Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014 -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. As we all know, President Obama recently announced Executive action on immigration, what he refers to as deferred action, for millions of aliens who are here illegally but who have children who were born in the United States and by virtue of their birth in the United States are U.S. citizens.

Now the President has repeatedly assured the American people that he is not creating a pathway to citizenship for those individuals, but that isn't true. He and his administration have cleared the pathway to citizenship for millions of people who have crossed into our borders illegally. They know that is what they have done, and it is illegal. Immigration law is quite complicated, but here is the bottom line on this issue: If you are the parent of a U.S. citizen, when that child reaches the age of 21, assuming you haven't committed certain crimes or done other things that might exclude you from what the law generally allows, you can get a green card and eventually you can get citizenship. But there is a catch. If you are in an illegal status inside the United States because you crossed into our borders illegally and that is how you became an illegal alien--that is, you entered without inspection, as that term is known in immigration circles--then in order to get back on the path to citizenship you are first required under existing law to leave the country and then to come back across the border into the country legally. Because you broke immigration laws before you came into the country, the law says you have to wait either 3 years or 10 years to return, depending on how long you were inside the country illegally before you left.

When we talk about clearing the path to citizenship for this set of immigrants--that is those who are close relatives of U.S. citizens--that is what we are talking about: getting around the rule that those who cross our border in secret must leave the country, wait a period of years outside the country because they broke our laws, and then return.

So when the President says he isn't clearing such a path to citizenship, that is Washington shorthand for, don't worry, I am not circumventing the law.

What stands between these people and citizenship is the need to enter the country lawfully, which they cannot do until they leave, wait a period of time that Congress has set by law, and then and only then come back. The President claims he is not touching this rule, but that is exactly what he is doing and exactly what he has done, and he is doing it through a program called advance parole. Advance parole is essentially a form of permission for an undocumented immigrant to travel outside the country and then return. When he gets back to the country and approaches the border, he presents an advance travel document to border officials and they will parole him into the country.

What is more, the President has announced if you leave the country under a grant of advance parole, the administration will treat you as though you never left at all, waiving the 3-year to 10-year wait mandated by Congress for people who have come here unlawfully and then left the country.

When that is done, as it turns out, the illegal immigrant will become eligible to take advantage of a different way to become a citizen: getting what is known as adjustment of status. Adjustment of status, which gives you a green card without having to leave the country, is available to parents of U.S. citizens so long as they crossed our border lawfully, which advanced parole lets them do.

So how hard will it be to get advance parole, which leads to a green card, which in turn leads to citizenship? Well, it is supposed to be very hard. Parole is kind of a temporary emergency pass that lets someone into the country for an extremely urgent reason, even though the law says that an immigrant in that circumstance cannot be admitted for one reason or another.

In fact, there is a Federal statute passed by Congress that restricts the power of the executive branch of the Federal Government to use parole to a very narrow, very confined set of circumstances. That law, INA section 212(d)(5)(a), says that the executive branch may parole individuals into the United States ``only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.''

That term ``urgent humanitarian reasons'' means conditions such as getting medical treatment or perhaps attending a funeral of a close family member. ``Significant public benefit'' usually means circumstances such as one being a witness in a crime and as such needing to come into the country to testify at trial.

To be clear, it is illegal--illegal--to parole people into the country who don't meet that standard. But for deferred action recipients, here is the standard the President is using: A person warranting advance parole, which again also eventually leads to citizenship, must file a form I-131 with USCIS. The instructions for this form explain that deferred action recipients can get parole for ``educational purposes, employment purposes or humanitarian purposes ..... ''

I continue:

Educational purposes include but are not limited to semester abroad programs or academic research;

Employment purposes include but are not limited to overseas assignments, interviews, conferences, training or meetings with clients. .....

In no universe is a meeting with a client or a conference an urgent humanitarian reason. Nowhere in the universe are those circumstances for a significant benefit to the American public.

Imagine this scenario. Imagine that a foreign national approaches our border. The border officials ask the individual for a visa, and he says, oh, I don't have a visa, but I do have a business meeting in Denver. Can I come in, even though I don't have a visa? There is no doubt he would be turned away promptly. But for the new deferred action recipients under the President's Executive action plan, so long as you have a business meeting in Toronto or an overseas assignment in Buenos Aires, you can get permission to leave and be paroled back into the country immediately upon your return, along with the government's promise to ignore the 3-year or 10-year bar that is supposed to keep you out of the country. And once you do that, you can adjust your status and get a green card and eventually citizenship.

How do I know this? Well, in 2010 the American Spectator published a leaked Department of Homeland Security memo, a version of which purportedly reached the Secretary of Homeland Security--then-Secretary Janet Napolitano--exploring the administration's options on immigration. That memo explicitly contemplated using parole as a way to sidestep Congress and give citizenship to illegal immigrants who are relatives to U.S. citizens.

It says ``individuals could ..... be paroled into the U.S. for purposes of applying for adjustment of status to render immediate relatives of U.S. citizens eligible for parole, DHS could issue guidance establishing that family reunification constitutes a significant public benefit.''

So let me be clear. Advance parole leads to citizenship for parents of U.S. citizens. The administration knows that, and they are giving advance parole for reasons such as client meetings that clearly violate Federal law.

This is the danger of unilateral Executive action, drafted in secret and announced to the American people as a fait accompli. In our system, policies are debated in the legislature and their consequences need to be explored through debate. Here, the President's action has avoided that constitutional lawmaking process, but it has also broken existing laws passed by Congress.

Thank you, Madam President.

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