This Issue: House GOP offers strong plan to end border crisis

Republican Leaders often disappoint their constituents when it comes to the immigration issue. Take for example, House votes in 2018 when Republicans controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Former Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) offered legislation that included most of NumbersUSA's top legislative priorities -- ending Chain Migration and the Visa Lottery, requiring employers to use E-Verify, and closing asylum loopholes, among many other positive policy changes.

But then-House Speaker Paul Ryan created a much weaker version of the Goodlatte bill, offering House Republicans a choice between one of the best immigration bills to receive a floor vote in recent memory and a significantly weaker version. Neither passed, but had the better bill been the only option for House Republicans, it probably would have.

With Republicans hoping to take control of the House, and possibly the Senate, after this fall's midterm elections, House Republican Leadership is offering its solution to stopping the ongoing Biden border crisis. But unlike past efforts by GOP Leaders to address the issues within the immigration system, their plan offers a strong list of solutions.

Here are just some of the solutions listed in the House Republican plan:

• Require implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols that require illegal border crossers who claim asylum to remain in Mexico until their initial court hearing
• Fix the Flores settlement agreement so that parents and children will now be allowed to remain together in DHS custody while their immigration case is pending
• Close the loophole for Unaccompanied Alien Children who cross the border illegally that prevents minors from a non-contiguous country from being returned to their home country
• Ensure employers use E-Verify to check the work eligibility of new hires
• Increase penalties for visa overstays
• Increase funding for Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and border infrastructure

You can read the full House GOP plan by clicking here.

Overall, House GOP Leaders include most of the recommendations made by a coalition of groups, that included NumbersUSA, back in May. The coalition sent a letter to House GOP Leadership, detailing the needed actions to not just end the Biden border crisis but to prevent future border surges as well.

Of course, the devil is in the details. While the list of bullet points looks good on the surface, how House GOP Leaders turn the list into legislation is key. We'll continue to keep a close eye as GOP Members draft legislation and provide updates when we have them.

Congress almost gone for summer recess

The House of Representatives began it's six-week summer recess this week, and the Senate is expected to leave town after the weekend until after Labor Day. Thankfully, we've avoided most efforts by Congress to increase legal immigration and/or grant amnesty to illegal aliens.

The biggest threat was the massive amnesty that Democrats hoped to include in Pres. Biden's Build Back Better package. The Senate is expected to pass a slimmed down version of that legislation (now called the Inflation Reduction Act) over the next few days, and the bill doesn't include any immigration provisions. Should it pass in the Senate, the House will return from their recess for a day or two to vote on the bill.

Another threat was in the House COMPETES Act -- legislation aimed at investing in American technology and innovation that also included a massive legal immigration expansion. But Democratic Leaders decided to dump the more ambitious legislation and pass a skinny version entitled the CHIPS Act. The CHIPS Act doesn't include any of the immigration increases that were included in the House bill.

And just a few weeks ago, the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act, but not before adding to it a preemptive amnesty for about 190,000 soon-to-be illegal aliens who are children of foreign guest workers. While that issue is far from over, the Senate will leave town without taking up the House-passed bill.

With just a few legislative weeks left between Labor Day and the midterm elections, we'll continue to keep an eye on the National Defense Authorization Act and Congress' efforts to fund the federal government beyond Sept. 30.

Chris Chmielenski NumbersUSA Deputy Director