House Passes H.R. 565 – The AMIGOS Act

This morning the House of Representatives passed HR. 565 – The AMIGOS Act. Rather than fixing the well-documented problems with the E-1 and E-2 visa programs, an unlimited amount of visas given to countries who enter ‘free trade agreements’ with the United States, HR 565 simply adds another country to these uncapped, unlimited programs with no consideration for the American workers they may impact.

This bill makes Portuguese nationals eligible for E-1 and E-2 nonimmigrant visas if the government of Portugal provides similar nonimmigrant status to U.S. nationals. An E-1 visa is for individuals entering the U.S. to engage in international trade, while an E-2 visa is for individuals investing a substantial amount of capital in the U.S. Both are limited to nationals from countries that have a treaty of commerce and navigation with the United States.

Moreover, programs such as these have been proven to allow serious abuse of nonimmigrant workers. This is the reason our immigration system is so overcomplicated and fails to serve either Americans or foreign workers, Congress, again and again, has chosen to pile on to an already failing system, rather than fix it.