KEY VOTE: “NO” ON THE EAGLE ACT

The House will soon vote on the EAGLE Act (H.R. 3648), which is a very different bill from the previous version known as Fairness to High Skilled Immigrants Act. The EAGLE Act would remove per-country caps on visas, which were enacted to ensure that migration was not dominated by a single country, and would also provide an end-run around green card limits by making nearly everyone with certain temporary visas immediately eligible for adjustment and ultimately green cards. This would concerningly lead to an immeasurable influx of chain migration and move further away from a merit-based system of immigration.

The primary difference from the Fairness to High Skilled Immigrants Act is Section 7, which would allow essentially anyone on a temporary visa to apply for a Permanent Resident Card (commonly known as a Green Card) if they have had an approved visa petition filed at least two years ago, giving them a path to eventual citizenship. This will lead to an immediate influx in chain migration, as once an immigrant has received a Green Card and ultimately citizenship, the number of family members whose immigration they could sponsor is immeasurable.

Additionally, the way this bill provides for the removal of country caps presents national security challenges. Currently, the two countries that are most backlogged as a result of the caps are China and India, and there are good proposals for reforming the country caps. However, by eliminating the caps without broader reforms, the U.S. immigration system would heavily favor those two countries for the next several years.

The most substantial impact of removing country caps is providing a greater avenue for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to increase its theft of America’s intellectual property. The CCP poses the greatest global threat to the United States, our interests, and our values. The CCP’s influence over its people means that an influx of Chinese workers into the U.S.—particularly in the high-tech space where many of these workers would end up—represents a threat to our national security.

Former National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander has called China’s state-sponsored intellectual property theft the “greatest transfer of wealth in human history.” The CCP views every citizen as an instrument to serve the party, and they encourage and apply leverage against many of their citizens working and studying abroad to continue that theft. Passing legislation that would massively increase the number of Chinese national visa holders is a bad idea at this time. Importantly, these visas would come at the expense of visa holders from other countries where there is no such concern of communist espionage.

A manager’s amendment in the House purports to address some of these security concerns by barring those who are CCP members from receiving H1-B visas, but only 6.9% of China’s population are CCP members, and the problem of intellectual property theft extends well beyond those individuals. This amendment is inadequate, as it does not cover non-immigrant temporary visas, like students, who also pose security risks.

Ultimately, this deeply flawed legislation is backed by Big Tech companies who desperately want to hire foreign workers. But this bill comes at a time when many large tech companies are increasingly announcing layoffs and hiring freezes, increasing the supply of domestic workers and current visa holders looking for work.

Congress should not be radically changing the U.S. visa system in a lame duck, especially not when the result will be massive chain migration, compromised national security, and reduced job opportunities for Americans. Members should stand up to Big Tech and reject the EAGLE Act.