House Passes Historic Immigration Legislation That Would
WASHINGTON, DC – Tonight, the House of Representatives passed the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437), introduced by Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI), by a vote of 239 to 182. Passage of this bill and many of the amendments represents a huge victory for proponents of strong enforcement who fought hard to ensure that the bill included only enforcement provisions, and successfully removed a provision by Rep. Flake (R-AZ) that would have put the House on record as supporting large flows of legal foreign workers. “This bill includes at least four of the half-dozen or so most important missing tools to slow the flow of new illegal immigration and to gradually cause the current illegal population in this country to begin to voluntarily go back home,” said NumbersUSA Executive Director Roy Beck. “The victories that were won both behind-the-scenes and on the House Floor are a testament to the strength and resolve of those members who have heard the will of the American people in their desire to curb illegal immigration and return the United States to the rule of law.” NumbersUSA and several other immigration-reform organizations had warned lawmakers this fall that an enforcement bill would have to contain three major provisions to be taken seriously as a response to the rising public outcry from being overwhelmed by unprecedented immigration numbers. The bill provided only one of those, but the other two were added through amendments during floor votes. The three are: · All business must use an electronic system to check if all new hires have the legal right to work. · A security fence and other physical infrastructure must be built along the entire Mexican border. · The federal government has to stop its interior catch and release program in which it tells local governments to release most of the illegal aliens that they catch. H.R. 4437 mandates federal cooperation with local authorities in picking up all illegal aliens they detain. For the first time since 1924, a chamber of Congress voted to reduce legal immigration by passing an amendment to end the visa lottery, a program that annually awards 50,000 green cards to randomly selected winners. “The Lottery has been a major breeder program for additional illegal immigration by foreign nationals who decide to go ahead and move to the United States illegally in anticipation of someday winning the Lottery,” Beck said. “This bill is not perfect and leaves several key tools yet to enact,” Beck said. “But if the Senate will pass this without adding any guestworker or amnesty provisions, and if the President will implement the law, H.R. 4437 would end most incentives for illegal immigration. Over the next decade, we would see the illegal population steadily shrink to a fraction of its current size.”
### |
||||||