Dan Newhouse on Immigration
No blanket amnesty, but create a long pathway to legalize
Our current immigration and border security policies aren't working. They aren't working to prevent violent drug offenders from crossing our borders. They aren't working for aspiring Americans who are denied legal pathways to add their hard work and talents to building the American dream. And they aren't working for employers seeking temporary foreign workers to fill jobs left unfilled by the domestic workforce. It's time to work on reforms that will secure our borders, stem the tide of illegal immigration, and also fix our guest worker program so that our agricultural economy does not suffer from labor shortages.
For undocumented workers already here, we need a long-term solution, not blanket amnesty. I would support a plan to allow undocumented workers with no serious criminal record to apply for legal status, learn English, pay taxes and a penalty and then go to the back of the line and work toward citizenship. Source: 2014 Washington House campaign website, DanNewhouse.com , Nov 4, 2014
Protect the border and prevent illegal entry
Q: Government should enforce laws designed to protect the border and to prevent illegal entry of persons into the country?
NEWHOUSE: Strongly Agree Source: Faith2Action iVoterGuide on 2014 Washington House race , Sep 30, 2014
Opposes deportation of illlegals, according to Faith2Action.
Newhouse opposes the F2A survey question on deporting immigrants
Faith2Action.org is "the nation's largest network of pro-family groups." They provide election resources for each state, including Voter Guides and Congressional Scorecards excerpted here. The F2A survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Immigration: Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?' Source: Faith2Action Survey 14-F2A-Q12 on Jul 30, 2014
Opposes deportation of illlegals, according to PVS rating.
Newhouse opposes the PVS survey question on deporting immigrants
Project VoteSmart infers summary responses from campaign statements and news reports The PVS survey summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: 'Immigration: Do you support requiring illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship?' Source: Project VoteSmart Inferred Survey 14-PVS-q12 on Sep 30, 2014
Voted to legalize DREAMer immigrants via military service.
Newhouse voted NAY Gosar Anti-DACA Amendment to H.R. 5293
Congressional Summary: The House voted on an amendment by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to H.R. 5293, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2017. The amendment would prohibit funds from being used to extend the expiration of, or reissue a new expiration date to, the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI) program.
Recommendation by Heritage Foundation to vote YES:(6/16/2016): The MAVNI program is a pilot program authorizing "military services to recruit certain legal immigrants whose skills are considered to be vital to the national interest." However, a DoD memo has made it clear that DACA/DAPA recipients are eligible under this program, essentially opening up a pathway to amnesty for illegal aliens who enlist. By ensuring that this guidance ends, DOD will no longer be able to enlist illegal immigrants through MAVNI.
Recommendation by the ACLU to vote NO: (6/28/2011): The DREAM Act promotes fundamental fairness for young people by allowing access to affordable post-secondary education and military service opportunities, regardless of immigration status, and would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, have lived here for at least five years and have graduated from high school. The DREAM Act could result in billions of dollars in additional tax revenue from tapping the potential of DREAM-eligible students and future service personnel. Since September 11, 2001, more than 69,000 immigrants have earned citizenship while serving, and more than 125 who entered military service after that date have made the ultimate sacrifice in war by giving their lives for this nation.
Legislative outcome: Failed House 210 to 211 (no Senate vote) Source: Supreme Court case 16-H5293 argued on Jun 16, 2016
Increase both high-skill and family-based visa caps.
Newhouse co-sponsored the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act
Legislative SummaryThis bill increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from 7% of the total number of such visas available that year to 15%, and eliminates the 7% cap for employment-based immigrant visas. It also removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from China. The bill also establishes transition rules for employment-based visas from FY2020-FY2022, by reserving a percentage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability), EB-3 (skilled and other workers), and EB-5 (investors) visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest number of recipients of such visas. Of the unreserved visas, not more than 85% shall be allotted to immigrants from any single country.
Explanation from the Countable.US: Under the current immigration system, immigrants from any one country can claim no more than 7% of the 140,000 employment-based green cards issued annually to foreign nationals working in the U.S. This significantly disadvantages immigrants from larger countries that more immigrants come from.
For example, China (population 1.3 billion) and India have large backlogs of workers wishing to immigrate to and work in the U.S., but they have the name visa caps as countries such as Iceland or Estonia (population 1.3 million), which have both much smaller populations and far fewer citizens seeking to immigrate to the U.S.
The net effect of this is that immigrants from India and China can face decades-long waits, averaging 2-3 times the wait times for immigrants from other countries, for green cards, and many have to return home because they can't get permanent residency; meanwhile, countries such as Iceland and Estonia never come close to reaching their visa limit caps.
Legislative outcome Roll call 437 in House on 7/10/2019 passed 365-65-2; referred to Committee in Senate 7/9/2019; no action as of 1/1/2020. Source: S.386/H.R.1044 19-HR1044 on Feb 7, 2019
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2017-18 Governor, House and Senate candidates on Immigration: Dan Newhouse on other issues:
WA Gubernatorial:
Phil Fortunato
WA Senatorial:
Chris Vance
Dave Strider
Jennifer Ferguson
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