Dean Phillips on Immigration
No to border wall; yes to effective border security
We need to stop criminals, gangs and terrorists from crossing our borders, but 21st-century threats require 21st-century technology--not an ineffective border wall that will add over $100 billion to our deficit by 2028. Dean supports giving law enforcement the technologies, tools and resources they need to combat illegal border crossings, such as surveillance cameras, drones and underground sensors, so we can prevent anyone who poses a threat to our country from crossing at all. Source: 2018 MN-3 House campaign websiteÿPhillipsForCongress.org , Apr 28, 2020
Create fair pathways to earned, legal citizenship
Dean will advocate for bipartisan immigration reform that secures our borders and provides an earned pathway to citizenship for otherwise law-abiding, undocumented immigrants who work hard and pay taxes. Comprehensive reform should include streamlining the naturalization system so those who work to enter the U.S. legally don't have to wait decades for citizenship. Source: 2018 MN-3 House campaign websiteÿPhillipsForCongress.org , Apr 28, 2020
Pathway to citizenship for qualifying Liberian refugees
Phillips is an original sponsor to the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act, aimed at providing legal status and a pathway to citizenship for qualifying Liberian refugees. "Minnesota is home to the largest Liberian population in the United States, and I'm proud to represent the vast majority of them," said Phillips. "Uprooting them after decades of living and working in our community would be inhumane and would cause extraordinary disruption to our local economy." Source: Insight News on 2018 Congressional MN-3 election , Feb 14, 2019
Opposes border wall, according to CC survey.
Phillips opposes the PVS survey question on the border wall
Project Vote Smart inferred whether candidates agree or disagree with the statement, 'Immigration: Do you support the construction of a wall along the Mexican border?' PVS self-description: "The Political Courage Test provides voters with positions on key issues. Historically, candidates have failed to complete our test due to the advice they receive from their advisors and out of fear of negative attack ads." Source: PVS Survey 18PVS-12a on Aug 1, 2018
PVS:Let illegal immigrants apply for citizenship.
Phillips opposes the PVS survey question on rejecting amnesty
Project Vote Smart inferred whether candidates agree or disagree with the statement, 'Immigration: Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? PVS self-description: "The Political Courage Test provides voters with positions on key issues. Historically, candidates have failed to complete our test due to the advice they receive from their advisors and out of fear of negative attack ads." Source: PVS Survey 18PVS-12b on Aug 1, 2018
Increase both high-skill and family-based visa caps.
Phillips 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: Dean Phillips on other issues:
MN Gubernatorial:
Erin Murphy
Lori Swanson
Mark Dayton
Matt Dean
Rebecca Otto
Tina Liebling
MN Senatorial:
Jim Newberger
Karin Housley
Paula Overby
Steve Carlson
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