Congress returns to Washington this week from a two week-long recess.  Upon its return, it will remain in session for seven weeks, next leaving town upon the close of business on Friday, May 28, 2010, when it is scheduled to begin its week-long Memorial Day recess.


The Next Seven Weeks
Much of Congress' legislative agenda over the the next seven weeks will be dominated by appropriations matters as it begins to accelerate its work on the 12 appropriations bills it must enact each year in order to keep the federal government operating.  Consequently, with a few exceptions, Congress' action on immigration and refugee legislative matters is likely to be limited to action on appropriations measures during this period.  Included in the 12 bills are four appropriations measures that traditionally appropriate funding for the federal government's immigration enforcement, border security, immigration service adjudication, refugee admissions, overseas refugee assistance, and refugee resettlement programs, agencies, and activities.


Prospects for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Of course, pro-immigrant advocates in Congress and pro-immigrant advocacy groups both inside and outside of Washington will continue during this period to press the White House and the Senate to take up comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation.  Nothwithstanding that pressure, however, at the time of this writing, it appears highly unlikely that there will be any significant movement on CIR between now and the beginning of the Memorial Day recess.  This is, in part, because the political atmosphere in Washington will not support a CIR legislative effort at this time, because appropriations matter are expected to become so dominant during this period, and because the committee that would have to produce a CIR bill will likely be emersed for much of the spring and summer in a confirmation battle on the nominee who President Obama selects to fill an mpending vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court.


Immigration Enforcement Controversies
On April 7, 2010, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force, wrote Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Morton  expressing astonishment, disappointment, and unequivacal condemnation of the Obama Administration's immigration enforcement policies and demanding a meeting with the two officials.   The Gutierrez letter came just one day after the Representative Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, declared in a radio interview that "there’s a lot of suspicion, a lot of doubt, a lot of concern" about the President's intentions and policies on immigration.  Representative Becerra went on tin the interview to say, "the president made a promise.  He hasn’t fulfilled that promise.  Rightfully, I think a lot of folks are questioning where the president’s priorities are." 

The Gutierrez letter and the Becerra comments capped what was a tumultous two weeks for the Department of Homeland Security's and the Obama Administration's immigration policies as it faced the harshest condemnations yet from the Washington-based pro-immigrant community.  On March 27, 2010 an article in The Washington Post revealed the existence of several ICE enforcement memos that appeared to set quotas for enforcement actions and fly in the face of Obama Administration proclamations that its enforcement activities would concentrate on the most dangerous illegal immigrants.  Shortly after the emergence of the ICE quota memos, the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report that was scathing in its criticism of the controversial 287(g) program that permits local and state law enforcement officers perform immigration enforcement functions, saying that it "observed instances in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement and participating law enforcement agencies were not operating in compliance with the terms of the agreements."   In reaction to the leaked memos and the OIG report, key Washington-based advocates launched a media campaign against the Obama Administration's enforcement policies, calling them "more rogue than right."  

Look for Representative Gutierrez this week to press Secretary Napolitano and Assistant Secretary Morton for a meeting. 


The Week Ahead in Immigration and Refugee Legislation
Congress' immigration and refugee legislative agenda for the week of April 12, 2010, includes two hearings, on immigation-related issues, one markup of a bill of consequence to refugees, and Senate floor action on one measure that could become the subject of immigration-related amendments.  In addition, two measures that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary approved prior to the onset of the Easter recess could come up at any time by unanimous consent on the Senate floor.

This week's potential congressional immigration- and refugee-related action includes:

• a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Department of Homeland Security's immigration enforcement and border enforcement operations along the southwest border of the United States, at which the Subcommittee will hear from and question Alan D. Bersin, Commissioner, Customs and Border Protection, (CBP) Department of Homeland Security; and John Morton, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);  

• a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on the operations of the Department of Justice, the parent agency of the Executive Office For Immigration Review (EOIR), at which the Committee expects to hear from and question Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.;
  

• a Senate Foreign Relations Committee markup, at which the Committee is expected to markup S. 2839, the Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act of 2009;
  

• Senate floor consideration of H.R. 4851, the Continuing Extension Act of 2010", which could become the target for one or more immigration-related amendments that might be offered to the measure;
  

• Possible Senate floor consideration (by unanimous consent) of S. 2960, the Refugee Opportunity Act, which was introduced in the Senate by Senate Judiciary Commitee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Republican Richard Lugar R-IN).  As approved by the Committee, S. 2960 would exempt aliens who have been admitted as refugees or granted asylum and are employed overseas by the Federal Government from the one-year-long physical presence requirement for adjustment of status to that of aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence; and

• Possible Senate floor consideration (by unanimous consent) of S. 2974, the "Return of Talent Act," which was introduced in the Senate by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Republican Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT).  As approved by the Committee, S. 2974 would establish a new program, called the "Return of Talent Program."  The new program would allow up to 1,000 aliens per year who are legally present in the United States to return temporarily to the country of their citizenship or nationality and have the time spent outside of the United States count toward towards the naturalization physical presence requirement.  In order to be eliigble for the program, an alien would have to be returning to a country that is engaged in post-conflict or natural disaster reconstruction, and the alien would have to be "making a material contribution to reconstruction efforts" in his or her country of citizenship or nationality.
   

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