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‘The Most Radical Piece of Immigration Legislation’: Experts, GOP React To Democratic ‘New Way Forward’ Bill

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  • Forty-four House Democrats are in support of the New Way Forward Act, a bill that would make deportation of criminals harder, calls for the decriminalization of illegal immigration, and would bring criminal illegal aliens back into the U.S.
  • Critics of the House bill, including immigration experts and House GOP leadership, have referred to it as possibly the most “radical” legislation in U.S. history, and say it’s indicative of Democrats’ “open borders” agenda. 
  • House GOP Caucus Chair Liz Cheney, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the Center for Immigration Studies spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation about the bill’s impact. 

Immigration experts and House Republicans are balking at the New Way Forward Act, a Democratic bill that is being described as  an embrace of “open borders” and likely to be the most “radical” legislation ever introduced in history.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesús García, along with several other progressive House members, introduced the New Way Forward Act in December 2019, to seemingly very little fanfare. The bill, among many things, calls for the decriminalization of illegal immigration, would make it more difficult to deport convicted criminal aliens, empower immigration judges to nullify deportation orders, and also calls for the return of previously deported illegal aliens.

Not to be considered a fringe bill that is attracting scant support, the New Way Forward Act has so far garnered 43 co-sponsors since it was rolled out late last year.

The legislation’s growing popularity has since caught the attention of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who on Thursday night dove into the intricacies of the roughly 4,400-worded bill, and said its ramifications, if passed, could be as impactful to the country as the U.S. Constitution.

Several immigration experts, and also the leader of the House GOP Caucus, have since spoken to the Daily Caller News Foundation about the bill.

“The New Way Forward Act is arguably the most radical piece of immigration legislation in American history. The act shields criminal illegal aliens from deportation, decriminalizes illegal entry, and creates a pathway for deported illegal aliens to return back to the U.S.,” said Matthew Tragesser, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

“It’s clear that House Democrats care more about illegal aliens than law-abiding Americans and view criminals as victims,” Tragesser added.

The decriminalization of illegal immigration was already becoming a more mainstream position with the Democratic Party. In fact, before the introduction of the bill, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both came out in support of the proposal. Sanders, a clear frontrunner in the nomination contest, has also voiced support for virtually ceasing all deportations.

The New Way Forward, however, takes these positions even farther.

Under the auspices of the bill, minimum prison sentences that require deportation would rise from one year to five years. This could mean that illegal aliens who are convicted of crimes such as car theft, weapons offenses, and fraud — all crimes that carry average sentences of less than five years, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics — would not be required to be removed from the country.

Additionally, the legislation calls for the widespread return of criminal illegal aliens who have been previously deported from the country. Any illegal aliens deported since April 1996 — if they would have otherwise been considered undeportable under the terms of this bill — would be allowed to come back to the U.S.

“Make no mistake: House Democrats have embraced open borders policies,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, leader of the House Republican caucus, said to the DCNF.

“The ideas included in this radical bill, on top of their plans to give free health care to illegal immigrants and abolish ICE, all would jeopardize the security of the nation and reward people who cross the border illegally. On so many important issues, House Democrats have adopted an extreme and socialist agenda that’s wrong for the country,” Cheney continued. “Every day they show the American people why they cannot be trusted with power.”

The DCNF reached out to Garcia, who introduced the bill, but his office did not response to a request for inquiry.

In a December press release touting the New Way Forward, Garcia hailed it as a way to “disrupt the prison to deportation pipeline,” and that it “corrects racial and anti-immigrant injustices embedded in our immigration laws.” In a separate document pushed by Garcia’s office, it’s claimed that the laws that made unauthorized entry into the U.S. a federal crime were “born from white supremacist ideology and politics.”

Scrutiny of the bill comes after President Donald Trump used his 2020 State of the Union address to highlight the dangers of not enforcing illegal immigration, touting the need for local authorities to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and brining a special guest whose brother died from an illegal alien who had been previously released from local custody.

The president, during his address, also touted a GOP bill in the Senate that would allow victims of illegal alien crime to sue states that released the alien in defiance of an ICE detainer.

“Democrats in the House have prioritized open borders over the safety of citizens and legal law abiding immigrants,” Marguerite Telford, a spokesperson for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based immigration think tank, said in a statement to the DCNF. Like the president, Telford also compared Democratic immigration priories with that of GOP lawmakers.

“Contrast that with most Republicans who are worried about safety and focus on sanctuary jurisdictions, driver’s license laws, knowing who is crossing our border … and the rule of law in general,” she continued. “For example, Rep. Gosar has the Criminal Alien Removal Clarification Act which stands in stark contrast to the New Way bill.”

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6 Comments

  1. As they say, if you got money (as much as George Soros) you can buy anything in Washington, and apparently, that is true. If Senator Cortez likes social ideas so much, then spend 6 months living in Venezuela on the same money the normal citizens must live on? Then come back and tell us how much you love your great social society????

    We the people are waiting to hear all about your trip??? When will you go?? Soon we hope??

  2. I heard about this many years ago. Now the Dems have the power and the empowerment to go ahead and let others have our country. The outlaws have been using their empowerment to give illegals the right to steal our land and, along with Central America and Canada, become one nation without borders and it will spread farther. Once they have overcome the USA they will start on Canada which is probably feeling the throes of this resettlement already as we are. We have made ourselves open for this by the people we vote into office. Time for a good cleansing. President Trump is one who has some power also but I don’t think the Dems will try to do this outright. They need the right people in office to pull this off and having President Trump out of the presidency will help them get the push they’re looking for but for now they’re going to get the ball rolling. Hang on to your hats.

  3. Any politician signing on to this bill simply hates the people of the USA and seeks to further destabilize the country. They seek to cause chaos, destruction of our institutions, contempt for our existing government and financial systems and our culture. They are students of Marxist Critical Theory and are following it’s road map to destroy the USA. It’s not that we must defeat this at the ballot box, we must fumigate our country. We must identify these “ Crit. Theory” Marxists infesting our colleges and Universities . They are everywhere now.

  4. “Radical” isn’t the word that first came to my mind. I had to wash my mouth out with soap in order to express what I think in more ‘lady like language’
    This ‘new way’ is combining multiple attempts to open the borders that ‘failed’ & in addition to all of our President’s XO’s being held up in the court by liberal judges (Obama appointees)

    Take a cup of black coffee and add a little milk and you have something that is sweeter coffee, but if you overflow the cup with milk….you’ve destroyed the coffee and have a mess

    We often have to ‘update’ our wardrobes and our Laws, but without losing the intended purpose. Laws are the binds that are intended to maintain order and curb chaos. Just as the cup holds together & prevents the coffee from making a mess. It allows for some change (milk) to fit the consumer without destroying the basic product.

    The Democrats want to break our cup of Law….that would soon create a Syria or El Salvador mess….. costing us lives, customs, language, sacrifices of those before us & our Sovereignty….Our Nation DIES !

    Democrats are attempting to surround us with Criminal acts…..We can sentence them without a trial. WE CAN VOTE THEM OUT !!! (but we have to do more than talk, we WALK THAT TALK in big boots. !!

    Get off the couch….Get out the Vote….

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