H.R. 264 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to comprehensively reform immigration law.
Detailed Summary
Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2009 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to provide increased protections and eligibility for family-sponsored immigrants.
Directs the Secretary of State to establish a Board of Family-based Visa Appeals within the Department of State.
Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) to deny a family-based immigration petition by a U.S. petitioner for an alien spouse or child if: (1) the petitioner is on the national sex offender registry for a conviction that resulted in more than one year's imprisonment; (2) the petitioner has failed to rebut such information within 90 days; and (3) granting the petition would put a spouse or child beneficiary in danger of sexual abuse.
Directs the Secretary to establish the Task Force to Rescue Immigrant Victims of American Sex Offenders.
Authorizes the Secretary to adjust the status of aliens who would otherwise be inadmissible (due to unlawful presence, document fraud, or other specified grounds of inadmissibility) if such aliens have been in the United States for at least five years and meet other requirements.
Authorizes the emergency deployment of Border Patrol agents to a requesting border state.
Sets forth provisions for Border Patrol acquisition and use of specified equipment.
Directs the Secretary to: (1) provide for additional detention space for illegal aliens; (2) increase Border Patrol agents, airport and land border immigration inspectors, immigration enforcement officers, and fraud and document fraud investigators; (3) enhance Border Patrol training and operational facilities; (4) establish immigration, customs, and agriculture inspector occupations within the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection; (5) reestablish the Border Patrol anti-smuggling unit; (6) establish criminal investigator occupations within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); (7) increase Border Patrol agent and investigator pay; (8) require foreign language training for appropriate DHS employees; and (9) establish the Fraudulent Documents Task Force.
Redefines the term "law enforcement officer" under provisions of the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) to include: (1) federal employees not otherwise covered by such term whose duties include the investigation or apprehension of suspected or convicted individuals and who are authorized to carry a firearm; and (2) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees whose duties are primarily the collection of delinquent taxes and the securing of delinquent returns.
Authorizes S (witness or informant) nonimmigrant status for aliens in possession of critical reliable information concerning commercial alien smuggling or trafficking in immigration documents.
Establishes a reward program to assist in eliminating immigration-related commercial document fraud operations.
Sets forth unfair immigration-related employment practices.
Requires petitioners for nonimmigrant labor to describe their efforts to recruit lawful permanent residents or U.S. citizens.
Makes permanent an INA provision allowing adjustment of status of certain aliens for whom family-sponsored or employment-based applications or petitions were filed by a specified date.
Lessens immigration consequences for minor criminal offenses. Eliminates retroactive changes in grounds of inadmissibility and removal.
Amends criminal offense removal-related provisions.
Increases the worldwide level of diversity immigrants.
Authorizes adjustment of status for certain nationals or citizens of Haiti.
Eliminates mandatory detention in expedited removal proceedings.
Amends the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 to: (1) waive document fraud as a ground of inadmissibility; and (2) address determinations with respect to children.
Eliminates the one-year filing requirement for asylum applicants. Includes gender persecution within the particular social group category of persecution.
Provides for the permanent resident status adjustment of certain temporary protected status persons.
Amends the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to eliminate a provision prohibiting restrictions on the communication of immigration status information by a government entity.
Replaces the existing fashion model H-1B visa classification with an O-visa classification.
Status of the Legislation
Latest Major Action: 2/9/2009: Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law.
Points in Favor
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Points Against
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Visitor Comments
Robert
January 31, 2009, 4:06pm (report abuse)None
Sue
February 2, 2009, 9:36am (report abuse)Stop shoving illegal aliens down the throat of Americans - we're tired of puking them back up.
Rule of Law
February 2, 2009, 7:37pm (report abuse)Remember when this was important? Remember when representing the American citizen was YOUR job. Illegal immigrants, no matter where they are from, have no respect for any US law. What makes you think that there is any chance these people will obey new laws when they go out of their way to ignore and flout the laws already on the books? This is an insult and a travesty. Secure the border, uphold the laws already on the books and put Americans first, then we'll talk about immigration "reform". Until then you have some nerve granting amnesty to criminals when Americans are losing their jobs left and right. Further, it is an additional insult that Congress and the Senate takes an automatic pay raise while forcing American workers to compete with third world labor knowing full well that Americans will lose because "American" Business has ZERO loyalty to this country. Shame on you. Traitors.
PIM
February 2, 2009, 8:57pm (report abuse)why not just enforce the laws as they stand, no more new laws,no new visa increases....This might be an idea to complicated for the brain dead of D.C. why not stop allowing anybody in......no new people, no new visas nada,nothing, close the doors.for lets say 1 year, send the visa holding people home..for 1 year, then lets see if we have a handle on things.also give me one eample of a job that there are no citizens who could fill it????? I'll wait for an answer,but I don't see one coming in this century .
daqueduct
February 3, 2009, 6:50am (report abuse)Authorizes the Secretary to adjust the status of aliens who would otherwise be inadmissible (due to unlawful presence, document fraud, or other specified grounds of inadmissibility) if such aliens have been in the United States for at least five years and meet other requirements. >>>> The SOS or Homeland Secretary will clean-up a mess that was not cleaned up in 20 years with applicant having 90 days to defend. This is very interesting.
