Immigration Bills

The bill would require DHS to establish a pilot program to expand the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) (which now allows citizens of 27 countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa, and, because there is little scrutiny of VWP “travelers,” has provided easy entry for terrorists and created a black market for stolen or forged passports from such countries) to include up to five new countries that are cooperating with the United States on security and counterterrorism matters, provided those nations first come to counterterrorism and security information sharing agreemen

H.R. 454, the HRIFA Improvement Act, would expand the scope of the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA) of 1998 (i.e., one of six amnesties granted since 1986) by: (1) granting amnesty to children whose parents applied for amnesty for them when they were minors, but who have since turned 21 and become adults (i.e., "aging out"); (2) including document fraud among the grounds of inadmissibility which may be waived in granting amnesty to a Haitian national under HRIFA; and (3) allowing Haitians who were previously denied amnesty to file a motion to reopen their applications.

The bill would allow “temporary” or “seasonal” H-2A nonimmigrant aliens coming to the United States for employment as a dairy worker to be admitted, initially, for three years.

To provide for an initial period of admission of 36 months for aliens employed as dairy workers.

The bill would exempt elementary and secondary schools from payment of H-1B (i.e., “skilled worker”) visa petition fees.

To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt elementary and secondary schools from the fee imposed on employers filing petitions with respect to non-immigrant workers under the H-1B program.

The bill would extend Temporary Protected Status to Lebanese citizens for one year if they are in the United States, admissible as an immigrant and register with DHS.

To designate Lebanon under section 244(b) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act to permit nationals of Lebanon to be granted temporary protected status in the United States.