Senate Democrats Wednesday thwarted efforts to bring to the floor a House-passed bill to restrict the resettlement of Iraqi and Syrian refugees in the U.S. Democrats offered an amendment to take up Donald Trump’s call to ban all Muslims seeking to enter the U.S., a tactic which helped ensure defeat. A number of grantees pushed hard for this outcome, including refugee and immigration groups, along with Human Rights First and MoveOn.org, which helped drive the #AmericaWelcomes campaign to block the restrictive measure.

The vote comes on the heels of the Supreme Court’s announcement Tuesday that it would hear the challenge to President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. The justices added a question, asking both parties to the case (the solicitor general and the state of Texas) to address whether the president had breached his duties under the Constitution to uphold the country’s laws—a move that heightened expectations of a broad ruling that could recalibrate the balance of power between the president and Congress. 

Senate Republicans, in the first hearing on President Obama’s executive actions on gun violence, vowed to block his efforts, claiming they represented a sneak attack on the 2nd Amendment. Attorney General Loretta Lynch traveled to Capitol Hill to defend the actions, calling them a “common-sense” response to an “epidemic” of violence.

At the state level, Virginia’s legislature joined a number of others in moving forward with several measures to expand gun rights. New research from the Violence Policy Center shows that contrary to gun advocates’ claims, “at least 29 mass shootings since 2007 were carried out by perpetratos with concealed carry permits,” according to a Huffington Post report on the study. “That’s more than three times the number of concealed permit holders who prevented mass shootings through their swift action.” 

 

The Center for Migration Studies released a new study, showing that the undocumented population continued a multi-year decline, dropping below 11m in 2014 for the first time since 2004. Yet there’s been an anecdotal uptick in violent behavior from migrants seeking to enter the U.S. from Cuba. Another study showed that Hispanic children are the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. population, and that the uninsured rate for Hispanic kids fell to historic lows under Obamacare.

Among other grantee activities:

--The Center for American Progress reported on the nation’s highest immigration report temporarily blocking deportations of families being kicked out of the country because the Homeland Security Dept. determined that because their bids for asylum had been rejected they’d run out of legal options. The court questioned whether they had indeed run out of options.

--CAP’s ThinkProgress published a piece on the estimated 4m people who stand to be affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling on the president’s executive actions.

--America’s Voice publicized a blog post praising the legal import for immigrants of the high court’s decision to take the executive actions case.

--Muslim Advocates prepared for “Stand Up for What’s Right,” the 6th annual celebration of Fred Korematsu’s life (name plaintiff in the landmark case in which the Supreme Court upheld the detention of Japanese-Americans during World War II), scheduled later this month in San Francisco. This conference extends to include anti-Muslim bigotry.

--South Asian Americans Leading Together joined other Asian groups in denouncing the Homeland Security Dept’s raids on migrants from Central America who arrived after 2014 and were turned down in their bids for asylum.

--The Electronic Frontier Foundation prepared for a conference in Los Angeles Jan. 23 for lawyers and activists on how to protect communications from government surveillance.