GOP Lawmaker Proposes End to ‘de Facto Amnesty’ System

A new piece of legislation by a Republican lawmaker would tighten current processes which give illegal aliens de facto amnesty under what is meant to be a temporary, protected status.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who is running for U.S. Senate, has introduced legislation that seeks to reform the temporary protected status system, where hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens can have their files renewed repeatedly, sometimes remaining legally in the U.S. for more than a decade.

More than 300,000 illegal aliens are given Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation that allows them to stay in the U.S. for up to 18 months. But, according to Brooks, the program is not temporary, as its name implies.

Brooks told AL.com that the President “repeatedly renews protected status, effectively providing a free and permanent pass into America – including all the benefits that come with it.”

“My bill, the TPS Reform Act, would ensure that ‘temporary’ means temporary by establishing clear time limitations and creating statutory tests that must be met to grant the TPS designation,” Brooks said. “This legislation provides the needed reform for what has become a long-running amnesty program.”

Already, Brooks’ legislation has gained traction among immigration experts, like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies.

“Past administrations have been abusing this temporary, humanitarian program for 27 years, using it as a de facto amnesty program,” NumbersUSA’s Rosemary Jenks told AL.com. “This bill would restore critical oversight by Congress.”

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) are co-sponsoring the legislation.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.