What Is the EAGLE Act?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is per-country caps on employment visas. In June 2021, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif) introduced the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act. The bill was introduced again this year and scheduled for a vote. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced yesterday that the House was not “expected to complete consideration of H.R. 3648.”

Gillian Richards explained that the bill “seeks to clear up the backlog of green card applications,” but the bill has opposition. Conservatives are celebrating the failure of the bill. According to Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), “The EAGLE Act ignores the humanitarian crisis at our border and puts Big Tech ahead of American workers, even while U.S. citizens are still working less than before the lockdowns.” 

Richards quoted Fox News as saying that “U.S. tech companies have brought in large numbers of Chinese and Indian nationals on temporary visas. Nationals from these two countries face the most backlogs.” This fact goes against the Big Tech companies.

Amazon released the following statement in support of the bill: “We are proud to support the EAGLE Act and are continuing [advocacy] for common sense immigration reform on behalf of our employees and their families. We urge Congress to pass the #EAGLEAct, lifting unfair per-country visa caps for employment-based green cards.”

Congress needs to get serious on immigration reform, but the first thing that should be done is to secure the southern border to stop the floods of migrants from illegally invading our nation. Once the border is secure and the United States has control of who is entering and exiting the nation, then we can discuss what to do with those people who are living here illegally.

What Will the EAGLE Act Do to America?

The southern border of the United States has been open since Joe Biden entered the White House on January 20, 2021. In less than two years, somewhere between two million and five million people have entered the United States illegally. Now the U.S. House of Representatives is considering a bill that will make the situation worse. According to Joseph Edlow, the bill would be “a mechanism to speech up the availability of green cards for certain employment-based applicants.” Edlow continued: 

But the bill, HR 3648, actually would upend the nation’s legal immigration system while benefiting China and inviting an immediate, immeasurable influx of new applicants to overwhelm the process….

… Beyond ignoring the spiraling border crisis, this legislation is ill-advised because it would create significant national security risks.

Titled the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act of 2022, or the EAGLE Act, the bill would provide an accelerated path for more Chinese Communist Party members to gain permanent residence in the U.S.

HR 3648 also would favor Chinese and Indian nationals for several years, to the exclusion of other foreign nationals, in employment-based immigration….

The EAGLE Act would remove the country cap, create transition rules favoring certain employment-based categories. This would ensure that anyone, even those here on most temporary visas, could file for a permanent green card granting permission to reside and work in the U.S. if they have an underlying visa petition that has been approved for at least two years….

Under the legislation, once those green cards are issued, the clock would start for naturalization. Once they are naturalized, they may begin sponsoring family members to come to America. This is chain migration at its purest. This bill is not a move toward merit-based immigration….

The immigration consequences of this bill pale in comparison to the national security threats that America will witness as the Chinese government redoubles its efforts to spy on corporations and educational institutions. It is well known that Communist China actively steals domestic intellectual property and corporate trade secrets.

Edlow’s article has much more information about the dangers contained in this bill. The bottom line is that the EAGLE Act is bad for America. Lawmakers should vote no on it and then secure the borders. The crisis at the borders was caused by Biden administration policies, and it will not end until the border is secured.