[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1525 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1525
Calling for comprehensive legislation that addresses United States
policies contributing to forced migration and displacement, promotes an
immigration system that addresses the root causes of migration,
reaffirms United States commitment to asylum, and provides a roadmap to
citizenship for immigrants living in the United States.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 1, 2024
Mr. Casar (for himself, Ms. Jayapal, Mrs. Ramirez, Ms. Kamlager-Dove,
Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Vargas, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Johnson of
Georgia, Mr. McGovern, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, Mr.
Robert Garcia of California, Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms.
Tlaib, Ms. Omar, Ms. Sewell, Mr. Carson, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr.
Espaillat, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Quigley, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Norton, Mrs.
Cherfilus-McCormick, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Jackson of Illinois, Ms. Chu,
Mr. Thanedar, and Ms. Bush) submitted the following resolution; which
was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the
Committees on Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, and Ways and Means,
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Calling for comprehensive legislation that addresses United States
policies contributing to forced migration and displacement, promotes an
immigration system that addresses the root causes of migration,
reaffirms United States commitment to asylum, and provides a roadmap to
citizenship for immigrants living in the United States.
Whereas the majority of Americans are immigrants or descendants of immigrants;
Whereas there are an estimated 11,000,000 undocumented immigrants in the United
States, the majority of whom have been in the United States for more
than a decade, and they make immense contributions to the United States,
have families in the United States, and need a roadmap to legal status;
Whereas the United States has for decades pursued an immigration policy centered
on punitive enforcement and deterrence, which has failed to achieve its
stated purpose of curbing immigration and has greatly exacerbated the
humanitarian struggles faced by people migrating;
Whereas the United States has a long history of welcoming immigrants who choose
to come to the United States and immigrants who are forced to come to
the United States because of conditions in their home countries;
Whereas the United States can continue to welcome immigrants while advancing
policies that reduce forced displacement and make it easier for people
who do not want to migrate to stay in their home countries;
Whereas there has been a global rise in forced migration and displacement;
Whereas the continent of Africa has both a larger share and absolute number of
forcibly displaced people than any other major region in the world, with
the continent's forcibly displaced population doubling since 2018;
Whereas the Department of State identifies ``addressing economic insecurity and
inequality'' as the first pillar under its strategy to address the root
causes of migration;
Whereas research has found that broad-based sectoral sanctions
disproportionately affect the civilian population and have contributed
to increased rates of income inequality and poverty;
Whereas former President Donald Trump imposed some of the harshest sanctions in
United States history on Venezuela, and both tightened the United States
embargo of and applied new sanctions on Cuba;
Whereas sanctions and other punitive economic measures have contributed to an
economic depression in Venezuela, a multidigit economic contraction in
Cuba, and the largest migratory outflows in the history of either
country, with millions having left in recent years;
Whereas the sanctions on both countries, and the 60-year embargo of Cuba, have
failed to force either government out of power while contributing to the
immiseration of people in both countries;
Whereas addressing poverty, food insecurity, and inequality in developing
countries requires making adequate investments in the region,
prioritizing local communities when providing aid, implementing trade
policies that advance the rights of workers, strengthening local
agricultural sectors, and ensuring respect for indigenous peoples
rights;
Whereas investments in developing countries should focus on reducing the poverty
rate, improving labor rights and increasing wages for workers,
mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change, strengthening
democratic institutions, combating corruption, improving human rights,
boosting access to education, closing the digital divide, empowering
women and young people, and building resilience to food insecurity in
order to address the drivers of migration;
Whereas some United States-sponsored trade and investment agreements,
particularly in Latin America, have benefited corporate profits at the
expense of workers and the environment, threatened the livelihoods and
well-being of both United States and foreign workers, and catalyzed
waves of immigration to the United States;
Whereas congressional Democrats and labor unions forced changes to Trump's
initial United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to include a
facility-specific rapid response mechanism between the United States and
Mexico, designed to protect workers' collective bargaining rights at
worksites in North America, which has directly benefited tens of
thousands of workers and reduced unfair labor practices by multinational
corporations;
Whereas investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions, found in most
United States trade agreements, allow multinational corporations and
wealthy foreign investors to sue governments in unaccountable corporate
tribunals over democratically chosen economic, environmental, labor, and
public health policies, including in Honduras, where United States
company Honduras Prospera launched an ISDS claim for nearly $11,000,000,
which amounts to nearly two-thirds of Honduras entire 2022 national
budget;
Whereas debt distress and reduced investment in public services in developing
countries contribute significantly to forced migration and displacement;
Whereas the United Nations (UN) reports that global public debt reached an all-
time high of $92,000,000,000,000 in 2022, with devastating consequences
for 3,300,000,000 people living in developing countries compelled to
spend more on debt-servicing payments than on crucial public goods like
