Glenn Grothman on Immigration

Protect the border and prevent illegal entry

GROTHMAN: Strongly Agree

Carefully controlled immigration protects us from enemies

Unfortunately, our freedom and prosperity has also earned us enemies throughout the world that want to do us harm, and that's the real issue behind the idea of having carefully controlled immigration system. When there are entire nations and terrorist organizations that want to bring death and destruction to America, we need to be very careful in who we allow to enter our country.

The bottom line is we need to be sure that the people we are letting in are properly screened and examined to ensure that they come here with lawful intentions. We need to close down the border and get back to an orderly legal immigration system in order to ensure a safe and prosperous future for America.

Deport foreign criminals;punish nations denying repatriation.

Congressional Summary:

• Requires a quarterly report to Congress regarding each country that has refused or unreasonably delayed repatriation of an alien who is a citizen, subject, national, or resident of such country.
• Prohibits the Secretary of State, upon the passage of specified periods of time, from issuing certain nonimmigrant (including certain diplomatic) visas and immigrant visas to a citizen, subject, national, or resident of a listed country.
• Notifies the chief law enforcement officer of the state and of the local jurisdiction in which an alien who has been detained is released.

Opponent's Comments (American Immigration Lawyers Association letter, Nov. 17. 2011): AILA urges withdrawal of this unnecessary and deeply harmful bill from consideration. If enacted, H.R. 3256 would do serious damage to the U.S. visa processing system, jeopardize U.S. businesses and communities that depend on foreign national students, workers, and their families, and threaten America's economy and security. At a time when America's doors must be open for business, we cannot risk sending the message to the world that we have shut our doors.

The proposed bill's mandatory visa-denial scheme would place at risk America's relations with many of its most important trade, business and diplomatic partners. H.R. 3256 would mandate the denial of visas to any country that denies or unreasonably delays the repatriation of its nationals. If implemented today, scores of countries would risk having their visas cut-off because they failed to repatriate nationals within a 180-day period. Among those countries are some of our closest allies and key economic partners.

Supports deportation of illlegals, according to Faith2Action.

Faith2Action.org is "the nation's largest network of pro-family groups." They provide election resources for each state, including Voter Guides and Congressional Scorecards excerpted here. The F2A survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Immigration: Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?'

Supports deportation of illlegals, according to PVS rating.

Project VoteSmart infers summary responses from campaign statements and news reports The PVS survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Immigration: Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?'

Ban admission of Syrian refugees & any Syrian residents.

Congressional Summary: This bill prohibits federal funds from being obligated for the U.S. refugee admission of any alien who is a national of Syria or whose last habitual residence was in Syria during the period that the civil war in Syria is ongoing, as determined by the Department of Homeland Security.

Supporters reasons for voting YEA:Rep. Ross: "ISIS carried out a series of violent attacks in Paris, and reports have indicated at least one of the terrorists who committed these atrocities entered Europe by posing as a refugee fleeing Syria. These horrific attacks provide a warning of what can happen on American soil if we do not take appropriate and immediate action. Reliable intelligence about refugees from countries like Syria attempting to enter the United States is clearly unavailable. More than half of our country's governors have taken immediate action to prevent Syrian refugees from settling in their states. Our own intelligence community has expressed concerns about our capabilities to identify threats. The federal government has no greater responsibility than keeping Americans safe."

Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (Opposing legislation S.Res.268): The Congress recognizes:

• the scale and complexity of the Syrian refugee crisis and the need for the international community to work together to provide resources and capacity to aid refugees;
• the humanitarian commitment of Syria's neighbors who have worked to absorb the vast majority of refugees, as well as the European nations who have made commitments to share in the refugee resettlement effort; and
• that the refugee crisis is a symptom of the broader conflict in Syria, the persecution of persons based on identity groups, including Christians, Yezidis, Turkmen, and Kurds, and instability in the Middle East and North Africa, and that efforts to resolve those challenges are a necessary component of any plan to address the refugee crisis.

Voted YES to ban DREAMer immigrants from military service.

Congressional Summary: The House voted on an amendment by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to H.R. 5293, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2017. The amendment would prohibit funds from being used to extend the expiration of, or reissue a new expiration date to, the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI) program.

Recommendation by Heritage Foundation to vote YES:(6/16/2016): The MAVNI program is a pilot program authorizing "military services to recruit certain legal immigrants whose skills are considered to be vital to the national interest." However, a DoD memo has made it clear that DACA/DAPA recipients are eligible under this program, essentially opening up a pathway to amnesty for illegal aliens who enlist. By ensuring that this guidance ends, DOD will no longer be able to enlist illegal immigrants through MAVNI.

Recommendation by the ACLU to vote NO: (6/28/2011): The DREAM Act promotes fundamental fairness for young people by allowing access to affordable post-secondary education and military service opportunities, regardless of immigration status, and would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school. The DREAM Act could result in billions of dollars in additional tax revenue from tapping the potential of DREAM-eligible students and future service personnel. Since September 11, 2001, more than 69,000 immigrants have earned citizenship while serving, and more than 125 who entered military service after that date have made the ultimate sacrifice in war by giving their lives for this nation.

Legislative outcome: Failed House 210 to 211 (no Senate vote)

Increase both high-skill and family-based visa caps.

Legislative SummaryThis bill increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from 7% of the total number of such visas available that year to 15%, and eliminates the 7% cap for employment-based immigrant visas. It also removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from China. The bill also establishes transition rules for employment-based visas from FY2020-FY2022, by reserving a percentage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability), EB-3 (skilled and other workers), and EB-5 (investors) visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest number of recipients of such visas. Of the unreserved visas, not more than 85% shall be allotted to immigrants from any single country.

Explanation from the Countable.US: Under the current immigration system, immigrants from any one country can claim no more than 7% of the 140,000 employment-based green cards issued annually to foreign nationals working in the U.S. This significantly disadvantages immigrants from larger countries that more immigrants come from.

For example, China (population 1.3 billion) and India have large backlogs of workers wishing to immigrate to and work in the U.S., but they have the name visa caps as countries such as Iceland or Estonia (population 1.3 million), which have both much smaller populations and far fewer citizens seeking to immigrate to the U.S.

The net effect of this is that immigrants from India and China can face decades-long waits, averaging 2-3 times the wait times for immigrants from other countries, for green cards, and many have to return home because they can't get permanent residency; meanwhile, countries such as Iceland and Estonia never come close to reaching their visa limit caps.

Legislative outcome Roll call 437 in House on 7/10/2019 passed 365-65-2; referred to Committee in Senate 7/9/2019; no action as of 1/1/2020.