House Democrats Unveil Coronavirus Amnesty Bill
By RJ Hauman and Preston Huennekens | May 2020
The coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage our nation’s health, economic, and immigration systems. Over 33 million people are unemployed and looking for work. Our country’s unemployment rate is the highest since the Great Depression, rising sharply from just 3.6 percent in December to 14.7 percent in April.
And yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to bailout this country’s 14.3 million illegal aliens in the next round of stimulus legislation – and not just financially, but give them amnesty as well. This would be an unprecedented move and take desperately needed money and jobs away from American citizens.
The bill is called the HEROES Act (H.R. 6800) and will likely receive a floor vote on Friday, May 15. It is nothing more than a messaging and negotiation tactic that will die in the Senate.
Regardless, it is important for you to understand the radical priorities of House Democrats.
Just what is in the FAIR-opposed HEROES Act?
Amnesty
- No deportation for illegal aliens performing so-called “critical infrastructure” work, a wide-ranging list of occupations including agriculture, food production, transportation, construction, and more. Even worse, it protects the employers who hire illegal aliens to do these jobs – encouraging them to hire more for lower wages, rather than hiring desperate American workers
- With no end date, this is de facto amnesty for nearly every working illegal alien in the country
- Release of almost all ICE detainees, resulting in a near-cessation of immigration enforcement
- The Federal government would also fund radical open-borders activist groups to counsel illegal aliens still in detention
Stimulus Funds for Illegal Aliens
- Instead of requiring a Social Security Number, illegal aliens with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) are allowed to receive recovery rebate checks
- It would also give these illegal aliens the ability to receive $1,200 checks retroactively from the CARES Act
- Illegal aliens are protected from eviction and will benefit from a slew of other taxpayer-funded provisions
Sanctuary City Funding
- Provides hundreds of millions of dollars in Byrne Justice Assistance Grants, explicitly preventing the Justice Department from withholding any of the money from going to sanctuary jurisdictions
Legal Immigration Increases
- Immigrant visa numbers that go unused at the end of the fiscal year are rolled over for use in subsequent fiscal years
- Immigrant physicians in visa backlog immediately get green cards – even if they aren’t going to work fighting the coronavirus
- Automatic work authorization extension for guestworkers who would otherwise have to go home