Congress Passes $2 Trillion Stimulus to Fight Coronavirus

By Preston Huennekens | FAIR Take | March 2020

The House of Representatives passed the Senate’s $2 trillion stimulus package on Friday, sending the largest emergency spending bill in history to President Trump for his signature. A marathon three-way negotiation between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, resulting in a 880 page bill meant to bolster the American economy as it grapples with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Multiple versions of text arose throughout the week, and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives even introduced its own 1,000+ page bill that included numerous immigration-related poison pills. Alarmingly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) bill included $1 billion in potential grant funding for sanctuary cities, restrictions on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unrelated to the virus, and automatic work reauthorizations for all aliens whose work permits or visas expire, including reauthorizations for DACA status. This bill was not a serious attempt at legislation, but rather served as a messaging bill to influence the Senate’s legislation.

Other members made more radical demands in public. Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) and six other House Democrats send a letter to Pelosi asking that the she include a permanent DACA amnesty as part of any coronavirus deal. The Speaker did not include such a provision in her final text, but did include DACA recipients as eligible parties for the proposed status reauthorization.

Minority Leader Schumer and Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) fought to include some of the House’s language in the final Senate bill. According to The Hill, “Sen. Schumer pushed to include language that would have automatically extended work authorizations… but it was rejected by Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office, with input from Republicans from the House Judiciary Committee.”

Fortunately, McConnell and other senior GOP senators kept the worst of the House’s immigration proposals out of this bill. There are no restrictions on CBP or ICE, and nonresident aliens are not eligible for any economic stimulus items, such as the $1,200 personal checks to individual Americans.

That said, there are a handful of questionable immigration-related provisions that made it into the final bill passed by Congress. First, the bill gives $350 million to the State Department for migration and refugee assistance, but not resettlement. This is a waste of money that could go to furthering medical research or buying additional COVID-19 tests and resources for our health workers. The Trump administration’s refugee ceiling is already the lowest in recent history, and the administration suspended asylum processing to contain the virus.

Second, the bill contains no supplemental funding for ICE or CBP despite both agencies asking for additional funding. Both agencies continue to contribute to the country’s virus response. They asked for supplemental assistance and received nothing, further hampering their efforts to combat COVID-19 through border security and immigration enforcement.

Finally, the bill gives $850 million in additional funding to the Justice Department for state and local law enforcement assistance. Accompanying language seems to prevent the denial of the money to sanctuary jurisdictions, despite the Trump administration’s actions blocking sanctuary jurisdictions from receiving federal grants. The Supreme Court ruled in February that the administration legally can withhold grant funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, if it chooses to do so. While this inclusion is disappointing, it applies only to this supplemental funding and does not affect or alter any existing statutes. It is also entirely possible that the Justice Department will de facto choose to not award grants from this supplementary funding to sanctuary cities.

Despite these three shortcomings, the $2 trillion, 800+ page stimulus bill is free of immigration poison pills. This is a victory for advocates of immigration reform. Too often, massive packages like this contain clauses and provisions that further degrade border security efforts and expand immigration levels. Fortunately, this bill does neither of those things, and successfully addresses the task at hand – stimulating our economy and helping American citizens in need.