Democrats Fueling, Not Fixing, Biden Border Crisis with New Legislative Ploy, Says FAIR

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Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

Apr 21, 2021, 10:26 ET

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Two FAIR-opposed immigration bills that are headed for a final vote in the House of Representatives today will exacerbate already significant threats to national security and further snarl our already overwhelmed immigration courts, charges the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

H.R. 1333, the NO BAN Act, would make it virtually impossible for presidents to restrict the entry of potential national security threats. The second bill, H.R. 1573, the Access to Counsel Act, would further paralyze our immigration courts, negatively impact U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) efficiency and operational capacity, and pad the wallets of activist, open borders immigration lawyers.

"If congressional Democrats and the Biden administration haven't sufficiently proven how detached from reality they are on immigration matters, passing these two bills will clinch the deal for them," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

"Just a week or so after we learned that terrorists are exploiting the Biden border crisis, the House now wants to make it easier for them to waltz in the front door by stripping presidents, current and future, of the authority to bar entry to foreign nationals based on legitimate security concerns," Stein added.

The NO BAN Act is based on the canard that travel restrictions imposed by former President Trump, and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, were based on religious discrimination rather than on risk assessments made by the State Department and intelligence agencies. "Nobody should ever be barred from entering the United States because of their religion, or other immutable characteristics. But a sitting president, based on legitimate national security concerns, must have the authority to act swiftly to bar entry of people from countries that support or harbor terrorists, or who withhold critical information regarding people seeking visas to enter the United States. H.R. 1333 would render the process so cumbersome as to make it impossible for any president to act in the interest of protecting national security," Stein charged.

The so-called Access to Counsel Act guarantees that anyone selected for secondary inspection at a port of entry has an opportunity to retain a lawyer. Enacting these restrictions on CBP would significantly slow down travel at the border, burden CBP, reduce their operational effectiveness, and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to implement. Even worse, the actual effects of this bill would enrich immigration lawyers, their firms, and zealous open borders "advocacy" organizations seeking to dismantle enforcement at the border.

"Our immigration courts are already backlogged with more than a million pending cases, and that backlog is growing by the day due to the Biden border crisis. This bill does nothing to address this crisis, does nothing to address the backlog, and does nothing to improve CBP's effectiveness at protecting our border and ports of entry," Stein said.

"The end result is that our immigration courts will become even more unworkable, immigration lawyers and advocacy groups will profit from the extra work, and everyone with a specious, or even fraudulent claim to enter or remain in the United States gets to stay. In other words, just another day's work for congressional Democrats and an administration hell-bent on eliminating any meaningful limits or restrictions on immigration," Stein concluded.

Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [email protected]

ABOUT FAIR
Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 3 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)