S. 1627, the Visa Entry Reform Act, would create a comprehensive alien tracking and identification system that would implement an entry-exit system to check every visa holder upon entering and exiting the U.S. It would also help reduce the number of applicants who are denied refugee status but then fail to leave the country.
H.R. 3077, the Visa Integrity and Security Act, would require H-1B employers to notify authorities if H-1B visa holders never show up for the job. The bill would have also created an entry-exit tracking system that would signal authorities when people who enter the U.S. legally on visas do not leave as they should and stay here illegally.
S. 1518, the Visa Integrity and Security Act, would have required H-1B employers to report to the INS as soon an H-1B visa holder has been fired or laid off. This reporting requirement would help deter visa overstays on the part of H-1B visa holders. It also would have implemented an entry-exit tracking system for visa holders. This would have helped reduce illegal immigration by signaling authorities when people who enter the U.S. legally on visas do not leave as then should and stay here illegally.
S. 1491 would create and implement a fingerprint processing system for every visa holder. This would help increase interior enforcement by allowing for tracking of aliens while they are in the U.S. and decreasing the probability that an alien will overstay a visa and become an illegal alien.
H.R. 2202, the Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995, was a large omnibus bill designed to reform the entire immigration system. The legal immigration reforms it included were based on the bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission's recommendations for cutting the major links of family-chain migration and protecting American workers from further wage depression. The bill would have eliminated the categories for adult children and siblings and limited that for parents of adults.
H.R. 1915, the Immigration in the National Interest Act, would have shifted the primary focus of immigration policy to spouses and minor children from extended family and to skilled immigrants from less skilled ones. It would have set a ceiling of 330,000 on family-based immigration. In addition this bill would have increased the number of skilled workers, while eliminating the unskilled worker category and the lottery program. H.R. 1915 also contained provisions designed to reduce illegal immigration such as worker verification programs.
H.R. 4934, the Immigration Reduction Act, would cut legal immigration -- by reducing chain migration, ending the visa lottery, capping refugees and asylees, eliminating unnecessary worker visas, and ending birthright citizenship -- from around 1 million to around 320,000 a year, reducing U.S. population growth by about 5.8 million over a 10-year period.
S.1923, the Immigration Stabilization Act, was the first comprehensive immigration reduction bill to be introduced in the Senate since the 1920s. It would have cut legal immigration in all categories from around one million to about 425,000 a year.
H.R. 3862 would have cut legal immigration from around one million to below 300,000 a year -- near the traditional American level of immigration. It also would have eliminated one of the major incentives for illegal immigration by halting the granting of U.S. citizenship to babies born to illegal-alien mothers in the United States. The House leadership did not bring the bill to a vote.
H.R.3320 was the first comprehensive immigration reduction legislation to be introduced in the House since the 1920s. It would have cut legal immigration from around one million to just under 400,000 a year by reducing chain migration, cutting the number of employment-based green cards, reducing refugee and asylee admissions, eliminating the visa lottery, and boosting enforcement.