Republicans release Border Security and Immigration Reform Act

U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and U.S. Reps. Jeff Denham (R-CA) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) on June 19 unveiled the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018.

The consensus bill, H.R. 6136, which resulted from negotiations between Republicans and focuses on the four pillars for immigration reform outlined by President Donald Trump, preceded by a day the president’s signing of an executive order ending family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump’s order also continues a zero tolerance policy to prosecute illegal immigrants and directs Congress to legislatively solve all related issues.

The House is expected to vote on the compromise immigration bill on Friday after rejecting another immigration bill led by Rep. Goodlatte known as the Securing America’s Future Act of 2018, H.R. 4760, on Thursday by a vote of 193-231.

Rep. McCaul pledged “to continue working with all of my congressional colleagues to get a long-term solution to the president’s desk as soon as possible,” he said on June 20, adding that the newly introduced reforms “address family separation, finally secure our borders, and will fix the systemic issue of illegal immigration due to loopholes in our broken immigration system.”

During a June 17 interview on Fox News, Rep. McCaul said, “This is a historic opportunity to advance a conservative agenda we have been trying to do for the last 25 years — to structurally change the way we do immigration and make it more merit based rather than random.”

According to a summary of H.R. 6136 provided by the House Judiciary Committee, the bill proposes:

  • Robust border security and nearly $25 billion in advance appropriations to build a wall and infrastructure along the southern border of the United States;
  • More tools to help prevent illegal immigration and human smuggling, such as providing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with the ability to detain dangerous criminal aliens, among other provisions;
  • Modernizing the nation’s immigration system by ending the visa lottery and shifting to a first-in-line visa system that would eliminate the per-country cap on employment-based green cards and increase the cap on family-sponsored green cards to 15 percent from 7 percent;
  • Providing a legislative solution for those individuals who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children without creating a special pathway to citizenship. For instance, among other provisions, the bill would allow the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) population – children who came to the U.S. as minors and grew up here – an opportunity to earn legal status;
  • Creating a new merit-based immigration program that rewards those with the skills, education and work experience the U.S. needs; and
  • Amending current law and court decisions to keep children and parents together as much as possible when they are apprehended at the border.

Rep. Goodlatte, who introduced H.R. 6136, pointed out that the bill’s proposed merit-based system is directly tied to the funding for the border wall. “If Congress down the road seeks to rescind the funding for the border wall, new visas will not be allocated,” he said.

Rep. Goodlatte added that the bill brings the nation’s immigration system into the 21st century and addresses the various perspectives of House Republicans, who he said “have been working hard to find common ground.”

In citing H.R. 6136 as “the most significant border security and immigration reform legislation” to be considered in more than a decade, Rep. Goodlatte also urged his colleagues in the House to support the bill “when it is voted on later this week.”

Regarding DACA, Rep. Denham said he’s “been working for years to get a permanent solution in place for our nation’s Dreamers and secure our borders. This bill accomplishes both and crucially addresses the separation of children from their parents on our border.”

Rep. Denham, who was instrumental in negotiating H.R. 6136 with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and other leadership members over the past several weeks, authored language in the final bill to stop the separation of families under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy.

H.R. 6136 would immediately provide a permanent DACA solution for all 1.8 million Dreamers, said Rep. Denham. “I am encouraged that we have been able to come together on a solution and encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in getting this bill passed.”

A vote against H.R. 6136, said Rep. Curbelo, “is a vote for the status quo — for a porous border, for uncertainty for Dreamers, for family separation, and for an immigration system that falls short in so many ways.”

Rep. Curbelo, the leader of a bipartisan discharge petition effort that pressured House Republican leadership to negotiate the immigration reforms, added that passage of H.R. 6136 will strengthen U.S. immigration laws and can “help heal our country’s politics by showing that Congress can work to address a divisive, challenging issue.”

“Since our country began the debate over immigration ‎reform more than a decade ago, politicians from both parties have decried our broken, deficient immigration system while doing nothing to fix it,” Rep. Curbelo said. “Now is the time to secure our borders, provide a fair solution for young immigrants brought to our country as children, keep immigrant families together, and align our immigration system with our country’s economic needs.”

Reps. Curbelo, Denham and McCaul are the original cosponsors of H.R. 6136. Among the 10 total cosponsors of the measure are U.S. Reps. Steve Stivers (R-OH), John Katko (R-NY), Don Bacon (R-NE), and John Moolenaar (R-MI).