A BILL

To provide a fairer chance at immigration, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

Section I. SHORT TITLE

(a) Short Title.—This Act may be cited as the “Green Immigration Act”

Section II. FINDINGS

Congress finds that—

(a) The existing immigration system makes it prohibitively hard for many to immigrate to the United States.

(b) Wait times to legally immigrate to the United States are regularly as high as 17 years, and can reach above 35 years in many other cases, concurring with the Congressional Research Service (page 30).

(c) These tremendous wait times are often disproportionate by country, with large countries such as China or India having far fewer allocated slots for immigration as their population would suggest relative to Western Europe, concurring with the Congressional Research Service (page 14)](https://fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R46291.pdf).

(d) Climate change has a disproportionate impact on poor nations both in ability to prepare for disasters but also in the ability to recover the general welfare of a nation following disaster, concurring with the United Nations (pages 19-22)

(e) Denying entry into the United States to these communities is equivalent to denying them basic human necessities and natural rights such as life, liberty, and property.

(f) The economies most likely to surpass the United States’ economy are those with the largest populations, and higher rates of immigration would help combat the growing power of nations like China.

(g) Naturalization is a grueling and expensive process, and streamlining it would allow American influence to more easily spread abroad, as well as make further immigration easier.

(h) The increased brutality and militarization of border patrol from the period of 2000 to 2020 has made immigration a less sought-after goal for those abroad and helped to reduce America’s exceptionalism in the eyes of the world, and is largely caused by the restricted number of immigrants allowed in the country.

Section III. DEFINITIONS

In this Act:

(1) QUOTA.—The term “Quota” means any limits on immigration based upon race, ethnicity, nationality, age, or current country of residence.

(2) BOLD.—Bolded text indicates additions to quoted statutes.

(3) STRIKETHROUGH.—Text with a strikethrough indicates omissions from quoted statutes.

(4) IMMIGRANT VISA.—The term “Immigrant Visa” means a visa granted to any alien except in the cases of ambassador, public minister, diplomat, consular officer, reciprocity with other nations, or special cases established by the Secretary of State to directly facilitate the enumerated cases.

(5) CLIMATE EMERGENCY.—The term “Climate Emergency” means any humanitarian or major economic crisis directly caused by changes in the climate that might displace large amounts of individuals, including but not limited to:

(i) mass flooding;

(ii) wildfires;

(iii) or unsafe air.

(6) WORK RELATED VISA.—The term “work related visa” shall refer to any visa being acquired on the basis of employment opportunities in the United States.

(7) RESIDENCY RELATED VISA.—The term “residency related visa” shall refer to any visa intended to establish permanent residency.

Section IV. Elimination of Immigration Quotas

(a) 8 U.S. Code § 1152(a)(1) shall be amended to read:

Except as specifically provided in paragraph (2) and in sections 1101(a)(27), 1151(b)(2)(A)(i), and 1153 of this title, No person shall receive any preference or priority or be discriminated against in the issuance of an immigrant visa because of the person’s race, sex, nationality, place of birth, political beliefs, income, or place of residence, except in the case of environmental disasters directly impacting the relevant parties.

(b) 8 U.S. Code § 1152(a)(2-5) shall be repealed.

(c) 8 U.S. Code § 1152(b-e) shall be repealed.

(d) 8 U.S. Code § 1152 shall be given a new subsection (b), reading:

No executive body may limit the number of immigrant visas granted based upon the previous number of immigrant visas granted, including based upon the following categories:

(i) race;

(ii) sex;

(iii) nationality;

(iv) place of birth;

(v) political beliefs;

(vi) income;

(vii) place of residence.

Section V. Expanding & Streamlining Naturalization

(a) 8 U.S. Code § 1423(a)(2) shall be given a new subsection, (i), reading:

None of these requirements may require any agreement with the principles outlined.

(b) 8 U.S. Code § 1427(d) shall be given a new subsection, (i), reading:

Sufficient moral character must be assumed true and otherwise disproved by the relevant authorities.

(c) All references to the Attorney General in 8 U.S. Code Ch. 12(III)(II) shall be replaced with Secretary of State.

(d) 8 U.S. Code § 1439-1440 shall be repealed.

(e) 8 U.S. Code § 1442(d) shall be amended to read:

An alien who is a native, citizen, subject, or denizen of any country, state, or sovereignty with which the United States is at war shall cease to be an alien enemy within the meaning of this section upon the determination by proclamation of the President or by concurrent resolution of the Congress, that hostilities between the United States and such country, state, or sovereignty have ended or have grown to a point where naturalization restriction is no longer necessary.

(i) If necessary, by proclamation of the President or by concurrent resolution of the Congress, the enemy alien restrictions may be reinstated.

Section VI. Climate Visa Priority

8 U.S. Code § 1161 shall be created, reading:

(a) The EPA Director and Secretary of State may identify a climate change related crisis in other countries, hereby referred to as a “climate emergency”.

(b) Any application for any form of work or residency visa shall be expedited if the applicant’s current residency lies in that country.

(c) If deemed appropriate, the EPA Director or Secretary of State may declare the climate emergency over.

(i) Any currently expedited visa applications shall not be delayed due to this, but no further ones shall be expedited.

(d) If ineligible for any existing visa, a Climate Visa may be issued to the applicant in order to either establish temporary or permanent residency in the United States.

(i) This shall not expire because a climate emergency declaration has been revoked.

Section VII. Enactment & Timeline

(a) This bill shall go into effect, after the signature of the President:

(i) Section V after 3 months;

(ii) Section VI after 9 months;

(iii) Section IV after 12 months; (iv) All other sections immediately.

Section VIII. Plain English

(a) Section IV gives more equal treatment to immigrants regardless of their background, with the exception of those in climate disasters.

(b) Section IV also repeals all immigration quotas which disadvantages people from countries with larger populations.

(c) Section V makes the naturalization process less expensive and quicker by eliminating certain requirements.

(d) Section VI provides a process to increase immigration from countries suffering from climate emergencies.

Written by /u/Parado-I (G), Sponsored by /u/X4RC05 (G-FR-4)