Congressman Amodei releases statement on the Securing America's Future Act

U.S. Representative Mark Amodei, serving Nevada's Second Congressional District, today released the following statement on House Resolution 4760, the Securing America’s Future Act:

“For nearly seven years, I’ve said I can’t defend doing nothing on any pressing issue — particularly, immigration,” said Congressman Amodei. “From this most recent issue of family separation, back to the general reform discussions in 2011 and before, if anyone believes the status quo regarding our nation’s immigration system is working — I respectfully disagree.

“The family separation issue is just the most recent consequence of our broken immigration system. It’s because of issues like this that I signed a discharge petition weeks ago to bring immigration reform legislation to the House Floor for a vote.

"Nearly two-dozen of my Republican colleagues joined me in signing this discharge petition, a number that includes many of the strongest Members of the House Republican Conference — most of whom vote with President Trump more than 90 percent of the time.

“However, it’s important to take note of this week’s events, which reveal what happens when regular order is ignored. Even the discharge petition could have brought immigration bills through the House Rules Committee and allowed for regular debate on the House Floor.

"But when closed-door meetings substitute committee-work, transparency, and normal Floor procedures — expectations are unmet, and Members and the 'process' are disrespected.

"My question to leadership is: Where was this sense of urgency last year or for the President’s March 6 deadline to fix the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program?

"Four years ago, we had a crisis where large numbers of unaccompanied children from Central America arrived at our border. This was considered an emergency and the House acted accordingly. Well, here’s the latest crisis, and House leadership is choosing to solve it behind closed doors, which is an awful way to deal with bedrock issues.

“Frankly, if it hadn’t been for the discharge petition focusing everybody on the issue for the last month, this would have caught us completely by surprise. At any rate, after more than three decades of congressional inaction on this issue, we are finally in a position to start voting on immigration reform this week.

“I joined my Republican colleagues in the House today and voted in favor of H.R. 4760, legislation that will secure our border, strengthen workplace enforcement, robustly enforce our immigration laws that are working while fixing the ones that aren’t, and move the DACA situation off of nothing, to a small step in the right direction."

Specifically, H.R. 4760 would:

— Mandate E-Verify for all employers within two years;

— Put an end to chain migration and the visa lottery program;

— Strengthen border security and interior enforcement: "We do not have open borders at any of our coastal facilities, international airports, or ports of entry on the northern border and the southwest border should be no exception."

— Authorize border wall construction and call for an additional 5,000 border patrol personnel and 5,000 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officers along the border of the United States;

— Provide a legislative solution for current beneficiaries of DACA to receive a three-year renewable legal status in perpetuity: "While I would have liked to see a more comprehensive fix for recipients of the DACA program, this is certainly considered an improvement from the limbo they’re currently in."

— Ensure gang members or individuals with criminal convictions are not eligible for legal status and will enhance criminal penalties for deported criminals who illegally return;

— Deny funding to Sanctuary Cities; and

— Retain 'special procedures' for sheepherders and transfer audit authority to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) instead of the Department of Labor (DOL) for H-2A visas, a move which will vastly improve the system to obtain visas for temporary or seasonal agricultural work as the USDA has a greater understanding of the agricultural industry.

"While today’s action in the House hardly represents a fully-accomplished mission as it pertains to comprehensive immigration reform — and while the process used by leadership to go about this vote is by no means exemplary — at least we’ve begun the attempt to address the large number of immigration issues confronting our country.

"This legislation fell 25 votes short of passage, and at this time, the House is scheduled to vote on another immigration bill next week. Stay tuned."