H.R. 8586 — Americans First Immigration Act

This section adds section 220A to the Immigration and Nationality Act to require employers to attest to specific conditions before making a bona fide job offer to an alien. The new section defines “area of employment,” “essentially the equivalent,” “lay off,” and “United States worker.” It mandates that an employer attest it recruited United States workers using industry standards and compensation at least equal to that offered the alien, offered the position to any equally or better qualified United States worker who applied, and will submit a detailed summary of recruitment efforts including applicant information and reasons for non-selection. The employer must further attest it did not and will not lay off any United States worker from an essentially equivalent position during the period beginning 90 days before the attestation and ending on the last day of the alien’s employment, will not place the alien with another employer to evade the requirements, and will employ the alien at the promised wage rate for 3 years unless the alien is discharged for cause or voluntarily departs. The section authorizes the Secretary of Labor to investigate compliance upon reasonable cause, provides for notice and hearings, and establishes procedures for complaint-based investigations.

This section eliminates the diversity immigrant visa program under section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and replaces it with an allocation of visas for religious workers. It sets the worldwide level of religious workers at 3,000 per fiscal year (from the prior diversity visa allocation) and makes conforming amendments to sections 201(a), 201(e), and 203(e) of the Act. The changes take effect on the date of enactment, with transition rules that require pending religious worker petitions to be treated as petitions under the new section 203(c), prohibit adjudication of other pending special immigrant petitions under the prior section 203(b)(4), and authorize issuance of no more than 6,940 visas to beneficiaries of previously approved petitions for non-religious special immigrants.

This section revises the definition of immediate relatives under the Immigration and Nationality Act to include only children and spouses of U.S. citizens (removing parents of citizens who are at least 21 years old) and establishes a worldwide level of nuclear family-sponsored immigrants at 87,934 per fiscal year, minus the number of certain parolees who remain in the United States. It limits family-sponsored visa preferences under section 203(a) to spouses and minor children of lawful permanent residents. This section also modifies aging-out rules by determining an alien’s age for eligibility on the date a petition is filed (subject to a new limitation that an alien who marries or reaches age 25 before visa issuance does not qualify) and makes technical and conforming amendments to sections 101, 202, 204, and 212 of the Act to align cross-references and procedures with the narrowed nuclear family categories.

This section replaces the employment-based immigrant visa preference categories with a new points-based immigrant visa program. It sets the annual worldwide level of such visas at 192,000, reduced by the number of aliens released from or never subject to mandatory detention under specified INA provisions in the prior fiscal year. This section establishes a petition process under which aliens must demonstrate a bona fide U.S. job offer paying at least 200 percent of the state median wage (or 150 percent if the alien holds or will obtain a U.S. bachelor’s, master’s, professional, or doctoral degree within one year), eligibility for at least 16 points under the program’s criteria, age between 18 and 51, and English language proficiency at the fifth decile or higher. The Secretary of Homeland Security ranks eligible petitioners by total points earned, applying tiebreakers that prioritize employment points, then extraordinary achievement, educational attainment, and English proficiency. Aliens may amend petitions to submit new job offers or additional points evidence.

This section establishes conditional permanent resident status for points-based immigrants, their spouses, and children under a new section 216B of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The status is granted on a conditional basis for 2 years and is subject to termination if the immigrant fails to comply with attestations under section 204A(a)(2)(A), is convicted of offenses resulting in an aggregate sentence of more than 1 year of imprisonment, receives any means-tested public benefit, or is not employed in the offered job or another position with the same or a new employer at an equivalent or higher salary. The Secretary of Homeland Security must provide notice of the conditions at the time of admission and again no later than 90 days before the end of the 2-year period. The conditional basis may be removed if the immigrant files a timely petition stating the required facts under penalty of perjury and appears for a personal interview; failure to file or appear results in automatic termination of status for the immigrant and covered family members. An alien whose status is terminated may request review in removal proceedings, where the Secretary bears the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence.

This section adds a statement of national policy to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 declaring that aliens who are not lawfully admitted for permanent residence should not receive public education benefits in the same manner as United States citizens or lawful permanent residents and that states should not be obligated to provide such benefits to those aliens. This section also rewrites section 505 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to require any alien who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence to pay at least the non-resident tuition, fees, and other costs at a postsecondary educational institution and to prohibit charging any United States citizen or national a higher net amount than that charged to such an alien; the changes apply to all tuition, fees, and costs paid on or after the date of enactment.