Rep. Calvert Votes to Close Immigration Loophole

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) voted along with a majority of his House colleagues to support H.R. 5230, which includes policy changes and provides funding to address the ongoing immigration crisis at the border. The $659 million in funding is significantly below the President's $3.7 billion request, focuses on immediate border security, and is fully offset through cuts and recessions of existing funds within various federal agencies.

"Today, the House took an overdue step to enact policy changes and ensure our immigration enforcement agencies have the resources they need to stem the tide of immigrants illegally crossing our border," said Rep. Calvert. "My constituents have been calling for Congress and the President to take action in response to this crisis. The House has now taken an important step and it is time for the President and Senate Democrats to follow suit. It is critical that we send a strong signal to anyone thinking of entering our country illegally that they will be caught and returned back to their country of origin."

H.R. 5230 Highlights

(Courtesy of the House Appropriations Committee)

The legislation includes several policy provisions:

• A change to the "Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Act of 2008," to require that all unaccompanied minors are treated the same as Mexicans for the purpose of removals. This would require unaccompanied children who do not wish to be voluntarily returned to their home country to remain in HHS custody while they await an expedited immigration court hearing that must occur not more than seven days after they are screened by child welfare officials.

(NOTE: This provision closes the same immigration loophole that Rep. Calvert's legislation, H.R.5079, sought to address.)

• A prohibition on the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture from denying or restricting CBP activities on federal land under their respective jurisdictions within 100 miles of the US-Mexico border.

• A change to the Immigration and Nationality Act to strengthen the law prohibiting criminals with serious drug-related convictions from applying for asylum.

• A provision expressing the "Sense of Congress" that the Secretary of Defense should not house unauthorized aliens at military installations unless certain specific conditions are met.

Protecting our Southwest Border and Enforcing our Laws:

• $405 million for the Department of Homeland Security to boost border security and law enforcement activities. This includes:

• $334 million for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to boost enforcement of immigration and customs laws in response to the rise in unaccompanied alien children and families. This funding will support increased and upgraded detention space, transportation costs, overtime costs, expedited migrant processing, and additional deportation and enforcement personnel.

• $71 million for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations, including increased processing, detention, and transportation activities.

• Authority for Southwest border states to reallocate existing state and local grant funds for costs related to combating illegal immigration and humanitarian efforts for unaccompanied alien children and families.

• $22 million to accelerate judicial proceedings for immigrants. This includes funding to hire additional, temporary immigration judges, and funding to complete the outfitting of every Department of Justice immigration courtroom nationwide with video teleconferencing equipment in order to utilize all existing court resources. This will help increase the capacity of our immigration courts to process cases, reduce the backlog, and shorten the time between apprehension and issuance of removal orders.

• $35 million for National Guard border efforts – essentially doubling the funding for the Guard presence on the border. This will bolster National Guard efforts to assist the Border Patrol with surveillance, intelligence, and humanitarian activities.

Providing Humanitarian Assistance

• $197 million for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide temporary housing and humanitarian assistance to unaccompanied minors. This funding is sufficient to care for children in U.S. custody already.

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