BIPARTISAN BILL TO SPEED UP DEPORTATIONS GAINS GROUND

WaPo: “A pair of lawmakers from Texas will introduce bipartisan legislation in Congress on [today] to speed up the deportations of tens of thousands of Central American children who have entered the country illegally across the southern border. Sen. John Cornyn (R) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D) say their bill aims to amend a 2008 law that currently requires the federal government to provide greater legal protections to young immigrants who attempt to enter the United States from noncontiguous countries. The legislation would rewrite the law to allow Central American minors be treated like those from Mexico and Canada, who can be deported more quickly. Under the plan, unaccompanied minors from any country would be able to have an immigration court hearing within seven days of their processing by Health and Human Services, and an immigration judge would be required to rule within three more days on whether the child would be allowed to stay or be deported. The bill authorizes 40 new immigration judges to help process the cases. The lawmakers are calling their bill the HUMANE Act, an acronym for: Helping Unaccompanied Minors and Alleviating National Emergency.”