On Friday night, the House Subcommittee on Immigration as part of the House Judiciary Committee released the blueprints for their disastrous and irreversible amnesty proposal - hidden in the massive $3,500,000,000,000 Budget Reconciliation Package Democrats hope to pass with a bare-bones majority in the House, and just 50 Senators.
The proposed amnesty, which Dems hope to include in the Budget Reconciliation package will award green cards to at least 8,000,000 illegal aliens currently living in the United States.
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The amnesty would cover:
- DACA + DREAM (alien was ≤ 18yo at time of illegal entry, entry occurred prior to Jan. 1, 2021): 2,900,000 aliens
- ’Essential Workers’ (as designated by DHS - likely any illegal alien that works construction, landscaping, and food prep): 5,600,000 aliens*
- Temporary Protected Status (expanded and/or extended for at least half-a-dozen countries since Biden took office): 320,000 aliens
- Deferred Enforcement Departure (though not an immigrant category, these aliens are not subject to removal - last used by Trump for Venezuela): 150,000 aliens
* There will likely be some overlap between 'essential workers' and other amnesty categories; for example, the Migration Policy Institute estimates that 361,000 'essential workers' are also DACA recipients.
Included in what is likely only the first iteration of the amnesty proposal is what criminal activity could bar an illegal alien from being included in this amnesty; again, the text is quite disappointing. Criminal Bars to Amnesty include:
- One or more felonies (can not be immigration related).
- Three or more misdemeanors on three different dates with an aggregate of 90+ days of imprisonment (can not be immigration related).
- Participation in the persecution of an individual based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political opinion.
NOTE: Expunged convictions, even of felonies, are not automatically treated as convictions and will supposedly be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
The released text directs DHS to automatically waive a slew of other typical inadmissibility factors the law requires the Federal Government to consider when admitting new immigrants. Although aliens who fall into these categories are usually inadmissible for immigration, this bill will automatically grant waivers for these categories, making the aliens in them eligible for the amnesty.
- Aliens with communicable diseases, the unvaccinated, with physical/mental disorders, and drug abusers.
- Public charges.
- Aliens coming to work in the US when there are willing, qualified, and available US workers, or when their employment may adversely affect wages and working conditions of US workers.
- Aliens present without admission or parole, who failed to attend removal proceedings, immigration fraudsters, stowaways, and those subject to a final order of removal.
- Aliens without proper documentation.
- Aliens previously removed (within the statutory period barring reentry), aliens unlawfully present, and aliens present after previous immigration violations.
- Guardians accompanying helpless inadmissible aliens.
- Former citizens who renounced citizenship to avoid taxation.
The text also states that DHS may waive these additional inadmissible factors for "humanitarian purposes, family unity, or public interest" on a case-by-case basis.
- All criminal grounds - Crimes of moral turpitude, controlled substance crimes, multiple criminal convictions, drug trafficking, prostitution and commercialized vice, serious criminal activity to which the alien asserted immunity from prosecution, human trafficking, and money laundering.
- Human smugglers.
- Student visa abusers.
- Unlawful voters.
In addition to the calamitous aspects of the text already mentioned, the immigration provisions of the House Judiciary Committee's bill would result in an immigration enforcement freeze.
The text states that all aliens in removal proceedings or who are subject to a final order of removal have to be given a reasonable opportunity to apply for amnesty, either because they request it or they appear to be prima facie eligible. DHS could easily make the case that every illegal alien in the country is prima facie eligible for the amnesty. In that case, ICE would not be able to detain a single illegal alien throughout the entire country.
The text also includes an automatic stay of removal for any illegal alien who meets the physical presence and age at entry requirements (not educational requirements), if they are currently in childhood learning, elementary school, secondary school, or an education program assisting students in obtaining a high school diploma or equivalent.
Notwithstanding the devastating proposed amnesty, included in the House Judiciary's Immigration Subcommittee's released text are several other blatantly harmful provisions designed to inflict lasting damage to the US legal immigration system.
Other immigration-related aspects of the Budget Reconciliation package include:
- Setting the floor for family-preference visas at 226,000 PLUS unused EB rollovers from the previous year.
- "Recapturing" 397,325 so-called "unused" visas from family-based categories.
- "Recapturing" 232,539 so-called "unused" visas from employment-based categories
- Awarding lottery visas to any alien denied their lottery visa, prevented from seeking admission, or denied admission due to Trump's proclamations or COVID restrictions.
- USCIS gets an additional $2,800,000,000 to adjudicate the amnesties and recapture provisions.
The full text can be found here.
