House Judiciary Committee Schedules Markup on Proposed Legislation to Address Asylum Eligibility, Limit Parole Authority, and Revamp the Employment of Undocumented Workers. The House Judiciary Committee will markup the “Border Security and Enforcement Act of 2023” today, April 19, at 10 a.m. ET. House Republicans released the draft immigration legislation on April 17. It would tighten asylum eligibility, crack down on the employment of undocumented workers, and expand migrant family detention. The 137-page proposed bill represents the legislative response to high levels of migration on the U.S.-Mexico border from House Republicans, who have made border security a focal point of their new majority.

The bill would limit the Biden administration’s use of an authority known as parole, which allows the federal government to give migrants temporary permission to live and work in the U.S. and is typically used during humanitarian crises. The bill states that parole should not be granted “according to eligibility criteria describing an entire class of potential parole recipients.” Parole has provided the legal authority for programs like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, as well as programs to help Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion. The bill also takes aim at employers that hire undocumented immigrants, including by ramping up requirements for them to electronically verify that their employees have permission to work in the U.S.

Additionally, the bill would revive several programs to significantly limit asylum eligibility for migrants traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border. It would restrict eligibility from migrants who have traveled through another country enroute to the U.S. and had not first attempted to seek protection in the other country, among other provisions.