Update on Religious Visa Program Legislation (S.3606) to extend the non-ministerial provisions of the Special Immigrant Religious program to March 6, 2009 passed Congress and was enacted by the President. The extension is contingent on final religious worker regulations being issued and in effect within 30 days after enactment of the law.

Human Trafficking Conference: The Episcopal Church participated on the Ecumenical Conference on Human Trafficking organized by the National Council of Churches in NYC. :Please see http://www.ncccusa.org/news/081001traffickingconference.html for the NCC news release on the conference.
http://www.ncccusa.org/news/081001traffickingconference.html
More Info: http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=2072519&ct=6059617
http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=1723955&ct=6059571
You can also download our fact sheet on human trafficking here: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/EPPN_Fact_Sheet_-_Human_Trafficking.pdf

TPS notice:
- Notice of TPS extension until September 9, 2010 for El Salvadorans at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/link.cfm?10913
- Notice of TPS extension until July 5, 2010 for Hondurans at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/link.cfm?10914
- Notice of TPS extension until July 5, 2010 for Nicaraguans at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/link.cfm?10915
- Notice of TPS extension until May 2, 2010 for Sudanese at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/link.cfm?10916
- Notice of TPS extension until September 17, 2009 for Somalis at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/link.cfm?10917
- Notice reminding TPS applicants of correct form at http://www.immigrationadvocates.org/link.cfm?10918

RCUSA Letter on material support: A year after the first letter RCUSA sent a new letter to Ambassador Michael Kozak to request to the Administration to fix the problems that remain in adjudicating cases barred by the terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds of the immigration law.  To date, many of these problems remain unresolved, despite repeated promises from government officials that progress was imminent.  Our concerns include: Review of additional Tier I and Tier II groups for purposes of duress exemptions, Tier III cases, and the Implementation of procedures for issuing exemptions to individuals in removal proceeding.

Letter to PRM on Iraqi refugees: The Refugee Council USA sent a letter to PRM to congratulate them for reaching the intended target of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees into the U.S. in FY2008.  RCUSA expressed concern about this population and the believed that the U.S. has a historic and moral responsibility to protect Iraqi refugees. RCUSA also noted that UNHCR has identified 80,000 Iraqi refugees in need of resettlement in 2009. The letter express that while we appreciate the U.S.’s stated target to admit 17,000 in the next fiscal year, we hope that the level of Iraqi admissions will far exceed this goal and follow the U.S. tradition of showing strong leadership by taking at least half of UNHCR’s referrals.
 
The presidential campaign and immigration: The Episcopal Church signed on a letter that was sent to CBS in advance of the final Presidential debate urging them to address the issue of immigration in the final presidential debate. Unfortunately, the final debate passed without any mention of immigration issues.   

Legislative Updates:

- CR FISCAL 2009: President Bush signed into law the fiscal 2009 stopgap continuing resolution that will fund most of the government until early next year, after his presidency ends.  The measure (HR 2638) funds 12 of the 15 cabinet-level departments and scores of federal agencies through March 6 at their fiscal 2008 levels, with some individual increases being provided for just a few specific programs and activities within those departments and agencies. The CR was necessary because Congress this year failed to individually pass any of its 12 regular spending bills — although packaged into the CR is a “minibus” of three full-year spending bills for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs. Also included in the package is $22.9 billion for disaster relief activities, $7.5 billion to support up to $25 billion in loans to the auto industry to help U.S. automakers retool and develop more fuel-efficient vehicles, and $5.1 billion for home energy assistance for low-income families. Discretionary funding for the three security-related bills for fiscal 2009 totals about $600 billion. All the other federal departments and agencies were funded at an annual rate in fiscal 2008 of almost $347 billion.
One of the few agencies that were funded for the full year, however, was the Department of Homeland Security, which got $40 billion for its budget in the year beginning October 1 (an increase of $6 billion from the previous year).  Some of the immigration-related spending in that budget includes:

• An increase in the budget for ICE of $254 million, for a total of $5 billion.  This includes an additional $71 million for 1,400 additional detention beds, bringing the total to 33,400.  The total for detention and removal operations is nearly $2.5 billion. $5.4 million is allocated for the 287(g) program (training local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws).
• Customs and Border Protection gets $7.6 billion, including funding for 4,361 new hires.
• Appropriated funds for USCIS total $101.7 million, but $100 million of that is for the E-verify electronic worker verification program.  (Most of the budget for USCIS comes from fees paid by applicants for immigration benefits, not Congressional appropriations.)

- SSI Extension For Refugees Signed Into Law: Refugees and other humanitarian immigrants whose Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits were available only during a seven-year time period, may receive SSI for at least two additional years.  Under a new law effective today, October 1, 2008, humanitarian immigrants whose SSI was cut off or who were denied SSI due to the expiration of this time period should contact the Social Security Administration (SSA) immediately to apply for the extension.  The new law provides a third year of benefits for humanitarian immigrants who have a naturalization application pending at the end of the two-year extension.  The extensions of SSI eligibility expire in the year 2011 under a sunset provision in H.R. 2608.

-Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act: Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard introduced H.R. 7255, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act. The Episcopal Church with other organizations signed on a letter on support of this bill. This bill is aimed at reining in some of the abuses of immigrants jailed by the Department of Homeland Security and its subcontractors.  It would improve ICE’s detention standards by legislating some of them and subjecting others to formal rulemaking. (The standards do not currently exist in legislation or regulation.)  It would also expand alternatives to detention and provide for better treatment for unaccompanied minors.

Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act: Senators Menendez and Kennedy also introduced a bill to reign in some of ICE’s abuses during raids and in detention that have come to light in the press and in Congressional hearings.  S. 3594, the Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Raids and Detention Act, would offer protections against unlawful detention of U.S. citizens and permanent residents; place a number of requirements on ICE in carrying out immigration raids; place restraints on ICE regarding the removal of immigrants caught in a raid at sites where there is a labor dispute or violations of labor law; offer protections for certain vulnerable individuals caught in a raid; and create an ICE Ombudsman office. The Episcopal Church has been actively involved in advocacy efforts in relation to this bill.

Positive measures enacted this year (from the Forum)
Yeah, there were some.  Among them:

• S. 3606, the Special Immigrant Non-minister Religious Worker Program Act, extends the Religious Worker Program through March 6, 2009. 
• H.R. 5571 extends for five years a program that allows for a waiver of the two year foreign-residence requirement (after graduating) for eligible physicians, if they are coming to work in a medically underserved area. 
• S. 2840 establishes a timeframe on citizenship applications filed by members of the armed forces and their dependents and will smooth the naturalization process for some members of the military and their spouses by setting up a liaison between the FBI and USCIS to expedite communications between the two agencies.
• H.R. 5501, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act, included a provision that repealed the statutory ban on entry for HIV-positive tourists and immigrants.  It will now be up to the Department of Health and Human Services to determine whether HIV infection is a “communicable disease of public health significance,” that would lead to a bar to admission for persons with HIV.