Ndmand
February 5, 2009, 9:12am (report abuse)bunch of whiny pusses who couldnt find their way to the nearest forum if it bit them. you're telling me you would gladly take the job of cleaning toilets 5 days a week and send 1/3 your paycheck home to feed your family and do this for 20+ years without complaining, without bitching about benefitsor raises, and all the while paying taxes on what you earn to the US government? Your'e a liar if you said yes. its simple. US is greatest country on earth. be proud of it, but dont be an A--hole. why do you think ppl come here - TO BETTER THEIR LIVES: which in turn, betters YOUR life. so shut up and stay out of the way.
tom
February 10, 2009, 4:24am (report abuse)SEC. 638. ESTABLISHMENT OF SPECIALIZED INSPECTOR OCCUPATIONS.
The Secretary of Homeland Security shall establish within the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection 3 distinct inspectional occupations: immigration, customs, and agriculture.
DHS has combined INS and U.S Customs into one academy and this is disaster waiting to happen. You can not take 2 12 week plus academies and knock it down to just 12 weeks and teach both sides and expect the officer to know and work efficiently in his job. There is way too much to know in INS and Customs to be able to do both proficiently. One day someone will gain access to the U.S and that CBP Officer will state that he was not trained properly, especially if he is a Legacy U.S Customs Officer thrown out to primary with little training. If your Customs you learn Customs and if your going to be INS you learn INS and focus on that job. We need Officers with specialties to keep this country safe.
SN
February 13, 2009, 12:07am (report abuse)Not all of them pay taxes. As a matter of fact, the illegal immigrants usually take up the identity of someone else or use a fake social security number to get a job and then get paid in cash. There is a problem with illegals in this country however, telling all "legal" visitors, students, and resident aliens to leave is not the answer. The economy is bad enough as it is...taking away the produce/field workers would damage it even more. And no, you would not pick lettuce for $7 an hour 12 hours a day. We need "legal" migrants, not illegals.
cmac
February 15, 2009, 9:04am (report abuse)Close up the borders tight. Get rid of all the illegals in the US now as best we can. Start over and actually enforce our laws. I think we have plenty of Americans who want to work and will actually spend their money in America,not ship it back to Mexico. Look around you at construction sites,farming,many kinds of labor jobs. You will see lots of illegals. This country needs to have an absolute penalty for hiring these people. If they cant get work and income,then they might think twice about coming here. If you want to come here for a chance at the American dream,then get in line and take a number.
e
February 16, 2009, 1:44pm (report abuse)everyone who came to the US on a visa needs to open their passports. Take a good look at the upper right hand corner. It says non immigrant visa. If you came to visit a family member or go to school or even work in the US you knew you were only here on a temp basis. You came expecting to stay, any disappointment is your own fault. As for the rest of you who want to reunite families remember who made the choice to come to the US. The legal and illegal migrant split up their own families. Their choice their consequences. Now on to those who say we need cheap labor to pick our veggies and pick up garbage. If the person doing the work can't live on the wage offered there is a problem with the wage and the person's life style. Eventully the person picking your veggies will get a green card and ask for a living wage. Fix wages, not bring in cheap labor.
Mike
February 18, 2009, 3:18pm (report abuse)Embarrassing....
This bill gives path to citizenship for illegals here more than 5 years but offers nothing to people here legally for even 4 year 11 months.
Is this what you get for following rules?
g
February 18, 2009, 11:41pm (report abuse)Dear President Obama:
Recently an immigration bill was presented in the congress. The HR 264 is embarrassing for legal immigrants.
1) People who are illegal here for more than 5 years will get green card/path to citizenship but people who are legally here for 4 years and 11 months gets nothing.
2) HR 264 says "continuous presence of 5 years". Of course illegal immigrants can't leave the country and they will fulfill this requirement, but legal immigrants can leave country so might have left country for even 3 or 4 months in last 5-6 years to visit home country or any other reason. Although brief discontinuity is said to be okay but if some legal immigrant leave country to be his/her parents for 2 months in last 5 years? So, this continuous presence rule is tailor cut to include illegal immigrants and exclude legal immigrants.
Regards,
Tax paying Legal immigrant
USC
February 19, 2009, 12:47am (report abuse)This bill waters down the INA so bad there will be little left for CBP to enforce. There are some good things about the bill. Increased BP, CBP, IEA, etc. to enforce current laws. Better equipment for LEOs to fight DTO and alien smugglers. Doesn't matter either way. The bill will never make it through committee.
