ACTIVIST TOOLKIT FOR 2024 HOMELAND SECURITY SPENDING BILL

In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced a spending bill that fails to address the border crisis and continues to allow the Biden Administration to refuse to enforce our immigration laws. The Senate appropriations bill ignores the fact that more than 8.6 million aliens have been encountered at our borders since January 2021, and that President Biden’s open-border policies are resulting in lives lost – to smugglers, drug traffickers, and criminal illegal aliens.

While the bill includes funding for border security technology (such as surveillance towers and tunnel detection capabilities) and a very small increase of 145 officers for the Border Patrol, it contains no money for wall construction and stronger physical barriers that are needed to deter mass illegal immigration. Given that many aliens are claiming asylum or obtaining parole, and being guided into the country by the Biden Administration, the bill lacks effective measures to end the crisis.

The Senate spending bill also severely lacks funding to detain people who enter the country illegally, resulting in the mass release of illegal aliens into the interior of the country. The Committee kept the number of detention beds at 34,000, above the President’s request of 25,000 beds, but falling short compared to previous Trump Administration levels of around 50,000. Today, the Biden Administration is only detaining around 31,000 illegal aliens.

The Committee also provided $14.1 million for the Case Management Pilot Program, an ineffective Alternative to Detention program that provides services to illegal aliens, including legal access programs, social services, health screenings, and cultural orientation programs. This program has received approximately $40 million dollars in recent years, but the Administration has not released data on enrollees, specific services they have obtained, and whether the aliens are checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or are compliant with court orders.

In addition, the Committee provided over $455 million for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which manages the legal immigration system. In doing so, it is using taxpayer dollars to fund an agency that has long been funded through fees on those who actually apply for the benefits. USCIS could cover its own costs as it has done in the past, but under this Administration, it has refused to increase fees to ensure it has sufficient operating funds – despite the sheer number of illegal aliens seeking work permits and other benefits. Now, USCIS has turned to Congress (and American taxpayers) to bail them out. This particular appropriation is intended to fund work permits and additional resources for asylum adjudications.

While the Senate spending bill is intended to fund homeland security operations, it also includes a provision related to one of our guest worker programs. Currently, the H-2B visa program allows 66,000 foreign workers per year to come to the U.S. temporarily to work in low-skilled, non-agricultural work. Under the Senate Appropriations bill, however, the annual cap could be increased with the Secretary’s consent, thus dramatically increasing the number of foreign workers who would be allowed to enter the United States under the program.

At the same time that Senate Democrats seek to increase the number of guest workers to fill American jobs, millions of new illegal aliens are pouring into the country and receiving work permits from the Biden Administration. One must ask Congress if inviting more foreign nationals to participate in these temporary low-skilled visa programs is in the national interest. It is inevitable that oversaturating low-skilled industries with such workers will depress wages and working conditions.

In the end, Senate appropriators failed to use the power of the purse to end, or even mitigate, the border crisis. The Senate spending bill fails to address the abuse of asylum and parole authority, and does nothing to end the shell game being played by the Biden Administration. Instead, through complete inaction they are allowing the status quo to continue at the expense of America’s sovereignty, security and safety.



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In June, the House Appropriations Committee considered and reported out their fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) beginning October 1, 2023.  The bill includes over $91.5 billion in funding for the department, which is $2 billion above the fiscal year 2023 level.

While the bill focuses heavily on border security and enforcement, which is detailed below, it also includes provisions that are detrimental to American workers. Specifically, the appropriations bill includes two legislative provisions related to temporary foreign workers.

First, it amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt “returning workers” in the H-2B program for FY24. The H-2B visa allows foreign workers to come temporarily to work in non-agricultural industry or seasonal work. Such “returning workers” would be exempt from the annual numerical cap of 66,000, thus increasing the number of foreign workers who enter the United States under the program.

Second, it allows for a change in the H-2A program, which was created to allow foreign nationals to work in certain agricultural or seasonal jobs on a temporary basis. The visa program does not have a numerical cap. The appropriations bill turns the program on its head in FY24 to allow workers to enter to work “without regard to whether such labor is, or services are, of a temporary or seasonal nature.”  Thus, the H-2A visa could essentially be used by any employer, providing foreign nationals with an open-market work permit, and flooding the U.S. economy with those workers.

