On September 24th, Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced legislation reputed to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, H.R. 10 “The 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act.” In truth, the immigration-related provisions of H.R. 10 far beyond what the 9/11 Commission recommended and result in the scape-goating of immigrants.
H.R. 10 passed the House of Representatives on October 8th by a 282-134 margin.Unfortunately, harsh anti-immigrant provisions including expedited removal, restrictions on matriculas, and a legal presence requirement for driver’s license were included.Amendments that were introduced during the mark-up of H.R. 10 which would have removed the anti-immigrant language of H.R. 10 failed to pass by a narrow margin.
The Senate version of H.R. 10, the “National Intelligence Reform Act” (S. 2845) passed through the Senate without the anti-immigrant provisions.The two bills are very different and will now go into conference committee for reconciliation.It is hoped that through consistent and vocal community advocacy, the anti-immigrant provisions will be stripped from the final bill.
