During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) spoke in support of their Religious Workforce Protection Act.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank the Majority Leader for locking us in, and I think we will complete our comments well in time for the vote.
00:05I'm very pleased to be joined by my colleague, Senator Collins, as we introduce a bill that we call the Religious Workforce Protection Act.
00:13Our third co-sponsor, Senator Risch, is chairing a Foreign Relations Committee hearing right now,
00:18but wanted me to comment that he is also a co-sponsor of the bill.
00:23This bill deals with a problem that I first saw in my parish,
00:29that at the time, when I was talking to folks in my church about it, seemed like a small local problem,
00:35but it turns out it's a big national problem.
00:38My church, St. Elizabeth's of Hungary, in Richmond, Virginia, is founded as an immigrant church.
00:45It was heavily for Italian and German-American Catholics right after World War I,
00:49who felt, sort of looked askance upon because of the war,
00:53and they wanted to have their own parish that would be a haven for them.
00:56Now, a hundred-plus years later, my church is still an immigrant church, but it's about a third Congolese.
01:02But in addition to the fact that many of our churches of all denominations,
01:06synagogues and temples and gurdwaras and mosques in the country serve new American populations,
01:13it's also the case that many of our religious workers in the United States are also immigrants.
01:18Two of the last three priests in my parish were immigrants, one from India and one from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
01:27and I began to hear about a problem with the way our immigration laws work for religious workers.
01:33There is a visa called an R1 visa that allows, upon the petitioning of a church or a mosque or a synagogue,
01:41for a religious worker to come and work for a congregation for a period of five years.
01:46The R1 visa lasts for five years.
01:49Often, during the course of that five years, the faith congregation decides,
01:53here's somebody who's really great, we'd like to keep him or her,
01:57and they apply for an EB-4 visa, which is a more extended visa.
02:01And the idea would be you would apply,
02:03and the application process would finish before your R1 visa expires.
02:08Well, it turns out we have huge backlogs in processing these EB-4 visas.
02:14And so many religious workers get to the end of their five-year term,
02:18their EB-4 is pending, likely to be approved, but not yet approved, and they have to depart the country.
02:24And they're required to go back home and stay for at least a year before they come back.
02:30There can also be some challenges for religious workers if, say,
02:35one starts working at St. Elizabeth's Parish and gets moved to St. Paul's Parish just a mile or two away.
02:42They sort of have to restart the process because it's a new employer,
02:46even though they're essentially doing the same thing.
02:48So Senator Collins and I, and she'll describe her own story that she sees in her native Maine with the same topic.
02:56We started to talk about this, and it turns out this is an issue in Catholic parishes,
03:00but it is an issue much more broadly.
03:03And so what we've done is introduced a bill we call the Religious Workforce Protection Act.
03:08It would allow someone in this R1 category to file the application for the EB-4,
03:16and if the five-year R1 period ends before the EB-4 has been granted,
03:21this bill would give discretion, not a mandate, but discretion to the Secretary of Homeland Security
03:28to grant an extension of the R1 visa for a worker who's applied for the EB-4
03:34and who fully qualifies, has no disqualifying factor,
03:38that would suggest that they would not be eligible for the EB-4.
03:41It also allows a little more flexibility so that a religious worker can move from one parish to the next
03:47or get a promotion from associate pastor to pastor without restarting the application process,
03:54as long as they maintain continuous work as a religious worker, as the R1 program was designed for.
04:02We think this is going to be a good fix for many of our religious communities,
04:06and I'm happy to say before I yield the floor to Senator Collins
04:10that the support we have gained from religious communities nationally is pretty notable.
04:15The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals,
04:22the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, the Hindu American Foundation,
04:27the Immigration Committee of Israel of America, and the Episcopal Church of America
04:34have all weighed in because so many different faith congregations are seeing the same challenge.
04:39The backlog in processing applications for R1 religious workers to be able to convert their status to EB-4.
04:47We think it's a basic commonsensical provision, and giving the DHS secretary on a case-by-case basis
04:54the ability to review and then extend someone's R1 status while their EB-4 is processing
05:00seems like a way to solve this problem for so many faith congregations all around the United States.
05:07And with that, I'm very, very pleased to be joined in this by my colleague from Maine,
05:11and I would like to yield to Senator Collins.
05:14Mr. President.
05:16Senator from Maine.
05:17Mr. President, I am pleased to join today with my friend and colleague from Virginia,
05:24Senator Kaine, to introduce the Religious Workforce Protection Act.
05:30Our bill would allow foreign-born religious workers in the United States to continue to perform
05:40essential work in their communities all across the nation, including the state of Maine.
05:49I would also like to thank our friend and colleague, Senator Jim Risch, who joins us in introducing this important bill.
06:01Mr. President, like my colleague from Virginia, I, too, learned about this problem from my local parish in Maine.
06:12In the summertime, I tend to attend Catholic Mass in either Lincoln or Howland, Maine.
