The US Congress is expected to reform a visa waiver program as part of a sweeping spending bill, but is unlikely to restrict Syrian refugee flow into the United States, top Democrats said on Tuesday.
The US Congress is expected to reform a visa waiver program as part of a sweeping spending bill, but is unlikely to restrict Syrian refugee flow into the United States, top Democrats said on Tuesday.
US legislators are in the final stages of negotiation on a $1.1 trillion spending package for 2016 that would avert a government shutdown before they break for the holidays.
It is shaping up as a catch-all measure for several pieces of legislation, and top Senate Democrat Harry Reid said it was likely it would include a bill that reforms the programme allowing millions of international visitors to travel to the United States without a visa.
“We’ve learned that there could be some issues on it. We’re trying to resolve those,” Mr Reid said.
But he stressed that House Speaker Paul Ryan has made assurances that the spending bill, known as an “omnibus,” would not include language on refugees, a controversial topic for Americans following the terror attacks in Paris.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama launched a full-throated defence of open immigration policies on Tuesday, hailing it as America’s “oldest tradition” amid a fierce election-fuelled row over tighter rules. Mr Obama told 31 newly naturalised Americans that fair immigration was the touchstone of their adoptive country.
“Just about every nation in the world, to some extent, accepts immigrants,” Mr Obama said. “But there is something unique about America.”
Mr Obama — speaking at the National Archives, flanked by the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence — said America does not “simply welcome” new arrivals.
“We are born of immigrants, that is who we are, immigration is our origin story.”
