Sen. Cruz Introduces Bill to De-Fund Executive Amnesties

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., introduced the Immigration Slush Fund Elimination Act, which would ban DHS from using the fees collected for legal immigration benefits to fund President Obama’s executive amnesties. In a press release, Sen. Cruz said, “The federal government should not be in the business of looting the wallets of those who followed the law and came here legally to fund the President’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty. This bill will cut off DHS’s credit card.”

According to the press release, the bill would:

• “{text}. The Obama Administration’s…U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)…admitted it uses so-called offsetting accounts (which function like agency checking accounts) to take the fees it charges legal immigrants and use them to fund amnesty and other activities that Congress has not authorized… USCIS can access more than $1 billion in fee-based funding…to pay for an unauthorized amnesty processing center…Eliminating the ability of USCIS to use the money…to support amnesty and other unauthorized activities is a first step toward reining in the executive branch; and

• “{text}. Right now, USCIS has an incentive to process as many immigration benefits as possible, without regard to consequences…he agency’s desire to collect more fee-based revenue – along with its unrestricted ability to keep and use those fees – arguably interferes with USCIS’s objective review of application processing. Removing the focus on fees and revenue will once again focus USCIS on its core responsibilities, including protecting our national security and preventing immigration benefit fraud.”

Read his press release or the bill itself.