Veteran Service Recognition Act of 2022
Floor Speech
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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1508, I call up the bill (H.R. 7946) to provide benefits for noncitizen members of the Armed Forces, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
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Ms. LOFGREN. 7946.
Mr. Speaker, today, this House will pass H.R. 7946, the Veteran Service Recognition Act 2022. This is a bill that recognizes and honors the commitment and sacrifices of our noncitizen servicemembers and veterans.
Noncitizens have served in our military in every conflict since the Revolutionary War. In tribute to their patriotism, our laws offer noncitizen servicemembers an expedited pathway to citizenship.
Unfortunately, this expedited path is not always known to the servicemembers themselves; sometimes there is confusion or lack of information. Not every legal permanent resident who could avail themselves of this opportunity has, in fact, done so; and we have found instances where servicemembers believed that just by serving they had become a United States citizen. Our bill does have some measures to make sure that that information is better communicated in the future and there is less confusion.
However--and unfortunately--the complexity of the current immigration system puts some unnecessary roadblocks to naturalization but also can have a terrible impact on veterans who have not availed themselves of the opportunity.
The traumas of war can have terrible effects on our veterans. Individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are far more likely to become entangled with the criminal justice system. When that happens, citizens merely avail themselves of the criminal justice system. For example, if they are arrested for drug possession, they might serve time in the county jail, and when they are released, they have paid their debt to society. But noncitizens who are in the same situation--people who fought for our country--might serve their jail time for drug possession, but then they also face immigration court because a crime that might lead to relatively minor consequences for a U.S. citizen could lead to deportation of a noncitizen veteran.
Now, noncitizen veterans' service records are meant to be considered during removal proceedings, but such consideration rarely occurs. Consequently, veterans who earned the right to citizenship decades ago have been deported.
H.R. 7946 corrects this problem by giving deported veterans the opportunity to apply for a second chance and obtain lawful permanent residency. Relief under this bill is discretionary--available only to those veterans whose return is in the public interest.
Additionally, the bill creates a review process for servicemembers in removal proceedings to ensure that their service records are taken into account by immigration judges. It has an advisory council to examine at length the veteran's record to see whether or not he or she was suffering from PTSD and the like. The information can then be given to the immigration judge, but the immigration judge retains the authority to make the decision.
The legislation, as I mentioned earlier, makes needed changes to current laws to allow servicemembers to naturalize as early as possible, and we believe these changes will ensure that future veterans will not be at risk of deportation.
Finally, H.R. 7946 codifies the current Parole in Place for the immediate relatives of U.S. citizen servicemembers and veterans, making permanent an administrative program that began in 2007 under then- President George W. Bush. At the time, we had come across instances where an American soldier was killed in action, but his mother was subject to deportation, and that mother who was sent outside of the country could not even visit the grave of her deceased military son.
George Bush sought to change that. We have kept that change in place ever since, and this would codify it.
This bill is supported by numerous advocacy, labor, and veterans' groups, including The American Legion, the Nation's largest veterans service organization. We made a commitment to our noncitizen servicemembers when they joined our Armed Forces, and our laws really should reflect that commitment.
I am proud to have worked alongside my colleagues, Chairman Nadler, as well as Chairman Takano, and I would like to mention specifically other members of our caucus who introduced bills on this subject--they were all collected into this final product--including Congressman Correa, Congressman Ruiz, Congressman Vargas, Congressman Grijalva, and several others.
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Ms. LOFGREN. I will note that the exclusion of those serious offenses was in the base bill. We didn't have to be convinced of that. We used the definition of ``veterans'' in the veterans code, and veterans who have an honorable or a general discharge are eligible for benefits, so that is what we used. Dishonorable discharges are not included.
I will just say this: These are discretionary matters. If you have multiple DUIs--let's say you have three DUIs, but they are 25 years ago, and you have a completely clean record. You might be able to seek administrative review of that matter. That is all this does.
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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I would just note, once again, that those with dishonorable discharges are not eligible under the bill.
Jayapal), a member of the Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee.
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Ms. LOFGREN. He served in this Congress. He is the author of one of the bills that was included in this bill and has visited with deported veterans across the border.
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Ms. LOFGREN. Jackson Lee), who is a proud member of the Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee and a long-serving member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the sponsor and proponents of this legislation. It is so startling, stunning, shocking, absurd to even be standing here discussing the deportation of men and women who have worn the uniform and have offered to sacrifice their lives for the oldest democracy in the world.
Mr. Speaker, it is clearly an effort that is long overdue, and I am stunned by my friends on the other side of the aisle--I have said that word, stunned and shocked, that there would be any opposition to this. We know that immigrants have served in the United States Armed Forces in every major conflict, and there are now 45,000 immigrants serving in the armed forces in this country.
It is important that we fix the gap, the loophole, the calls that are gotten when immigrants are deported. This legislation, I am very grateful to say, is about fixing this problem.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support H.R. 7946, that would require or would have DHS create and enforce a system for identifying noncitizen veterans and require their status as a veteran to be brought into consideration in the case of removal proceedings. Their service record will also be brought into it. Any of us can believe it, they could be heroic, and that doesn't even count in today's scheme.
It would also require DHS to provide the opportunity for eligible noncitizen veterans to be granted lawful permanent residence. Identification of their veteran status would halt any removal proceedings, and there would be a final administrative decision on the veterans' eligibility.
What I like also about it is that when you come into basic training, we can then naturalize these individuals, these servants who have offered themselves for training and to be part of this government by fighting, by wearing the uniform, by fighting for democracy to become citizens.
