Buried in 844-Page Immigration Bill: Immediate U.S. Entry for Millions

Buried deep in the colossal immigration bill that’s floating around Congress is an obscure little section that rewrites the current immigrant visa waiting list to allow millions to cut in front of the line via new categories of family-sponsored immigrants.

As if it weren’t bad enough that the measure, known as the Schumer-Rubio bill after the New York Democrat and Florida Republican pushing it, already offers 11 million illegal aliens instant amnesty. A nonpartisan group dedicated to researching legal and illegal immigration into the U.S., discovered the provision in the course of dissecting the monstrous legislation, which at last count spans 844 pages.

The group’s Director of Policy Studies, a former State Department foreign service officer, found this interesting little tidbit that the mainstream media is unlikely to mention; the bill expands an old visa criteria by adding three new categories of family-sponsored immigrants that will instantaneously be allowed into the U.S. They include single and married adult sons and daughters as well as siblings.

This will allow more than 1.4 million family visa applicants to bypass the current waiting list and be admitted immediately and will permit an additional 2.9 million visa hopefuls to enter the U.S. as temporary visitors. This is outrageous since we all saw what “temporary visitors” did on 9/11. It’s fair to assume that this can only weaken national security, which isn’t all that strong to begin with.

This expansion is found in Section 2308 of the legislation, on “V Non-immigrant Visas”. Originally, the V visa was created to allow the eligible kids and spouses of legal U.S. residents (green card holders) to enter the country if they had been waiting a minimum of three years. The change will reward a much larger group with immediate U.S. entry under a perk intended for children and spouses of those living in the U.S. legally.

Here’s another interesting detail; a chunk of the new immigrants can get work permits upon admission and will be processed similarly to immigrant visa applicants, with pro forma fingerprint and medical screenings. Those not entitled to a work permit can still stay in the U.S. up to 60 days a year and it’s likely many won’t leave. “Why should they? After all, they have already discovered that following the rules is not rewarded (many have been on the waiting list for several years) and overstaying is a better deal,” the immigration research group points out in its analysis.

Earlier in the week another well-known D.C. organization published a report asserting that the pending immigration legislation will cost American taxpayers an astounding $6.3 trillion. That’s because newly legalized immigrants would receive $9.4 trillion in government benefits—such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and workers’ compensation—and services while paying only $3.1 trillion in taxes.