the 10 states will amend their current DAPA case to include DACA.

Bucking a federal effort to crack down on illegal-alien sanctuary policies, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) this week signed SB 31, a bill that makes it more difficult for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick up criminal aliens for deportation. Commenting on the new law, a Justice Department official told Fox News, "(W)hen cities and states refuse to help enforce immigration laws, our nation is less safe…Failure to deport aliens who are convicted for criminal offenses puts whole communities at risk — especially immigrant communities in the very sanctuary jurisdictions that seek to protect the perpetrators."

DHS and the State Department have confirmed that they have issued visa sanctions against four countries that have refused accept back their foreign nationals that have been ordered deported from the U.S. The administration declined to name the four recalcitrant countries but sources claim they are Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.