Aside from these provisions, the Committee detailed its priorities, notably resources for border security, including technology and pay to support the Border Patrol. The bill includes significant increases for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), enhancing its ability to detain and remove illegal aliens, and prohibiting the agency from enforcing Secretary Mayorkas’ prosecutorial discretion directives to limit enforcement actions.

More specifically, the bill does the following:

• Provides over $2 billion for construction of a physical wall along the southern border;
• Increases funding to support a record high of 22,000 Border Patrol agents;
• Restores funding for border security technology, including for towers, aerostats, counter drones and new innovative technology;
• Funds ICE’s ability to detain up to 41,000 aliens on a given day (up from 25,000) and provides over $3.5 billion for custody operations;
• Prohibits funding to be used for ICE detainees for gender-affirming care and the facilitation of abortions;
• Restores pay cuts to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and provides $44 million for workforce care and suicide prevention programs;
• Prohibits funding for the CBP One mobile application that is facilitating the entry of illegal aliens at the border today;
• Instructs ICE to continue to utilize the 287(g) program to allow state and local law enforcement to help in enforcing our immigration laws;
• Prohibits funding to be used for “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) programs unless the Secretary certifies to Congress that there is insufficient detention capacity;
• Prohibits the Administration from implementing a Biden rule to allow asylum officers to make final asylum determinations; and
• Eliminates the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman.

The Committee noted that it has rejected several items from previous bills and the President’s budget proposal, including a Joint Processing Center for migrants and funds to bail out U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and reduce application backlogs.  The Committee also rejected funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to carry out programs that do not electronically monitor illegal aliens in the country but rather provide aliens with social services and referrals for benefits and legal services.

The appropriations bill includes a provision that would require DHS to deny or terminate an alien’s work authorization if his or her application for asylum has been denied, or if the alien has been convicted of a crime while the asylum application is pending.

Regrettably, while the appropriations bill includes funding to address our dire border crisis, the Committee’s bill falls short in protecting American workers and preventing foreign nationals from obtaining work authorizations, especially at a time when our country’s workforce is competing against a mass influx of foreign workers who entered the country illegally.



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General H-2 Points

• The funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security includes two harmful provisions that would bring in more unskilled guest workers.

• The Fiscal Year 2024 Homeland Security Appropriations bill would undermine the temporariness of our guestworker programs and would expand the scope of industries that are eligible to participate. These programs should only be used when not enough U.S. workers can be found.

• The two problematic provisions in the bill would:

  • Dramatically expand the types of jobs low-skilled agricultural guest workers can perform in FY24 by allowing an unlimited number of H-2A visa holders to enter and work in year-round agricultural jobs, not seasonal or temporary agricultural jobs as under current law.

  • Dramatically expand the number of unskilled guest workers permitted through the H-2B program (which covers all labor sectors), by exempting “returning workers” from the annual numerical limit for the program in FY24.

• These two provisions – on their own – are harmful to American workers. But, combined with the mass illegal immigration surge at the border, they can inflict long-term damage to our labor force.

• Over the past two years, more than 8.6 million illegal aliens have poured across our southern border, and many have received work authorization through parole or simply by filing asylum applications.

• According to a May 18, 2023 report on labor force characteristics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), foreign-born workers accounted for 18.1 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2022.

  • 2022 was a record-breaking year for foreign-born workers, their participation was the most in 27 years.

  • Foreign-born men continued to participate in the labor force at a considerably higher rate in 2022 (77.4 percent) than their native-born counterparts (66.0 percent).

• According to BLS statistics, over 1.2 million native-born Americans lost jobs from July to August 2023. However, over the same period, nearly 700,000 new jobs went to foreign-born workers and boosted foreign-born employment to a record high.

• The federal government currently has a caseload of 1.5 MILLION pending applications for work authorization.  Many, if not most of those, will be from illegal aliens eligible for work authorization through the Biden Administration’s outrageous and damaging immigration policies.