06:22Both parishes are served by the same priest.
06:27The priest until last year came from India, Father Tony.
06:33We all loved him.
06:35Unfortunately, when he went back home, there was a change in his visa status, and he was unable to return.
06:48Our legislation would grant the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to extend the temporary R1 status
07:00for a religious worker past five years until he or she receives a decision on the permanent EB-4 visa application.
07:16In doing so, the bill would provide a solution to the significant problems that religious organizations
07:26and workers are experiencing with our current system.
07:32Our bill would help religious workers of all faith traditions continue their work of providing services,
07:43such as acting as a chaplain at a hospital, conducting worship services, and serving as religious educators.
07:55Mr. President, the issue religious employees have faced with our visa system have evolved over time.
08:05But the result is the same.
08:09Religious organizations are harmed, communities are hurt, and religious workers are unable to pursue their missions.
08:22In 2021, the severe backlog in the processing of religious workers' visa petitions was worsened by the COVID pandemic.
08:35It forced many religious employees who were already in the United States to leave the communities that they were serving so well
08:48and for which they were so essential or cease working altogether, such as a Catholic priest being unable to perform mass
09:02for fear of violating immigration law.
09:07There were also additional workers outside of the United States awaiting entry, unable to serve,
09:18in our religious communities.
09:20Although the backlog did decrease as embassies and consulates reopened post-COVID, other issues have arisen.
09:32Due to a change in the statutory interpretation made by the State Department in 2023,
09:40many religious workers who are in the United States on temporary R-1 visas are unable to receive decisions
09:54on permanent EB-4 visa applications within the maximum five-year duration of an R-1 visa.
10:05In other words, their R-1 visa expires before they get a decision on their EB-4 permanent visa.
10:18The result is that they have to leave our country and the communities, parishes, mosques, synagogues,
10:31that they are in churches, that they are serving, for at least one year before they can return.
10:39In Maine, local communities have experienced this problem firsthand and would be greatly helped by our legislation.
10:50Of the 50 Catholic parishes in Maine, 35, more than half, benefit from the Ministry of International Priests.
11:04Recently, three Catholic priests in rural Maine communities, St. Agathe, Bucksport, and Greenville,
11:13were left without any priests at all for months.
11:18These priests were unable to work because their R-1 visas expired before their EB-4 applications could be fully processed.
11:31If this issue is not addressed, religious organizations in Maine and across the nation
11:39will continue to lose pastors, priests, rabbis, and other religious workers
11:47who lead and support their congregations and communities.
11:52As I explained, this bill solves the problem by granting the Secretary of Homeland Security
12:01the authority simply to extend the temporary R-1 status past the five years
12:09until the religious worker receives a decision on the permanent EB-4 visa application.
12:19This just makes sense.
12:22Senator Kaine and I have pressed the Department of State and Homeland Security
12:28to do everything that they can to administratively address this problem.
12:35When I first learned of the issue in 2021, Senator Kaine and I wrote to the Secretaries of State
12:44and Homeland Security to express our concern about the long backlogs in processing religious worker visa petitions.
12:57In 2023 and 2024, we again wrote to the two secretaries about the change in interpretation
13:07that had the effect of worsening the problem by further lengthening the time it takes for applicants
13:17from most countries to receive their employment-based visas.
13:23Though some progress has been made as a result of our efforts,
13:29a true and lasting fix requires an act of Congress.
13:36Mr. President, I want to be clear that our bill is carefully tailored.
13:44It is extremely narrow.
13:47It does not change any requirement or bars to obtaining an employment-based visa.
13:56It does not allow entry for any person who is not already permitted under the law to enter the United States.
14:08Religious workers would continue to face the same vetting and other requirements that are applicable
14:18to other non-citizens who are seeking to work in our country.
14:25Mr. President, let me also emphasize that there's no doubt that our country has faced an illegal immigration crisis.
14:37But that is not what we are talking about here.
14:42We are talking about people who have lawfully entered the United States under a religious worker visa.
14:53And we simply provide a tailored, carefully crafted solution for those who are lawfully present in our country
15:05and serving our churches, our parishes, our synagogues, our religious organizations.
15:18They are of many different faiths, and they have developed important ties to their communities.
15:26As we have highlighted in a letter that we sent to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security,
15:36these employees provide basic necessities to those in need.
15:43They care for and minister to the sick and dying in hospitals.
15:49They work with adolescents and young adults to help them.
15:54They counsel those who have suffered severe trauma and hardship.
16:01They serve as educators and mentors.
16:06And they are critical as faith leaders.
16:10Surely this is one area where we should be able to come together as Republicans and Democrats
16:19and do something worthwhile, something that will have a real-world impact in communities across this country.
16:29The broad support for this effort is shown by the many organizations of different faiths who have endorsed our legislation.
16:41I urge my colleagues to support our efforts so that we can allow much-needed religious workers
16:53to continue their ministry and their service in communities all across America.
17:01Thank you, Mr. President.
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