Since 1983, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have submitted over 4,000 “private bills” as a last-ditch effort to spare an undocumented immigrant, oftentimes a constituent, from deportation. While only “about six percent of private immigration bills have become law since 1983,” notes the American Immigration Council, “immigration enforcement agencies typically do not deport” individuals while private bills are pending. And because some members have been able to reintroduce their bills in a new session of Congress, the practice has been able to spare some immigrants from deportation for years. That is, until now:
ICE announced this week that it would no longer issue stays of removal (temporary protection from deportation) for many individuals named in private immigration bills, claiming that these private bills are hampering their ability to deport people who fall under their new removal priorities.
Senators and Representatives are generally very careful about who they introduce a private bill for. Even Members who take a hardline stance on immigration have introduced private bills when they felt the individual was especially deserving and couldn’t get relief through current law. Immigrants with any criminal history are not eligible for relief under a private bill, according to the criteria agreed to by Congress.
There have been about 275 private immigration bills introduced since 2010, although some are for the same individuals and have been reintroduced several sessions in a row. None of the bills introduced in the last Congress received floor action or became law. There are currently 14 private immigration bills pending in the House.
According to the Washington Post, ICE “Acting Director Thomas Homan said the agency will only hold off deporting immigrants with legislation pending on their behalf for up to six months with the possibility of one 90-day extension. In addition, the agency said congressional leaders of the judiciary committees or key subcommittees must now formally ask authorities to delay carrying out deportations.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein—who after former Sen. Daniel Inouye has submitted the most “private bills” on behalf of immigrants—rebuked ICE in a joint statement with Sen. Dick Durbin:
“Children’s and families’ lives are on the line. Private immigration bills are a critical safety net that Democrats and Republicans alike have carefully used for a small number of the most critical cases. The department has now unilaterally changed that process without consulting Congress. This is a mean-spirited action that tramples firm, longstanding practice between two co-equal branches of government.”
With Republicans in Congress refusing as recently as 2013 to take up comprehensive immigration reform—despite the fact that legislation passed with bipartisan support in the Senate, and bipartisan votes existed in the House but John Boehner refused to take action—“private bills” have been a lifeline for a small number of undocumented immigrants. And, that’s most likely why an unshackled ICE wants to get rid of this practice ASAP. Despite Donald Trump’s claim that he is targeting only “bad hombres” for deportation, just about every undocumented immigrant here is on the radar of his deportation force. Immigrants like Flavia:
Originally from the Philippines, [Flavia Maboloc] Cahoon came to the U.S. on a fiancé visa, but immigration officials refused to give her a green card after she got married because they said she checked the wrong box on her visa application, Cahoon said.
She and her husband eventually divorced, and she met Albert Cahoon, 66, who has become the love of her life, she said. She and Cahoon married in September 1997 and together raised her daughter Jane, who is now in the Navy.
Because of the earlier issue with her visa application, Cahoon said, normal immigration channels would require her to return to the Philippines for 10 years before her husband could sponsor her green card. Private bills have kept her in the country since ICE tried to deport her in 2005, she said.
She pays taxes, has cared for many Americans as a nurse and has never used public benefits, even when she struggled financially in the years she was a single mother, she said.
"What are they going to gain that they're going to separate me from my husband, my daughter and now my granddaughter?" Cahoon said over the phone after she heard about the change in policy.