Mike S.
March 1, 2009, 3:22pm (report abuse)Why does this bill go so far out of its way to keep more criminals? People who have been sentenced to more than six months but less than one year are still a major burden to us. Let\'s cut these people a break not by allowing them to stay here, but by deporting them first and letting them serve their sentences later - should they ever show their faces here again. That will give taxpayers a break too.
dmw
(logged in user) March 3, 2009, 12:31am (report abuse)The bridge across the Colorado River over looking the Hoover Dam is a good example; http://www.hooverdambypass.org/old_news.htm .In the last paragraph it lists the following, Sverdrup Civil, HDR Engineering and T.Y. Lin International, and after the engineering work was done Obayashi Corporation, the contractor, was awarded the job. They are not required to hire Americans to do the work, and they control a great deal of public infrastructure money. This one small example, it is in every city and every state. Type, or copy and paste those names at this site, it shows they are all foreign companies. https://esos.state.nv.us/SoSServices/AnonymousAccess/CorpSearch/CorpSearch.... Apparently, we are not E-Verifing for companies either. It had certified payroll reports, somebody who has access should check how many Americans worked on this job, and if it was Americans they worked for. Why would such a large percentage of these types of jobs be going to foreign companies?
shay
April 1, 2009, 9:13pm (report abuse)this is better than amnesty for more than 12 million illegal immigrants.
H
April 1, 2009, 10:53pm (report abuse)Anybody who has fraudlent documents is going to AWARDED with citizenship because they wipe people's toilets after they sh*t.
People are so lazy *ss here that they support this in the name of progress.
NICE - way to go.
"Authorizes the Secretary to adjust the status of aliens who would otherwise be inadmissible (due to unlawful presence, document fraud, or other specified grounds of inadmissibility) if such aliens have been in the United States for at least five years and meet other requirements."
Douglas
(logged in user) April 13, 2009, 8:07pm (report abuse)In fact, each and every undocumented foreign national presently standing on US soil has done so for (5) years. Do our representatives not know this?
John Q. Citizen
May 2, 2009, 7:00pm (report abuse)Remove the incentives that attract illegals and they will return to their country of origin on there own.
The following would go a long way to making the illegal immigrants leave this country:
• Make English the national language and repeal Bill Clinton's executive order 13166 ( see http://tinyurl.com/55yyte ) improving access to services for persons with limited english proficiency
• Deny citizenship to anchor babies of illegal immigrants.
• Deny federal funds to sanctuary municipalities.
• Deny medical service, education, and any other entitlement afforded to American citizens.
• Step up raids and encourage informants on companies that hire illegal or undocumented workers.
• Continue to use E-Verify to verify American citizenship. The more it is used the more accurate the system will become. Even now, if I have a problem with my birth certificate, I need to contact the appropriate governmental agencies and get the error(s) corrected.
lz
May 5, 2009, 1:29pm (report abuse)You can't stop with denying citizenship to anchor babies of illegal immigrants you need to include all the non immigrant classifications also, those on work visa's, student visa's, or those on visitor's visa's.
JoeA
May 6, 2009, 6:25pm (report abuse)I think We need secession. We don't the federal government shoving illegal alien criminals they are supposed to protect us from down our throat. Isn't it bad enough that America is bankrupt and the education system, criminal Justice etc.. is failing ?
Remember the ALAMO !
viola
May 20, 2009, 2:14am (report abuse)America needs a comprehensive immigration reform alright! with strong immigration lawenforcement, strong workplace raids,with E-verify, also with a strong law enforcements that will stop American state governors from having their own personal sanctuary states for illegal immigrants! What make handling illegal immigration so hard in America, is that American politicians want to make it so much easier for illegal immigrants in America, instead enforcing our immigration laws we already have, they try and make those laws to be so terrible, to make people believe that those laws need to change, they want those laws to change drastically, so illegal immigrants can have their American dream, they want those laws to change to help over look illegal immigrants illegal statuses, politicians has gotten in the way of the laws, they have sneakily found ways to block out all laws that would had stopped illegal immigration in America a long time ago.
viola
May 20, 2009, 2:32am (report abuse)American politicians do not have the since to stop our American birthright laws from being taken advantage of by illegal immigrants, they use this to multiply them selves, helping themselves to become the over populated race in America, helps them to use their American born children to get anything that they want in America, when they use their children this means that their children will continue to over crowed our schools and colleges. the more their children are born in America, the more Americans tax dollars, illegal immigrants had implemented all their wrongdoings in America,and our politicians has forced Americans to endure in all their wrongdoings telling us that we better except them because they are going to become the over populated race in America. If they become the over populated race in America, their Hispanic race will have mostly all the employment, schools and colleges and many other things in America, leaving Americans second in line to almost everything!!!
lr
June 4, 2009, 3:38am (report abuse)Okay all you whiners out there. How many of you would not be in America if your ancestors were never givin an opportunity to immigrate ?
