Congressmen Who Oppose Immigration Reform Use Loophole To Keep Select Few In U.S.

By Josh Israel on May 30, 2013 at 10:30 am
Some members of Congress are taking advantage of a loophole that allows them to keep a select few in the US, even as they oppose broader efforts to reform immiration.

Here’s how it works: Any U.S. Senator or Representative may file a “private bill,” proposing relief for a person who has been denied asylum, but still wants to live in the United States. The bill gets referred to the Judiciary Committee, which generally does not act on private bills. Because the bill is pending, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allows the individual to stay in the country under “deferred action.” At the start of the next Congress, the bill’s sponsor simply re-files the bill, restarting the process.

In the 112th Congress, dozens of such bills were filed by members of both parties. While the individual stories are often compelling, this little-noticed loophole allows those who can attract the support of a Member of Congress a great advantage over those will equally compelling stories but no such access.

More curious, though, is that some of the lawmakers who have offered private immigration bills in the past two Congresses have been otherwise staunch opponents of reforms that would provide the same chance for others — even opponents of President Obama’s “deferred action” order for young immigrants brought to the U.S. as small children.

Read more here: http://thinkprogress.org/immigration...-hunter-visas/

Update: Sorry guys, I'm not on my game today. I didn't realize that the title cuts off after a certain amount of characters!

its ok, you tried. you're forgiven.

Fixed the title for you, Esther.

Yeaaah.. I think something like 1 bill a decade gets approved. BFD.