EAGLE Act Fails in Lame Duck Session of 117th Congress

FAIR Take | December 2022

After being pulled from the House floor last week, and votes delayed for it several times earlier this week, Democratic leadership has now confirmed that it is no longer expected to complete consideration of the Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act during this session of Congress.

Not only would enactment of the EAGLE Act have harmed American workers and resulted in even less immigration diversity, it would have threatened vital national security and economic interests.

Potentially, the biggest winner if the EAGLE Act had been approved would have been one of our nation’s most formidable global adversaries: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has a long and well-documented history of exploiting a variety of U.S. visa programs to advance its strategic and industrial espionage efforts against the United States.

It is encouraging that support for such an ill-conceived and dangerous bill waned among lawmakers in both parties – especially the GOP.  Unlike last session, when the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act passed the House by a margin of 365-65, both Republicans and Democrats recognize that now is not the time to allow a small number of nations, including one of our biggest rivals, to dominate the immigration flow.

This is another step toward becoming a unified party focused not only on ending the unprecedented wave of illegal immigration, but also on legal programs that have a disastrous impact on American workers.