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Raja Krishnamoorthi on Immigration |
A: Immigration policy is a serious issue that affects public safety, the cost-of-living, and the rule of law. Illinois citizen families are paying the price for the Biden years of open borders, from overwhelmed communities to taxpayer-funded benefits that strain already tight household budgets. As Senator, I will focus on common-sense solutions: securing the border, enforcing existing laws, ending taxpayer-funded benefits for non-citizens, and restoring cooperation between federal, state, and local authorities. As a candidate, I've been clear that open-border policies and political gamesmanship have failed everyday Illinoisans. We need leadership that prioritizes public safety, respects the law, and puts the American Dream back within reach for families across all 102 counties of Illinois.
A: Immigration policy succeeds only through secure borders paired with a real pathway to citizenship that allows people to come here legally, work, and support their families. America's attraction for legal immigrants is our greatest natural advantage. That's why I've fought to fix our broken immigration system--because building the jobs and industries of tomorrow requires both investing in our domestic workforce and welcoming top talent from around the world. Fixing our broken immigration system will not result from chaos or cruelty. Donald Trump has weaponized DHS & ICE in ways that terrorize communities and tear families apart. That approach is morally indefensible and incompatible with the rule of law. Our legal immigration system has been broken for far too long. I am fighting for solutions, which will only be accomplished through bipartisan cooperation and a commitment to putting progress ahead of politics.
Raja also supports the DREAM Act to provide a path to citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants who have known no other home and meaningfully staked their roots in America.
Raja believes that foreign students who have earned a graduate degree in the U.S. and entrepreneurs who have secured enough investment to start a business here should be granted a temporary visa to pursue their dreams in our country.
The Project Vote Smart Voter Guide inferred how candidates would respond to the question, 'Immigration: Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?' Project Vote Smart notes, `in response to the increasing unwillingness of candidates to answer issue questions, Project Vote Smart has researched Congressional candidates` public records to determine candidates` likely responses on certain key issues. These issue positions, from the year 2016, are provided [for candidates who] refused to provide voters with positions on key issues covered by the 2016 Political Courage Test, despite repeated requests. Historically, candidates have failed to complete our test due to the advice they receive from their parties and advisors and out of fear of negative attack ads.`
Legislative Summary:This 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.
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.