| | | | | |  | | By Rebecca Rainey | Presented by the Start Us Up coalition | Editor's Note: Weekly Shift is a weekly version of POLITICO Pro's daily Employment & Immigration policy newsletter, Morning Shift. POLITICO Pro is a policy intelligence platform that combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro. | | | A sudden increase in migrants at the southern border has given Republicans a new reason to hold up immigration reform in the Senate. Even bipartisan measures like the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, H.R. 1603 , which would create a path to citizenship for thousands of noncitizen farmworkers and broadly expand the H-2A temporary agricultural worker visa program, seems destined to languish in the closely divided chamber. "There is no pathway for anything right now," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last week, the New York Times reports. A GLIMMER OF HOPE? The Farm Workforce bill did draw 30 House GOP votes — far more than the Dream and Promise Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for an estimated 2 million undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) subsequently announced they will introduce a companion to the workforce bill, "and several additional Senate Republicans mentioned it as a possible priority," our Burgess Everett reports. When it comes to timing, Bennet's office told MS, the companion legislation will be introduced "soon" — whenever that is. RECONCILIATION ROUND 2? With most items on their agenda hobbled by the Senate filibuster, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is hoping Democratic leaders will use the same arcane budget process that let the party bypass GOP votes for its pandemic aid package to advance immigration bills, our Sarah Ferris reports. "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer haven't formally decided to use the budgetary tool known as reconciliation for Biden's next major priority, an infrastructure and jobs plan," according to Sarah. "But given the Senate GOP's continued reluctance, many senior Democrats in both chambers believe it will be the ultimate path," she adds. Hispanic Caucus chair Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) told his colleagues on a call last week that Biden's comprehensive immigration plan should be included in the infrastructure bill, given that neither are likely to pass the Senate without the aid of the reconciliation process. But senior Democrats acknowledge that substantial immigration legislation "would be difficult — if not impossible — to get past the Senate parliamentarian, the chamber's nonpartisan rules referee." (The same issue doomed Democrats' push to raise the minimum wage to $15 in the latest pandemic package.) GOOD MORNING. It's Monday, March 22, and this is Morning Shift, your tipsheet on employment and immigration news. Send tips, exclusives and suggestions to emueller@politico.com and rrainey@politico.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Eleanor_Mueller and @RebeccaARainey. | | A message from the Start Us Up coalition: Our nation is at a crossroads not experienced in generations. American policymakers are confronting dual pandemics: COVID-19 and growing economic inequality combined with racial injustice. The last 12 months have shown just how interconnected the two are. Updated for 2021, America's New Business Plan is a bipartisan policy roadmap to help policymakers strengthen access to entrepreneurship, create jobs and build an economy that works for all Americans.
Download America's New Business Plan. | | | | | | WALSH CONFIRMATION VOTE TODAY: The Senate this evening is expected to confirm Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to serve as Secretary of Labor. The vote is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. A DOL spokesperson said while timing on his swearing in is still in flux, Walsh is planning to "hit the ground running." SUPREME COURT SCOTUS TO HEAR UNION FARM ACCESS CASE: The high court today will hear oral arguments in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, a case weighing whether a California state law that allows unions to access agricultural worksites to speak to workers about organizing violates the Fifth Amendment. Two companies are challenging the state law, arguing union organizers' right to visit their land amounts to the government seizing private property without compensation. But the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has countered that the law "serves a critical purpose by allowing unions face-to-face contact with farmworkers — a necessary means of informing this increasingly vulnerable community of their right to collectively organize." The case eventually made its way to the 9th Circuit, which upheld the state right-to-access law. IMPACT: State and local governments have warned SCOTUS that "under the growers' approach, governments at all levels would face the prospect of having to pay private property owners whenever public officials need to enter the land — for example, to conduct health and safety inspections, such as home visits by social workers or to inspect coal mines, railroads or drug manufacturers," writes Amy Howe for SCOTUSBlog. MORE: "A farmer's feud with workers union leads to high-stakes Supreme Court showdown," from The Washington Post | | | | SUBSCRIBE TO "THE RECAST" TO JOIN AN IMPORTANT CONVERSATION : Power dynamics are shifting in Washington and across the country, and more people are demanding a seat at the table, insisting that all politics is personal and not all policy is equitable. "The Recast" is a new twice-weekly newsletter that breaks down how race and identity are recasting politics, policy, and power in America. Get fresh insights, scoops, and dispatches on this crucial intersection from across the country, and hear from new voices that challenge