Jan Schakowsky on Immigration

More visas for families of lawful immigrants.

To temporarily increase, for five years, the number of visas available for backlogged spouses and children of lawful permanent resident aliens.

Let illegal alien children attend school.

• Amends the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to repeal the denial of an unlawful alien's eligibility for higher education benefits based on state residence unless a US national is similarly eligible without regard to such state residence.
• Cancels the removal of conditional permanent resident status of an alien who:
  1. entered the US before his or her 16th birthday and has been present in the US for at least five years immediately preceding enactment of this Act;
  2. is a person of good moral character;
  3. is not inadmissible or deportable under specified grounds of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and
  4. at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education or has earned a high school or equivalent diploma.
• Authorizes an alien who has satisfied the appropriate requirements prior to enactment of this Act to petition the Secretary for conditional permanent resident status.

Limit non-visa entries by country.

A BILL: To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to extend the authority of the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive certain requirements under the visa waiver program for an additional 2 years.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, [that] Section 217(c)(8)(A)(iii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1187) is amended--
1. by striking 'June 30, 2009' and inserting 'June 30, 2011'; and
2. by striking 'July 1, 2009' and inserting 'July 1, 2011'.

[Section 217(c)(8)(A)(iii), in its pre-amended context, appears below]:
• (8) Nonimmigrant visa refusal rate flexibility
• (A) Certification
• (i) In general: On the date on which an air exit system is in place that can verify the departure of not less than 97% of foreign nationals who exit through airports of the US and the electronic travel authorization system required are in place.
• (ii)The Secretary shall notify Congress in writing of the date on which the air exit system fully satisfies the biometric requirements specified.
• (iii) Temporary suspension of waiver authority: if the Secretary has not notified Congress by June 30, 2009, the Secretary's waiver authority shall be suspended beginning on July 1, 2009, until such time as the Secretary makes such notification.
• (B) Waiver: the Secretary may waive the [rules] for a country if--
• the totality of the country's security risk mitigation measures provide assurance that the country's participation in the program would not compromise the law enforcement, security interests, or enforcement of the immigration laws of the United States;
• the country cooperated with the Government of the United States on counterterrorism initiatives, information sharing, and preventing terrorist travel.

Sponsored bill to disallow religion-based immigration ban.

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.