American Dream and Promise Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, as we see the ongoing impacts of Biden's inhumane border crisis, I rise in opposition to H.R. 6.

Mr. Speaker, it is irresponsible to be considering this bill today. This bill provides amnesty to millions of those who are illegally in this country. This promise of amnesty is a magnet for aliens attempting to enter the United States today. For at least 35 years, we have seen a direct correlation between promises of amnesty and an increase in illegal border crossing.

The ongoing Biden inhumane border crisis is a direct result of then- candidate and now-President Biden's flawed border policies, including amnesty. That is why I reintroduced the Fund and Complete the Border Wall Act earlier this year and introduced the Stopping Border Surges Act earlier this week.

These bills include real reforms that will have real impacts. Specifically, the Stopping Border Surges Act fixes problems caused by the Flores settlement agreement that prevent DHS from detaining family units for more than 20 days, ensures that unaccompanied alien children are quickly and safely returned to their homes, and promotes increased integrity in the asylum system.

H.R. 6 will cause more problems than it will solve. It has serious flaws that lead to fraud and abuse.

This bill gives the Secretary broad authority to waive grounds of inadmissibility for humanitarian purposes, family unity, or because the waiver is otherwise in the public interest. That means that, under this bill, even convicted criminals will be eligible for amnesty.

If that is not bad enough, under this bill, aliens who were removed from the country by DHS will be allowed to return and get amnesty. Let me repeat that: Aliens who were ordered removed by an immigration judge after receiving due process and were actually removed will be allowed to return and get amnesty.

Last year, USCIS, the agency that administers this amnesty program, almost had to furlough 70 percent of its workforce because the fees it collects do not cover the costs of adjudicating immigration benefits. But this bill actually sets the amnesty fee arbitrarily low and will allow most aliens to obtain a fee waiver. That is a recipe for disaster.

This bill prohibits information from being shared with ICE so that our immigration laws cannot be enforced. Instead of prohibiting information sharing, we should require information sharing.

This bill does nothing to secure the border or close loopholes in our immigration laws that encourage illegal immigration.

Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

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