business as usual. Don't miss out on this new newsletter, SUBSCRIBE NOW . Thank you to our sponsor, Intel. | | | | | | | | BORDER DISPATCH: Local officials and community leaders at the border "insist it's way past time for leaders in Washington to come up with long-term solutions that will help create better conditions in the migrants' home countries and allow those that still want to come to the U.S. to enter via a smooth and fair process," our Sabrina Rodriguez reports from Brownsville, Texas. "Thousands of parents, most of them hailing from Central America and Mexico, are making the trip north," she writes, with the number expected to increase in March and the coming months. But so far, "their reception at the border is often contradictory and confusing," Sabrina explains, "partly because the U.S. government's capacity to handle the influx of migrants is limited — and partly because Mexico isn't always willing or able to receive them." Washington to blame? "Biden's critics say his messaging is squarely to blame" for the thousands of migrant parents coming to the U.S. from Central America and Mexico, she writes. "But more than half a dozen asylum-seekers interviewed by POLITICO said they would make the trek regardless of who was in the White House. Some of their reasons: lack of job opportunities, concern for the safety of their family and devastation from last year's back-to-back hurricanes that walloped parts of Central America." "The crisis is in Washington because it's the third administration that can't solve it," said Jim Darling, mayor of McAllen, Texas, a small city 60 miles west of Brownsville. "The only thing that could stop families is legislation and actually doing the work to help Central America — and that's not happening." MORE: "Biden DHS chief says 'border is closed' but U.S. won't expel children ," from our Zach Warmbrodt AND: "'No end in sight': Inside the Biden administration's failure to contain the border surge," from The Washington Post | | | |   | | | | | | PROGRESSIVES CRANK UP PRESSURE FOR PUSH DEMOCRATS ON THE MINIMUM WAGE HIKE: California Rep. Ro Khanna and other Democratic lawmakers joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, Poor People's Campaign co-chair Rev. William J. Barber on a call last week to plot a path forward on raising the federal minimum wage. "What is not negotiable is that we need to have a $15 minimum wage by the end of this year," Khanna said on Friday. Khanna outlined three potential avenues to pass the wage boost, including making sure the provision can be ruled admissible in the next reconciliation bill, attaching the measure to must-pass legislation or getting rid of the filibuster and simply a wage hike bill with a simple majority. On that last point: President Joe Biden signaled he was open to filibuster reform last week. More on that here. | | | DIVERSITY DISCLOSURES: "An adviser to the top U.S. securities regulator said on Friday his subcommittee will likely recommend new disclosures about diversity from registered investment advisers and other steps to improve minority representation in finance," Ross Kerber reports for Reuters . It's "the latest effort to shed more light on the small role held by women and ethnic minorities in the money management industry, although they could also show the obstacles regulators face in taking on social issues." REFRESHER: "SEC acting Chair Lee proposes mandating asset manager disclosures on diversity," from our Kellie Mejdrich | | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING : The Biden administration is more than halfway through its first 100 days and is now facing a growing crisis at the border and escalating violence against Asian Americans, while navigating the pandemic and ongoing economic challenges. Add Transition Playbook to your daily reads to find out what actions are being considered, as well the internal state of play inside the West Wing and across the administration. Track the people, policies, and emerging power centers of the Biden administration. Don't miss out. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — "To Attract Black Employees, Companies Move to Them," from The Wall Street Journal — "Republican AGs take blowtorch to Biden agenda," from POLITICO — " Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club partially closed after staff infected with coronavirus," from The Washington Post — "Current staffer publicly accuses Cuomo of sexual harassment," from POLITICO — "There Is No Rung on the Ladder That Protects You From Hate," from The New York Times — "How to Manage the New Hybrid Workplace," from The Wall Street Journal — "Venezuelans, Burmese among more than 600,000 immigrants eligible for Temporary Protected Status in U.S.," from Pew Research Center — " A Fed With No Fear of Inflation Should Scare Investors," from The Wall Street Journal THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! | | A message from the Start Us Up coalition: Our nation is at a crossroads not experienced in generations.
Will we continue to confer privilege on some while excluding many others, or will we finally dismantle systemic racism?
Will we allow barriers to sustainable growth and prosperity to endure for Americans based solely on who they are and where they live? Or will we expand access in equitable ways that results in an economy that works for everyone?
Will we accept a winner-take-all economy in which the biggest businesses generate wealth for a few, or will we reorder the economy so that many independent small businesses can compete and thrive?
Supported by over 200 organizations, America's New Business Plan gives policymakers a bipartisan roadmap to building a stronger, more equitable economy. Learn more and download the plan today. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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