American Citizens who are married to a foreigner out of true love an devotion should be able to have their spouses status adjusted if it is a genuine marriage.
Also keeping undocumented alien in the shadows is dangerous for some. I know of a woman who was beaten very badly and assaulted by an abusive guest at a hotel where she worked. The hotel and police blew it off because she was undocumented and the guy got away with abusing a woman. What kind of justice is this. These people are human beings and many of them work many long hard hours and do pay taxes everytime they purchase items and pay taxes where they work so why should they not get a chance if they are not hurting anyone?
I think this is way past due and people should get a chance.
lydia
June 9, 2009, 6:24am (report abuse)theres just too many immigrants
bob
June 15, 2009, 10:24pm (report abuse)ITS ABOUT TIME ART.SEC.9 OF THE U.S CONSTITUTION MEANS SOMETHING.THE LAW WOULD MAKE THE 1996 IMMIGRATION LAW, PEOPLE WHO HAS BEEN DEPORTED DUE TO RETROACTIVE LAW,STOP THE UNGODLY REMOVAL OF LPR. gOD BLESS
think twice
June 18, 2009, 6:02am (report abuse)1st keep the borders secure, then if u failed ,dont treat illegal immigrants like slaves.... history talks listen to it..... making some one work 14 hrs/day for $5/hr is nothing ,but slavery.....
we have all these text books , prof., speakers who keep talking about centuries ago and how slavery is bad, however they dont know that its still so common
cnote09
July 12, 2009, 8:35am (report abuse)so what if there many immigrants they make the country what it is today. students that are undocumented can even go to school without being broke but yet cant work because it takes to long with the immigration process that's not fair what so ever you have students here that have an opportunity to go to school and to also work but don't do nothing with their lives at all but sit around and get wasted..undocumented students should have help with going to school, I'm not saying a lot but some type would be satisfying isn't America they land of freedom, hope, and dreams well how can anyone get it they if you cant help them its hard now a days in America its like you really have to suffer to get your foot in the door being an immigrant trying to have a better life in this country. But yet people still work pay check to pay check, still on welfare , living in section 8 housing..wow i see why canada is doing better MONEY is not a MAJOR issue they care for PEOLPE first..FREE HEALTH CARE!!
L Magana
July 21, 2009, 10:12am (report abuse)My husband has been ban from entering the USA for 10 years. He is now currently in Mexico. I am an American Citizen. This is not right. This is not fair. My husband and I are law abiding tax paying people. We have 3 children. Adriana 14, Gabriel 9, and Miguel 5. Why should my children be apart from their father? We need immigration reform NOW!! I want my husband back!!
fair chance
October 7, 2009, 9:21pm (report abuse)i came here at age 13, graduated high school (with a diploma) at age 16 and now at age 18 im sitting at home not being able to get a job or go back to school. my parents are in another country and they have no care in the world for me. im living with the only family i know. i cant go back to my country because all my family are living legally here. I came here to vivit my step mother and my dad and they kept me here. both my visa and my passort has been expired. my dad got deported and my step mother shipped off to live with my aunt when they broke up. all i want is a chance to live my life right and to become a positive example to my younger sibilings. I NEED TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!! and move on to being a positive citisen in America.
davidbmw
October 26, 2009, 1:55pm (report abuse)i hope and pray this bill passes i have lived in the usa since the age of 2 when i was 36 i got in trouble and was deported now i live in france away from, my wife and 5 kids and theres no hope of ever coming back yes i made a mistake and spent 6months in jail but i paid for my mistake and now not a day goes by that i dont pay for it i dont have a job here and im living in a homless shelter my wife and kids are now on welfare i made a mistake look at what ive done to my family and my life i am askin for a second chance and pray to god i get it every one will always say well you should not of broken the law i know this but i cant turn time backwards i hope it passes not only for me but for my family and many others that deserve a second chance
Reform!!!
November 6, 2009, 4:21pm (report abuse)-Did you know-a foreign husband whose U.S. citizen wife dies in child birth has no right to remain in this country even if he filed all the right papers on time but the immigration service delayed in making a decision? The “widow’s penalty” has affected soldiers, police officers, and citizens from all walks of life, not to mention countless single-parented children.
-Did you know-that there are some 50 documented cases in which U.S. citizens have been wrongly arrested and detained for deportation for as long as 5 yrs for immigration violations? Of course, U.S. citizens are not subject to deportation, and experts believe there are 100s of add'l such cases.
Our immigration laws must be fixed so that individuals are no longer hurt by an obsolete and inadequate immigration system.