Speech #CREC-2018-01-18-pt1-PgH548_t4

They must have served in the military for the entire length of their enlistment contract or been employed for at least 3 years 80 percent of the time they were under conditional permanent residency status. Only after meeting all of the above, could they then transition to legal permanent residency. Then after 5 additional years, they will have been able to apply for naturalization. The USA Act has a border security component unlike the clean Dream Act. These bipartisan Members of this House tried to address some of the concerns of Members from across the aisle who continue to complain and be seriously concerned about border security. They included directing Homeland Security to deploy more technology along the border and to submit a plan to Congress regarding expansion of vehicle, cargo, and pedestrian inspection lanes on the top 10 high- volume ports of entry. This last clause in this bill is very important because our ports of entry are very antiquated and dilapidated. This is precisely where most of the illegal drugs, illegal guns, and human trafficking enters our Nation. This particular bill calls for revamping and modernizing these ports of entry. The USA Act also would add an additional 55 immigration judges per year over the next 3 fiscal years. Finally, this bipartisan bill develops a strategy to address the factors driving migration from Northern Triangle countries in Central America. So you have the Dream Act, the clean Dream Act, which many of us fought for. You have the USA Act, another bipartisan bill that many in this House fought to put together. But it does not end there. In addition to these two avenues that could have been taken tonight here in this House to address the plight of 800,000 DREAMers, the Senate acted and sent us over an immigration framework of ideas led by Senators Graham and Durbin, in addition to Senators Michael Bennet, Jeff Flake, and Cory Gardner, and Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey. Under this framework, the eligibility criteria bars DREAMers who have been convicted of crimes, and they must satisfy any Federal tax liability that they may have accrued while receiving work authorization under DACA. A pathway to citizenship would be 12 years, unlike the other two proposals that call for 8 years, this is at 12 years, and 2 of which they could get credit for for their time under DACA. This proposal, this framework, coming from the Senate also added additional border security elements which included $1.459 billion for wall planning, design, and construction, as well as an additional $1.1 billion for tactical infrastructure, software border surveillance technology, and other equipment. All three of these bills were crafted under a bipartisan effort by Members from both sides of the aisle. I think that it is tragic that we lost another great opportunity tonight to bring any one of those three bills to this floor to be voted upon by the Members of this House, particularly since the public sentiment--over 80 percent of America feels that these young people should stay in our Nation.