An immigration bill that sought to eliminate per-country caps on employment visas died in the House of Representatives Wednesday.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., introduced the Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment, or EAGLE, Act, in June 2021. The House reintroduced it this year and lawmakers scheduled it to go up for a vote earlier this week. The House chair announced that further proceedings on the bill would be postponed, according to the House Press Gallery.
“The House is no longer expected to complete consideration of H.R. 3648,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., announced in a news release on Wednesday.
“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,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told The Daily Signal in a Thursday statement.
The bill, which seeks to clear up the backlog of green card applications, has been met with opposition. Per Fox News, 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. Amazon, Intel, and Microsoft released statements supporting the bill.
“We are proud to support the EAGLE Act and are continuing advocate for common sense immigration reform on behalf of our employees and their families,” Amazon said in a statement. “We urge Congress to pass the #EAGLEAct, lifting unfair per-country visa caps for employment-based green cards.”
Yet conservatives celebrated the bill’s failure.
“Thanks to the conservative grassroots community and members of Congress ready to fight for American jobs and national security, the EAGLE Act has been defeated,” Heritage Action for America Director Jessica Anderson told The Daily Signal. “Especially as we head into a new Congress in January, this victory speaks volumes about the strength and influence of the conservative grassroots.”
Heritage Action for America wrote in a Thursday tweet that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., couldn’t get enough votes on the bill because conservatives “called Congress in droves to voice their opposition.”
“The American people are tired of half-baked immigration ‘reform’ proposals and weak ‘bipartisan’ compromises—they demand Congress put American jobs first, implement effective border security measures, and hold our adversaries accountable,” Anderson told The Daily Signal.
Banks wrote in a Wednesday tweet that he would vote no on the EAGLE Act. “Our number one immigration priority must be securing our southern border, not helping China by radically changing our visa system.”
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