We have a lot of experience with the word “temporary” and how it doesn’t mean what it means when it comes to immigration programs! Therefore when we saw what initially looked like a news report at The Hill alarm bells began to ring.
However, note that this story about a newly introduced bill is actually an opinion piece written by the college professor whose idea this is.
And, before you go crazy, know that any bill introduced now is dead in the water and its sponsor is only doing it for brownie points. Congress has adjourned and all bills die with the Congress and must be reintroduced in the new Congress in January.
So here is the op-ed by Dr. Amitai Etzioni at The Hill:
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) added to his long list of credits when, in the dying hours of the 114th Congress, he introduced a bill that should cheered everyone’s holidays—HR 6510: The Save the Children Act of 2016.
The act authorizes granting temporary visas to 25,000 Syrian refugee children, ages three to 10, to live in the U.S. until the civil war in their country ends. These children, to be chosen by their families or orphaned, will be able to live in the homes of American families who will volunteer to host them. The costs of their care will be covered by the host families themselves or by charitable organizations.
These visas will expire six months after our government determines that hostilities have ceased and a durable peace process has begun. [So what if it is decades before peace returns to Syria?—ed] The grace period will allow time for the families of the children to re-establish their households in Syria before the children return.
The Department of State, together with Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services will coordinate the inflow and return of these children.
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The bill grew out of a policy proposal formulated by Dr. Amitai Etzioni of The George Washington University. It was drafted by Layth Elhassani at Covington and Burling LLP as part of his pro bono work.
[….]
Amitai Etzioni is a University Professor and Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University.