Americans First Immigration Act

Summary#

This bill creates a new points-based immigrant visa program and makes many changes to family, employment, and education rules in the Immigration and Nationality Act. It replaces several employment-based visa categories with a points system that awards points for salary levels, education, English ability, military service, age, and extraordinary achievement. Employers who offer jobs to petitioning immigrants must sign detailed attestations showing recruitment of U.S. workers, promising wages for at least 3 years, and agreeing not to lay off U.S. workers in similar jobs. The bill adds a required attestation from petitioning immigrants promising attachment to U.S. constitutional principles and that they have not supported or taken part in listed violent or discriminatory practices. It ends the diversity visa (lottery) program and reassigns some visas to religious workers. The bill narrows who counts as an "immediate relative" of a U.S. citizen to spouses and children (removing parents), changes family-sponsored visa categories, and adds rules to limit "aging out" protections. It creates conditional permanent resident status for points-based immigrants and their spouses and children for two years, with requirements to keep the job, avoid certain criminal convictions, and not receive means-tested public benefits; failure can lead to termination of status and removal proceedings. The bill also adds employer investigation and enforcement processes, including labor investigations, binding arbitration for certain complaints, and civil monetary penalties that can be adjusted for inflation. It changes federal statements of policy about public education and amends higher-education rules so that aliens who are not lawful permanent residents must pay at least nonresident tuition rates.

What it means for you#

• For people applying for green cards: Most employment-based green cards would be awarded through a new points system. Applicants need a job offer meeting salary thresholds, enough points (minimum 16) for education, salary, English, age, etc., and must sign an attestation about values. Many applicants would receive conditional permanent resident status for two years with follow-up requirements.
• For employers: Employers offering jobs to points-based immigrants must document recruitment of U.S. workers, keep records of applicants, promise multi-year wages, avoid certain layoffs, and can face investigations, arbitration, fines, or restrictions on future petitions if found noncompliant.
• For family members: Parents of U.S. citizens are no longer defined as immediate relatives for visa purposes; spouse and minor children remain immediate relatives. Some family-based categories are changed and visa availability rules are adjusted.
• For students and colleges: The bill requires that aliens not lawfully admitted for permanent residence pay at least the same tuition charged to nonresidents and states a federal policy that such aliens should not be entitled to public education benefits in the same manner as citizens or lawful permanent residents.
• For diversity visa applicants and current petitioners: The diversity visa program is eliminated; some pending petitions and certain special immigrant petitions are handled under transition rules described in the bill.

Expenses#

• The bill sets civil monetary penalties for employers who violate employer attestations: up to $5,000 for noncompliance, up to $15,000 for willful noncompliance, and up to $50,000 for willful noncompliance that resulted in a U.S. worker layoff. These amounts are automatically adjusted annually for inflation beginning January 1, 2028. The Secretary of Labor pays arbitrator fees when binding arbitration is initiated.
• No publicly available information on the bill's overall estimated effect on federal spending or the federal budget is included in the text provided.

Proponents' View#

The bill describes its goals as protecting American workers and American values, preserving the nuclear family as defined in the bill (spouses and children), preventing layoffs of U.S. workers in favor of immigrant hires, ensuring points-based immigrants meet high salary and skill standards, and ending the diversity visa program.

Opponents' View#

No publicly available information.