Washington, D.C. (February 19, 2020) – A detailed analysis of the New Way Forward Act (H.R. 5383) by the Center for Immigration Studies reveals Democrats' plans for immigration enforcement if they ever regain control of the White House and Congress.

Introduced in the House of Representatives in December, and co-sponsored by the number-two Democrat on the immigration subcommittee, the bill's largest beneficiaries would be criminal aliens, the smugglers and traffickers who prey upon migrants, and the criminal cartels that benefit from their passage over the border into the United States.

Andrew Arthur, the Center's Resident Fellow in Law and Policy and author of the analysis, said "The New Way Forward Act was introduced by representatives who apparently believe that the current immigration laws are too harsh on criminal aliens in the United States, that immigration enforcement in the interior is currently too effective, and that there are not enough criminals in this country already. Regrettably, I am not exaggerating."

Arthur continued, "This bill pulls the curtain back on where Democrats want to go on immigration, if they get the power to do so. Why do I say that? The first cosponsor is Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the vice-chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship at the House Judiciary Committee (the subcommittee to which that bill has been referred). She is no backbencher unaware of what this bill would do; she is leadership on that powerful committee."

See Arthur's analysis of the proposal here: https://cis.org/Report/New-Way-Forward-Act-Roadmap-Immigration-under-Democratic-Control.

Some highlights:

• H.R. 5383, the New Way Forward Act, which has 44 cosponsors, would effectively eviscerate immigration enforcement both at the border and in the interior of the United States.
• It would all but eliminate detention for immigration purposes, and impose new burdens on our already overtaxed immigration courts.
• It would place onerous restrictions on ICE officers and Border Patrol agents in making immigration arrests — including in desolate areas of the border in the middle of the night.
• It would require those officers and agents to justify every arrest of an alien without a warrant before an immigration judge, straining to the point of elimination DHS's limited immigration-enforcement resources.
• It would create a "statute of limitations" of five years for the commencement of removal proceedings based on even the most serious criminal offenses.
• It would limit the criminal grounds of removal so significantly that only the most extreme offenses would render criminal aliens removable, and would also expand the relief available to the few aliens who would still be removable on criminal grounds.
• It would make the amendments to the criminal grounds of removal and relief retroactive, so that even criminal aliens who have been removed from the United States, but who would not have been removable had that law been in effect, could apply to have their cases reopened or reconsidered. Immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals would have no discretion not to reopen or reconsider those cases.
• It would require DHS to pay to fly those criminal aliens who have been removed and who would be eligible for reopening or reconsideration thereunder back to the United States — which would result in dangerous criminal aliens being returned at taxpayer expense back to this country to commit more crimes.
• It would prevent state and local law enforcement from assisting ICE and CBP in immigration enforcement in any way, and bar the inclusion of immigration-related information into the NCIC database or its incorporated criminal history databases. This would essentially make every jurisdiction in the United States a "sanctuary jurisdiction". As a result, ICE officers would have to risk their own safety and the safety of the community as a whole to arrest dangerous criminal aliens at their homes or in public places.
• It would repeal the criminal grounds of illegal entry and reentry into the United States, encouraging fraud, enriching smugglers, traffickers, and criminal cartels, and endangering the national security and the community.