Congressman Tancredo Introduces OVERDUE Immigration Bill

On July 11th, Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) introduced a comprehensive immigration enforcement bill, entitled the Optimizing Visa Entry Rules and Demanding Uniformed Enforcement (OVERDUE) Immigration Bill. Upon the announcement of the bill, Congressman Tancredo criticized the Bush Administration for failing to enforce U.S. immigration laws. "While we often hear administration officials saying that they simply can't enforce our laws when the truth is that they haven't even tried, it's not that they can't enforce these laws, it's that they don't want to." He added, "Empowering our immigration enforcement officers to use existing tools is a good place to start, but it's only a start. My legislation would build on these tools by making a number of long- overdue changes to our immigration law."

The OVERDUE Immigration bill would:

Restore America's immigration system to a more traditional level of admissions;

Eliminate "chain migration" (extended family preference categories) in accordance with the recommendations of the Jordan Commission;

Eliminate the "visa lottery" in accordance with the recommendations of the Jordan Commission;

Ensure that automatic birthright citizenship accrues to children born in the U.S. only if at least one parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident;

Suspend the Visa Waiver Program until the Department of Homeland (DHS) makes certain certifications to the Congress;

Prohibit states from granting in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens on the basis of graduation from a U.S. high school (in addition to residence) unless they offer the same rate to all U.S. citizens;

Affirm the inherent authority of State and local law enforcement officers to enforce the immigration laws of the United States; require Federal immigration authorities to respond to requests for assistance from State and local authorities; and

Authorize federal reimbursement of health care providers for federally mandated emergency medical treatment of illegal aliens, so long as the providers collect and report immigration status information and other non-clinical information concerning each illegal alien treated.

The above news item was taken from the FAIR legislative update newsletter of July 16, 2007.