Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018
Latest action. Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018
This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to achieve situational awareness and operational control of the border, including by increasing enforcement personnel.
The bill provides funding for infrastructure, law enforcement, and border security, including funds for a border wall along the southern border.
The bill provides for: (1) an Integrated Border Enforcement Team Program within DHS; (2) Tunnel Task Forces; (3) a pilot program on the use of electromagnetic spectrum to support border control operations; (4) a Biometric Identification Transnational Migration Alert Program; (5) construction of new border ports of entry; (6) a biometric exit data system at certain airports, seaports, and land ports of entry; (7) electronic passport screening and biometric matching; and (8) protections for children apprehended at the border from parental separation and for children in DHS custody.
DHS may provide assistance to a foreign country to address migrant flows affecting the United States.
DHS may provide six-year renewable contingent nonimmigrant status for certain aliens who were under the age of 16 when they first entered the United States. Adjustment to immigrant status is provided based on a point system. Children of long-term temporary foreign workers are also eligible for such status adjustment.
DHS may designate certain groups as a criminal gang. Such individuals may not seek asylum, withholding of removal, or temporary protected status.
Indemnification is provided for law enforcement entities sued for complying with DHS detainers. DHS detainer authority is revised.
The bill creates a private right of action against a state or local jurisdiction that declines to honor a DHS detainer for a convicted illegal alien who then commits murder, rape, or sexual abuse of a minor.
The bill eliminates: (1) the diversity visa program, (2) certain family-based visa categories, and (3) the per-country limit for employment-based immigrants. The per-country limit for family based-immigrants is increased.
Asylum and visa screening provisions are revised.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on June 19, 2018. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
Civibrief does not map this action to a stage in the process. See the official record.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
The latest action on file does not map to a stage Civibrief recognizes, so the page will not name one. The record's own words are the reliable fact here.
The record's latest action, on June 27, 2018: Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 115th Congress (2017-18), 442 of the 11,421 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.9 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one has no outstanding steps listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
ROBERT GOODLATTE (R-VA) introduced it on June 19, 2018, and 11 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 11 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on June 19, 2018, 3005 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2997 days ago, on June 27, 2018.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 115th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2019 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseMotion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- SenateNot stated in the latest action
- PresidentNot stated in the latest action