health, education, and climate change adaptation and mitigation;
Whereas the UN has called for a reform of the international financial
architecture to ``foster a more inclusive system that empowers
developing countries to actively participate in the governance of the
international financial system'';
Whereas the climate crisis is an existential threat and global challenge that is
a primary driver of forced migration and displacement;
Whereas climate change has exacerbated climate hazards and has amplified the
risk of extreme weather disasters, resulting in the number of climate
related disasters tripling over the last 30 years, and threatens the
existence of island nations, including Kiribati, the Maldives, Marshall
Islands, and Tuvalu;
Whereas natural disasters including floods, hurricanes, and cyclones in India,
Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Myanmar, the Bahamas, and Zimbabwe,
droughts in India, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, and earthquakes in
Haiti, Nepal, and Indonesia have fueled displacement and forced
migration;
Whereas the UN says low- and middle-income countries could need up to
$4,000,000,000,000 of additional investment a year to address the
effects of climate change;
Whereas violence is a primary driver of forced migration;
Whereas armed conflict, repressive governance, and lack of economic opportunity,
especially for young people, are some of the top drivers of migration;
Whereas conflicts across the world have resulted in millions of displaced
people;
Whereas reportedly 90 percent of the firearms recovered from crime scenes in
Haiti, 70 percent of the traced firearms recovered in Mexico, and 75
percent of the firearms recovered in the Dominican Republic originated
from the United States;
Whereas the United States has too often provided security assistance, including
defense articles and services, to human rights-abusing governments in
Latin America and elsewhere, contributing to political repression and
instability that worsens forced migration and displacement; and
Whereas a consistent lack of high-level United States attention to conflicts on
the African continent enables humanitarian crises to persist: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that
the United States must--
(1) address United States policies contributing to forced
migration and displacement, including by--
(A) overhauling United States broad-based sanction
policy to ensure sanctions are not increasing economic
inequality, poverty, and forced migration;
(B) making adequate economic and humanitarian
investments in developing countries to address income
inequality and ensuring those investments improve the
livelihoods of everyday people, allowing them to stay
in their homes;
(C) promoting good governance, economic investment,
and humanitarian assistance in developing countries to
increase stability and create opportunity, enabling
people to pursue livelihoods at home;
(D) advancing international aid reforms that
support the localization of aid and strengthen local
agricultural sectors;
(E) improving the standard of living of everyday
people in developing countries by pursuing trade
policies that prioritize the needs and well-being of
workers and reviewing existing trade and investment
agreements to bring them in line with these priorities,
including by--
(i) building upon the rapid response
mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-
Canada Agreement (USMCA) and building upon the
RRM in other existing or future trade deals to
ensure robust enforcement of labor,
environment, and human rights standards in
trade agreements; and
(ii) working to eliminate extreme investor
rights and harmful Investor-State Dispute
Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms from existing
trade and investment agreements in the region;
(F) using the United States voice and vote at
International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and Inter
American Development Bank to create a more inclusive
international financial system that empowers developing
countries, addresses the global debt crisis, eliminates
surcharges, and refrains from implementing policy
actions that are shown to increase inequality and drive
displacement;
(G) supporting international climate finance
mechanisms, including a new issuance of Special Drawing
Rights and robust investments in the Green Climate
Fund, Loss and Damage Fund, and Amazon Fund to help
developing countries transition away from fossil fuels,
build resilience to climate change, and deal with the
effects of climate change, reducing climate-induced
migration;
(H) reducing arms trafficking and the flooding of
weapons into Haiti, Mexico, and the region by
strengthening United States gun laws, controlling the
scale and end users of United States-exported firearms,
and banning assault rifles;
(I) applying Leahy Law, Arms Export Control Act,
and Foreign Assistance Act principles and criteria to
the sale of origin defense articles and services;
(J) monitoring recipients' use of origin defense
articles and services to harm civilians and contribute
to violations of international humanitarian law and
international human rights law;
(K) supporting efforts to broker peace in the
region, including Colombia peace processes; and
(L) increasing interagency attention and resources
to United States engagement in developing countries,
including sustained high-level diplomacy to help bring
an end to conflicts that are the primary drivers of
forced displacement;
(2) ensure a humane and sustainable immigration system that
appropriately addresses the root causes driving migration
including by--
(A) expanding appropriate legal pathways for
migration, creating additional pathways for migration,
and modernizing the legal immigration system to meet
21st century needs;
(B) ensuring access to immigration benefits,
including asylum and refugee processing, by providing
sufficient funding to process benefits, including at
Safe Mobility Offices, and clearing visa backlogs;
(C) lifting the current 180-day waiting time for
work authorization for individuals who apply for
asylum;
(D) guarantying legal representation to asylum
seekers and individuals facing deportation;
(E) utilizing humane community-based alternatives
to detention, dramatically reducing our reliance on
detention, and ending the criminalization of
immigrants; and
(F) creating a central process to give wrongfully
and unjustly deported people with ties to the United
States a meaningful chance to present a case to return
to the United States and reunite with loved ones; and
(3) provide immigrants living in the United States with a
roadmap to citizenship.
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