Mo Brooks on Immigration

Don't flood labor market with cheap foreign labor

Brooks: I sure hope not, because the socialists support open borders and have no intent to compromise on border security. Any compromise with them would be a sellout. We had a compromise with the socialist Democrats in 1986. President Reagan gave amnesty and the socialists then broke their word and never gave the promised border security.

Q: In the last election, the Alabama Farmers Federation did not endorse you. Have you patched things up with them?

Brooks: My positions are unchanged. I don't support flooding the American labor market with cheap foreign labor hurting struggling American families nor am I comfortable with the tens of billions of dollars in food stamps and farm subsidies that farm bureau insists I support at a time America suffers from a debt burden that risks a debilitating national insolvency and bankruptcy that would do great damage to American lives.

Remove illegal aliens from America; then stop luring them in

As your Congressman, Mo Brooks will do everything possible to remove illegal aliens from America. First, we must get the federal government out of the way so state and local governments can help solve the problem. Second, we must make it unprofitable for American employers to hire illegal aliens over American citizens. Third, we must stop using American tax dollars to lure illegal aliens to America. That's just plain dumb.

Endorsed by the ALI, indicating a strongly anti-amnesty stance.

ALIPAC supporters have a diverse range of opinions, yet we are united in the belief that more should be done to reduce illegal immigration. ALIPAC supports those that legally immigrate, but we DO NOT support any amnesty, visa expansion, or "Guest Worker" program designed to reward illegal aliens or legalize their presence in the US. We support a peaceful, non racist, rule of law approach to resolving illegal immigration. America is a land of generous and caring people, but our hospitality and values are being strained and abused by those who are willing to break the law and take our jobs and our tax dollars. America's illegal alien population will begin to shrink instead of grow if we support candidates that will reflect the will of the vast majority of American citizens.

FOUR POINT PLATFORM: "Simply enforce our existing immigration laws!"
1. Secure Our Borders
2. Crack down on employers that intentionally hire illegals
3. Remove incentives and rewards to illegals such as licenses, welfare, and other taxpayer benefits
4. Enforce our existing laws and deport illegal aliens when convicted of crimes or detected during routine law enforcement activities.

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.

No birthright citizenship unless one parent is an American.

Congressional Summary:
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to consider a person born in the United States "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States for citizenship at birth purposes if the person is born in the United States of parents, one of whom is:

1. a U.S. citizen or national,
2. a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States, or
3. an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces.

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)

Allow immigration bans from non-cooperating countries.

The National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act (NO BAN Act) imposes limitations on the President's authority to suspend or restrict aliens from entering the US. It also prohibits religious discrimination in various immigration-related decisions, such as issuing a visa. The President may temporarily restrict the entry of any class of aliens after determining that the restriction would address specific and credible facts that threaten U.S. interests such as security or public safety.

GovTrack.us analysis (4/21/21): President Donald Trump instituted a travel ban on eight countries: Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. The Supreme Court upheld the travel ban 5-4 in the 2018 decision Trump v. Hawaii. Trump's travel ban was popularly nicknamed "the Muslim ban" by its Democratic critics since most of the countries it applied to were majority Muslim, and because Trump as a 2016 candidate had indeed proposed a Muslim ban. Regardless, President Joe Biden rescinded the policy on his first day in office. Currently, federal law bans any person from being discriminated against when entering the U.S. on the basis of five characteristics: race, sex, nationality, place of birth, or place of residence. The NO BAN Act would add another category: religion.

Rep. Tom McClintock in OPPOSITION: President Trump invoked this authority against countries that were hotbeds of international terrorism and that were not cooperating with the US in providing basic information about travelers coming from these countries. The left called it a 'Muslim ban.' What nonsense. Without this authority, the president would have been powerless to take simple, prudent precautions against terrorists and criminals from entering the US.

Legislative Outcome: Passed House 218-208-3 on April 21, 2021, rollcall #127; introduced in Senate with 42 co-sponsors but no further Senate action during 2021.