Michael Grimm on Immigration

Stopping illegal immigration protects lives & jobs

Improve visa process to get more travelers from China.

A BILL: To promote job creation in the US by addressing inefficiencies in the visa processing system that discourage overseas business and leisure travel to the US.

Congress finds the following:
1. International travel to the US generates more than $134 billion annually in exports and supports 1.8 million US jobs
2. Global travel spending is expected to double over the next decade, reaching $2.1 trillion
3. While world-wide long-haul international travel grew by 40% between 2000 and 2010, the US market share of long-haul travel dropped from 17% in 2000 to 12% during the same timeframe
4. Lagging overseas arrivals result in large part from a US visa application process that is perceived by potential business and leisure travelers as inefficient, time consuming, and inaccessible
5. Removing the self-imposed barriers in the visa application process that currently discourage inbound international travel to the US would yield significant economic and public diplomacy benefits for the US
6. Increased international travel to the US also achieves US foreign policy objectives by introducing foreign visitors to the US and to Americans, who are the US' best goodwill ambassadors.

• The Secretary of State shall set a visa processing standard of 12 or fewer calendar days at US diplomatic and consular missions in China, Brazil, and India.
• The Secretary of State shall conduct a two-year pilot program for the processing of nonimmigrant visas using secure remote video-conferencing technology as a method for conducting visa interviews of applicants.
• If the Secretary of State can demonstrate no adversarial effects to the United States, the Secretary may modify or enter into agreements with certain countries on a non-reciprocal basis to allow for longer visa validity periods than the periods with such countries that are in existence as of the date of the enactment of this Act.

Stop releasing low-risk illegal immigrants.

Letter from office of Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ-5) signed by 37 Members of Congress

Dear Secretary Napolitano,

We are deeply concerned that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using sequestration as a vehicle to further the Administration's disregard for enforcing our immigration laws. Specifically, we are troubled by recent reports that DHS has released hundreds of illegal immigrants, rather than finding cost savings elsewhere in the agency.

Your agency's decision to release "low-risk" illegal immigrants back into the public under the guise of saving money is unprecedented and dangerous. The inability of DHS to prioritize resources for potential cuts suggests this decision was either politically motivated to further the Administration's amnesty goals or, at best, demonstrates agency incompetence.

Given the public safety and national security concerns this decision raises, we respectfully request you halt any further action to release detained illegal immigrants. Also, please respond to the following questions, regarding individuals already released, pending release, or anticipated to be released:

• The number of detainees released and the geographic location of where the releases took place;
• Any plans for future releases, and the geographic location of where those releases will take place;
• The name of the DHS official who authorized the review of detained illegal immigrants for release;
• The criteria used to determine who is eligible for release;
• The number of reviewed detainees denied release and the specific reasons for such denials;
• A list identifying cuts to the DHS budget implemented prior to the release of the detainees, the budget savings achieved, and why these savings were insufficient;
• How DHS is tracking illegal immigrants released under this plan, and whether they will be ordered back to detention centers if funding becomes available.