GOP Lawmakers Want Crackdown on Temporary Visa Abuse
New bill clamps-down on special residency program for migrants from crisis-zones
by Brendan Kirby | Updated 24 May 2017 at 4:15 PM
A group of Republican lawmakers proposed legislation Wednesday to rein in a program that purportedly grants temporary residency to foreigners whose homelands are engulfed in a crisis.
Critics long have contended that the Temporary Protected Status program, in practice, makes a mockery of the word “temporary.” The Department of Homeland Security routinely renews TPS designations. Some date to the 1990s. Officials from President Donald Trump’s administration, after flirting with the idea of canceling TPS for 50,000 Haitians who fled an earthquake in 2010, renewed it for another six months on Monday.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) is the lead sponsor of the Temporary Protected Status Reform Act of 2017, which has three co-sponsors, including House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas). It would give Congress the responsibility of determining whether to grant protection to citizens from various countries.
“My bill, the TPS Reform Act, would ensure that ‘temporary’ means temporary by establishing clear time limitations and creating statutory tests that must be met to grant the TPS designation,” Brooks said in a prepared statement on Wednesday. “This legislation provides the needed reform for what has become a long-running amnesty program.”
Currently, some 300,000 foreigners from 10 countries are allowed to remain and work in the United States under TPS. That includes foreigners who entered the country both legally and illegally. People who have been convicted serious crimes in the United States. are barred from asylum or have been declared inadmissible are ineligible. Anyone with TPS designation loses that status if he or she leaves the country and tries to re-enter.
Three major organizations that support stricter controls on immigration endorsed the bill.
“By now, we should have learned from experience that TPS is misnamed — what we offer as ‘temporary’ protection is rarely, if ever, temporary,” Federation for American Immigration Reform President Dan Stein said in a prepared statement. “Most often, unfortunately, it’s used by aliens residing in the United States as a foot in the door to permanent residence.”
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said in a statement that putting Congress in control of the program would be an improvement over the status quo.
“Our lawmakers still might choose poorly, but at least they’d be on the record and could be pressured by voters,” he stated. “It’s long past time to fix the TPS statute so that ‘temporary’ no longer means permanent.”
Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, indicated that the record is clear since Congress created the program in 1990.
“Past administrations have been abusing this temporary, humanitarian program for 27 years, using it as a de facto amnesty program,” she said in a statement.
http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/g...ry-visa-abuse/
GOP Lawmaker Proposes End to ‘de Facto Amnesty’ System
by JOHN BINDER
30 May 2017
Washington, D.C.
A new piece of legislation by a Republican lawmaker would tighten current processes which give illegal aliens de facto amnesty under what is meant to be a temporary, protected status.
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who is running for U.S. Senate, has introduced legislation that seeks to reform the temporary protected status system, where hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens can have their files renewed repeatedly, sometimes remaining legally in the U.S. for more than a decade.
More than 300,000 illegal aliens are given Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation that allows them to stay in the U.S. for up to 18 months. But, according to Brooks, the program is not temporary, as its name implies.
Brooks told AL.com that the President “repeatedly renews protected status, effectively providing a free and permanent pass into America – including all the benefits that come with it.”
“My bill, the TPS Reform Act, would ensure that ‘temporary’ means temporary by establishing clear time limitations and creating statutory tests that must be met to grant the TPS designation,” Brooks said. “This legislation provides the needed reform for what has become a long-running amnesty program.”
Already, Brooks’ legislation has gained traction among immigration experts, like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Past administrations have been abusing this temporary, humanitarian program for 27 years, using it as a de facto amnesty program,” NumbersUSA’s Rosemary Jenks told AL.com. “This bill would restore critical oversight by Congress.”
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) are co-sponsoring the legislation.
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...mnesty-system/
Gohmert: Time to End Temporary Status Program for Illegal Immigrants
May 31, 2017
(video may be viewed at source link)
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) appeared on "Fox & Friends" this morning to discuss a proposed bill that takes aim at a program that protects illegal immigrants.
More than 300,000 illegal immigrants living in the U.S. are shielded under the Temporary Protected Status program.
Gohmert, a co-sponsor of the bill, said the program was started under former President George H.W. Bush with good intentions, but it was abused under the Obama administration.
He explained that it was intended to protect refugees fleeing war-torn countries, but it now essentially offers illegal immigrants de facto amnesty, as it allows them to repeatedly renew their temporary protected status.
He said we must force the countries designated for the program, including Syria, Yemen and Sudan, to take these individuals back, since those are hotbeds of radical Islamic terror that pose a threat to American citizens.
"They took a good program started under George H.W. Bush for humanitarian purposes, and they turned it into a program that can be a way to hurt our country," Gohmert said. "And so it has to stop."
"This bill will force that to be reviewed and send people back that shouldn't be there," Gohmert said. "The bottom line is: If you're coming as a radical Islamist from a country that you've torn up with war, don't plan on staying to celebrate 9/11 in the United States."
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/05/3...al-immigration