• Bringing in more guest workers on top of these illegal aliens will oversaturate the American economy with unskilled guest workers. The result will be depressed wages and working conditions, which only makes it harder for American workers to remain in those jobs.

• The Biden Administration’s open-border policies have created a crisis at our borders. Our country’s workforce is competing against a mass influx of unskilled foreign workers who entered the country illegally but have received work authorization through parole or by filing asylum applications.

• Rapidly processing more foreign workers into the U.S is not a solution; it only perpetuates a cycle that depresses wages and makes it harder for American workers to survive in those sectors.

H-2A Points

• Despite the fact that the H-2A program is numerically uncapped, the American farm lobby continues to complain about the lack of workers in the U.S. Some complain that the using the program is a burden, thus bypass it entirely in favor of simply hiring illegal aliens who are readily available.

• Agriculture is a unique industry in which foreign-born workers outnumber American workers, primarily because the utilization of H-2A workers (and illegal aliens) pushes down wages and discourages Americans from taking those jobs.

• Agriculture companies and employers continuously call for the H-2A visa to cover more and more industries – such as dairy or sheepherding – which are not seasonal or temporary.

• As more and more industries fall under the umbrella of the H-2A due to creative lobbying from their powerful trade groups, fewer Americans will find work in these industries.

• The reliance on unlimited guestworker programs and illegal aliens prevents American agriculture from developing and adopting labor-saving automation technology that reduces the need for foreign labor.

• This mechanization would lower the cost of produce for American consumers, provide more innovation opportunities for American STEM workers, and ensure that American farming is fully taking advantage of 21st century technology rather than antiquated harvesting practices.

• The H-2A program is a program with no real purpose in a 21st century economy and should be ended. It prevents American farms from adopting labor-saving technology already widely used by farmers throughout Europe and Asia. Worse, it exploits the farmworkers who sign up for the program and exposes them to horrific working conditions by unscrupulous employers who take advantage of them.

• Congress and the President must work together to end this exploitative program and develop creative ways to encourage the adoption of 21st century farming technology.

H-2B Points

• Congress has capped the H-2B program at 66,000 workers per year. Recently, however, under authorization and pressure from Congress, the DHS Secretary has increased the annual cap for the program by tens of thousands of workers.

• Employers frequently hire H-2B workers at wages significantly lower than Americans in the same fields. Both the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Immigration Studies found that H-2B workers routinely earn less than Americans. In some cases, H- 2B workers earned 18 to 23 percent less than Americans in the same roles.

• The H-2B program was meant to be temporary in nature, and only when insufficient U.S. workers were available. Yet foreign workers routinely take jobs at hotels, resorts and in construction and landscaping.  According to DHS, H-2B workers are also employed as dental assistants, camp cooks, carpenters, electricians, and bakers.

• The same nationalities that make up 90 percent of H-2B workers are also the same nationalities that have been illegally crossing the southern border. The top five H-2B visa issuance countries in FY 2022 were:

  • Mexico – 67.8 percent
  • Jamaica – 10.3 percent
  • Guatemala – 5.0 percent
  • Honduras – 3.6 percent
  • El Salvador– 3.4 percent

• Instead of hiring full-time Americans to work in these roles, employers routinely abuse the H-2B program to save money and bypass government red tape. Subsequently, employers whose needs are truly temporary (such as fish cutters, etc.) lose out on capped H-2B workers, defeating the purpose of the program to match temporary labor with those businesses.

• The H-2B program displaces large swaths of Americans willing to take advantage of entry-level, seasonal jobs, such as students on summer break or those who have recently lost their jobs and urgently need stop-gap employment.

• The H-2B program (coupled with the presence of unskilled illegal aliens) depresses wages and reduces opportunities for fellow citizens who benefit most from a tight labor market – and for whom employment brings about immeasurable societal benefits.

• Wages paid to H-2B workers should never be lower than they are for American workers the prevailing wage estimates for the program must be reviewed.

• Landscapers and custodial groups do not need a guestworker program when there are businesses that are legitimately operating on a temporary basis in need of labor.

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