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EXCLUSIVE: Republicans risk seeing some of President Donald Trump’s signature immigration priorities erased by a future Democratic administration unless Congress acts now to lock them into law, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Digital as he presses the Senate to take up a package of seven immigration bills.
Banks said his immigration package is needed as Republicans approach the midterms with control of Congress at stake and a shrinking window to deliver legislative wins to voters. The bills target birthright citizenship, visas, commercial driver’s licenses and other immigration policies Banks wants Congress to codify.
“I don’t just fear a Democrat majority. I fear a Democrat-Socialist majority because the [DSA] who control today’s Democrat Party support wide open borders, they support eliminating ICE, they are anti law enforcement, they want to defund the police,” Banks said.
While current Senate Democratic leaders are not aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, Banks argued a future Democratic-led Senate would be “owned by the socialist wing of their party.”
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“I cannot believe that the Democrats are so radical and extreme today that they’re OK with what’s happened to our country [with] illegals taking jobs for Americans or allowing illegals to be behind the wheel of semi-trucks,” Banks said, pointing to his “Dalilah Law.”
The bill honors Dalilah Coleman, a first-grader who was critically injured when an illegal immigrant driving a big rig caused a multi-car pileup on an Indiana highway. Partap Singh, an Indian national licensed in California, was driving the truck. Coleman suffered catastrophic injuries, spent months in the hospital and had a craniectomy.
The Dalilah Law, described by supporters as the CDL equivalent of the Laken Riley Act, would require states to stop providing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and certain foreign nationals. It would also require states to revoke certain existing licenses and administer commercial driving tests only in English.
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Banks compared the CDL measure to Congress’ Reagan-era push to raise the drinking age by threatening federal transportation funds. He argued that several Hoosiers have been injured or killed in crashes involving foreign drivers licensed by “states that hand CDLs out like candy,” including California, Pennsylvania and New York. He also wants Congress to take greater control over Temporary Protected Status authority, which he said previous Democratic administrations abused.
“If we legislate it and give Congress power to determine when TPS is appropriate when it’s not, then we’ll be able to address these issues long after President Trump leaves the White House,” Banks said.
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Dalilah Coleman of Indiana, left; then-Sec. Kristi Noem, right. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
The American Tech Workforce Act would raise the minimum salary threshold for many H-1B visa positions from $60,000 to $150,000. Experts have said the change would significantly alter incentives for companies seeking to hire young foreign workers.
Immigration attorneys argued Banks’ bill would make the U.S. “far less attractive as a study destination” and encourage foreign talent to look to Canada instead.
“Many employers would be unable or unwilling to meet this threshold, effectively limiting H-1B hiring to top tech companies or highly specialized roles,” Texas firm Reddy Neumann & Brown said on its website.
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Left: Immigrants stream in through the U.S. southern border. Right: Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo; Getty)
Proponents have argued such changes would give American graduates a better chance of entering the job market after college.
Other bills in the package would provide additional border security funding to the War Department, restrict chain migration and target grants to colleges employing illegal immigrants.
“These seven bills are common sense, everything from stopping illegals from driving semi-trucks to banning birthright citizenship, to stopping chain migration, to cracking down on those who misuse the H-1B visas for cheap labor,” Banks said.
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stand outside Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Digital.)
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Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., for comment on the package and to ask whether any of the bills will be expedited ahead of the midterms.
Digital’s Hannah Brennan contributed to this report.
