Democrats Inch Closer to Passing Largest Amnesty in American History
FAIR Take | November 2021
Late Friday, the House cleared a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and took a major step toward passage of the $1.85 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) Act, which contains amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.
While BBB did not receive a final vote due to overall cost concerns, President Biden and House leaders said they are confident that will happen the week of Nov. 15.
House Democrats did approve on a party-line 221-213 vote a rule that sets the terms for debate when the BBB comes to the floor.
Over the past few weeks, Democrats worked tirelessly to insert an amnesty for up to 7.1 million illegal aliens into BBB. The Senate Parliamentarian rebuffed similar efforts twice, yet they continue pushing for sweeping immigration changes completely unrelated to federal spending or budget matters.
While the current BBB amnesty provision does not include a pathway to citizenship for those eligible, it is still an amnesty, providing protection from deportation and work authorization.
Amnesty is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of persons, usu. for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of persons who are subject to trial but have not yet been convicted.” (emphasis mine).
This provision clearly checks the amnesty box, and even worse, it is not accompanied by a single enforcement tradeoff to address the border crisis.
Further, the bill seeks to “recapture” unused immigrant visas from previous years to address visa backlogs, a clear giveaway to giant technology corporations. Rewarding them with a nearly unlimited supply of cheap foreign labor would depress wages and displace American workers. This is wrong and unconscionable as our economy continues sputtering under the Biden administration.
Stay tuned to FAIR over the next week for ways you can easily contact your member of Congress and tell them to oppose the largest amnesty in American history at the worst possible time.