The Veteran Service Recognition Act is offered in response to DHS' and the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement's failure to consistently follow its own policies regarding deportation of those.
That means that we say on the floor of the House with great embarrassment that we have deported men and women who have served in uniform; and, yes, we have had challenges with the same kind of--how should I say it--detoured roads that our own veterans have had to fall to, substance abuse, or other incidences; but they have still worn the uniform.
Our veterans can get into the Veterans Court or get into services; but the other veterans, who have the same defaults, if you will, because of the conditions of war, have to be deported. That doesn't make sense.
More than 760,000 noncitizens have enlisted over the past century, with peaks in world wars and 9/11. There are approximately 45,000 immigrants, as I said, in active service.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to make sure that my county knows that there are 179,000 veterans who live in Harris County, and 1,567,000 veterans who live in Texas. Some of those are our immigrant veterans, and some are not citizens.
So my point is, here today, that we must find every available way to treat them as they treated this Nation: I am willing to die for America and America's values.
Mr. Speaker, I must raise this. Languishing in a Russian prison is a veteran, Paul Whelan, with bogus charges, a hostage. Alongside of him is Brittney Griner, and it has been determined that the conditions she is living in are just atrocious.
My point is, that any time an American needs America to fix the problem, as a democratic nation, we must stand with those who have stood with us; those who are citizens and those who are immigrants who fought for us.
I ask my friends and colleagues to support H.R. 7946.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 7946, the Veteran Service Recognition Act of 2022 that would address immigration-related issues pertaining to noncitizen military veterans.
By enacting H.R. 7946, the Department of Homeland Security would be required to create and enforce a system for identifying noncitizen veterans and require their status as a veteran to be brought into consideration in the case of removal proceedings.
H.R. 7946 will also require the DHS to provide the opportunity for eligible noncitizen veterans to be granted lawful permanent resident status.
Identification of their veteran status would halt any removal proceedings until there is a final administrative decision on the veteran's eligibility.
The Veteran Service Recognition Act is offered in response to the DHS's and the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement's failure to consistently follow its own policies regarding deportation of those who served in our armed forces.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement already has policies that provides special consideration to veterans in light of their service, but has recklessly failed to follow them.
The Government Accountability Office reported that between 2013 and 2018, ICE did not consistently follow its own policies or maintain electronic data on the number of veterans placed in removal proceedings.
Investigators also found that a staggering 70 percent of cases involving the deportation of noncitizen veterans did not receive a review as required.
This means that veterans were not granted their right to due process. As a result, we do not even have an accurate measure of the number of veterans who have been unjustly deported.
As a nation, we should be ashamed and alarmed by this lack of information which reflects a lack of concern for treating them fairly.
More than 760,000 noncitizens have enlisted over the past century, with peaks during the World Wars and 9/11 attacks. Today, there are approximately 45,000 immigrants in active service.
This issue is important to me because many of our nation's veterans who are not US citizens are among the 29,000 veterans who live in my district, the 179,000 who live in Harris County, and the 1,567,000 who live in Texas, the second most of any state.
The promise of naturalization is sometimes a military recruitment strategy that targets immigrant communities. Military service is supposed to qualify veterans for naturalization as U.S. citizens because honorable service satisfies the ``good moral character'' requirements, according to the 1940 Nationality Act.
But then, in 2017, a Trump administration policy restricted access to the expedited citizenship that was promised to veterans after 9/11.
This policy exacerbated the persistent problem of immigrant veterans not being given the proper guidance on how to complete the naturalization process.
In turn, this systemic failure leads to more than half of the eligible noncitizen veterans not completing their naturalization process, leaving them in a permanent limbo.
When we needed them the most, hundreds of thousands of noncitizens stepped up to fight for our wars.
And now when they needed us, our nation failed to even recognize them, let alone protect them.
``Leave no one behind'' is a common mantra followed by the United States Armed Forces. We must abide by that principle in support of our noncitizen veterans who served our country honorably, and make sure that they, too, are never left behind again.
We must do more to help our foreign-born veterans navigate the naturalization process. It is up to Congress to act.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Veteran's Recognition Act.
This bill is an important step forward to making sure that those who served our country in the military are given every consideration. We know from the reports we receive from our vets how tough it can be.
I think it is important to note that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America are supporting this bill. They know better than I do the kind of trauma that can be experienced in these theaters and have been experienced by our brave men and women in the military. They also know that sometimes those traumatic experiences can lead to a path that is destructive for the veteran, a veteran who is suffering from PTSD.
Now, if a military member, a vet, was born in California and they use drugs because of PTSD, they might spend some time in jail, but then they would have paid their debt to society.
If, instead, their fellow soldier was a legal permanent resident of the United States, born in another country, but volunteered to fight for our country, after they pay their debt to society for the exact same circumstances, then they are booted out of the country.
That is why The American Legion is saying they support this bill, because we owe some kind of honor and stature to those who step forward to volunteer to fight for our country. That is what we owe them.
I will just close with this. I am going to represent a town called Salinas, California. I was there last month, and they have put up on every light pole on the downtown street pictures of people from Salinas who served in the military. It is so inspiring.
They had a little ceremony to unveil these photographs of the Salinas heroes. After that, one of the veterans organizers said to me, the worst experience of his life was driving his sergeant to the border to be kicked out of the country he fought for. It is not right.
This bill will change that, and I hope that we will all vote in favor.
Amendment No. 1 Offered by Mr. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas
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