On the recordDecember 13, 2022
In the hearing on this bill in the markup in April before the Committee on the Judiciary, I raised an amendment or proposed an amendment that we protect the United States, if this bill were to pass, by providing that the Chinese Communist Party not be allowed to abuse it. I submitted for the record evidence that Chinese technicians under H- 1B visas had been part of the censorship routine at Facebook, that H-1B visa holders were involved in the Confucius Institutes in colleges and universities across the country. We ought to, at a minimum, provide that the Chinese Communist Party does not use our immigration tools as a means to impair American national security and favor inculcation of the Chinese Communist Party's influence in the United States. In response to the amendment, the bill's sponsor argued that the Immigration and Naturalization Act already provided for defense against this threat. In fact, she gave a particular section of the code, section 212(a)(3)(D), which already fully took care of this problem. Except in further debate on the amendment, it became apparent after a while that, no, section 212(a)(3)(D) only addressed risks involving aliens, not immigrants. That was finally conceded, but the problem was not addressed in the markup. Now, as the bill comes to the floor today, it comes with a manager's amendment, not vetted in the Committee on the Judiciary as it should have been that day, and it doesn't do the job.…
