Migrants, Boricuas, & Trans Folk (oh my!)
Good morning! Welcome to the first edition of Capitol Press, a Latino newsletter on Congress delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when Congress is in session.
Today we look at policies bubbling up the House and Senate that target migrants, reshape Puerto Rico, and criminalize healthcare for trans folk. Let's dive right in...
MIGRANTS
Credible fear, a highly subjective legal term at the heart of adjudicating asylum claims, became negotiation fodder on Capitol Hill soon after Politico reporters Ursula Peruano and Myah Ward broke the news last Thursday that the White House was “preparing Democratic lawmakers and immigration policy advocates for the likelihood the administration will have to swallow compromises on asylum law in order for the president’s national security funding request to pass.”
TRANSLATION: President Joe Biden might just be open to sacrifice migrants — specifically, asylum seekers — if it’ll convince Republicans to support funding the Ukrainian military in its war against the invading army of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The White House effectively shot down its test balloon with a Monday press statement from Biden’s new immigration spokesperson, Angelo Fernández Hernández.
“If Republicans want to have a serious conversation about reforms that will improve our immigration system, we are open to a discussion. We disagree with many of the policies contained in the new Senate Republican border proposal. Further, we do not see anything in their proposal about creating an earned path to citizenship for Dreamers and others,” said Fernández Hernández, a Boricua recently promoted from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to replace Abdullah Hasan, who left to attend law school at Georgetown University.
TRANSLATION: Significant migrant relief concessions are required to bring Biden to the table on H.R. 2, known as the Secure the Border Act, a far-right fever dream of codified xenophobia and false promises about “a secure border.” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has hyped H.R. 2 like a carnival barker in the lower chamber. This past week, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) rewarded Roy’s tenacity by proposing that elements of H.R. 2 be a condition of funding Biden’s supplemental aid to the Ukrainian military.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas repeated the White House’s support for a “comprehensive” migrant policy package in his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
TRANSLATION: Biden won’t trade essential asylum rights for the military aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy without substantial relief provisions on the table.
“Making Ukraine funding conditional on the hard-right border policies that can’t ever pass Congress is a huge mistake by our Republican colleagues,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday. “By tying Ukraine to the border, Republicans are sadly making it harder, much harder, for us to help Ukraine in their fight against Putin.”
Schumer’s words didn’t stop speculation that lawmakers could somehow pull off a miracle by forging a bipartisan deal at the very last minute on arguably the most contentious domestic policy issue of our time.
CBS News reported Friday night that a bipartisan group of five senators — Michael Bennet (D-CO), Lankford, Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) — had promised to work through the weekend to find a compromise.
This smells like bullshit. Long weekends are a privilege senators don’t give up lightly, especially not for last-minute Hail Harys on a lost policy cause.
Republicans oppose funding the Ukrainian military not as a negotiating tactic to extract policy concessions from Democrats, but because they no longer give a fuck about Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has thrice visited the Capitol this year to make his pitch in person. On his first visit he was received with bipartisan standing ovations. The last time, few seemed to notice he was even there.
Republicans don’t care about Ukraine, and even an opportunity to further destroy asylum rights under Biden isn’t going to change the GOP hivemind on that one.
PUERTO RICO
The Puerto Rico Status Act was reintroduced in the upper chamber on Wednesday by Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, co-led by fellow Democrats Alex Padilla (CA) and Catherine Cortez Masto (NV).
The bill passed the House in the last Congress, shepherded by then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) who helped broker a compromise between competing priorities among Boricua Democrats. Senate Democrats never took up the bill, and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) didn’t bring to the House floor until late in the term.
The new speaker, Mike Johnson (R-LA), is unlikely to bring the Puerto Rico Status Act to the floor during his speakership, however brief it may be. It could conceivably see floor time in the Senate but only very symbolically sometime late in the term.
The legislative centerpiece of the Puerto Rico Status Act is that it calls for a non-binding referendum on the island’s future relationship with the United States. The choices are independence, statehood, or free association with the United States, options about which there is nothing resembling a consensus.
Dig Deeper: Here is our extensive Latino Rebels coverage of the Puerto Rico Status Act of 2022. Send us your questions!
Editor’s Note: Boricua news has been hard to come by in the 118th Congress, a striking departure from the last term when the island territory of the United States was a top priority for then-House Natural Resources chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who facilitated the months of negotiations around the Puerto Rico Status Act.
If you’ve got a news tip or story to tell at the intersection of Puerto Rico and Congress, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at editor@capitol.press.
TRANS FOLK
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wants a floor vote on the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, her mean-spirited, deceptively named bill that in effect would place a national ban on gender-affirming health care in the United States.
“I have a bill that would stop transgender surgeries on children,” Greene told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on October 8. “That bill has been sitting in the judiciary committee for quite some time now and I would like to see it marked up and taken to the floor for a vote. So that’s an issue I’m pushing.”
As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, a far-right Republican from Ohio, is responsible for setting the committee’s priorities and deciding its schedule.. We asked Jordan during his failed campaign for House speaker last month if Greene had made her support for his candidacy conditional on his moving her anti-trans bill to the floor. "I don't get into conversations between my colleagues," said Jordan at the time.
Greene’s bill seeks to frame the availability of gender-affirming health care as a child safety issue. But don’t be fooled: The legislation explicitly targets adult health care as well.
If enacted, the bill would prohibit any government facility or physician employed by the government to administer gender-affirming care to anyone, regardless of age. It would also prohibit Congress from authorizing funds for gender-affirming care, even in the health care plans of government employees. Lastly, it would make it illegal to teach gender-affirming care in U.S. medical schools.
“The targeting of LGBT and trans communities specifically has been extremely concerning,” said Rep, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told me in January when I asked her about Greene’s’s bill. “It’s something we’re going to have to figure out and use every opportunity that we have in order to defend these folks.”
Troubling Data Point: The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention among queer folk, found that over half of transgender youth had considered suicide in 2020.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) echoed AOC.“They can’t do it alone,” he said of defending trans people. “It has to be all of us. Like with any marginalized community, you can’t just leave it up to that community. It has to be every single one of us pushing back every single day.”
Anti-trans policies get scant coverage from the Beltway newsrooms. Capitol Press aims to fill the void by following up with Jordan, Greene, and other lawmakers pushing sweeping, national policies to undermine trans rights.
Editor’s Note: Transphobia is a news beat Capitol Press is eager to cover, but we could really use your help. Got a story to tell? Email us at editor@capitol.press. We will protect your anonymity as requested.
News Clips
Two Young Latino Democrats Collide Over Israel — by Nicholas Fandos for NYTimes
Supporters Try to Rekindle Puerto Rican Status Change — Rafael Bernal for The Hill
Byron Donalds Leads Bipartisan Effort to Rename House Press Gallery for Frederick Douglass — Kadia Goba for Semafor
James Comer Paid His Brother $200k — by Roger Sollenberger for Daily Beast