New bills introduced in the House of Representatives will be considered as part of comprehensive immigration reform.

On February 4, 2013, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced three new immigration reform bills in the House of Representatives. The “STEM Jobs Act” (H.R. 459) would eliminate the diversity visa lottery program and would transfer the 55,000 immigrant visas from that program for use by foreign students that have received advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Similar legislation passed the House of Representatives in November 2012. The “Fallen Heroes Family Act” (H.R. 458) would create the “W” non-immigrant visa category status for a foreign national parent or guardian of a U.S. citizen child born outside of the country when the deceased parent was an active-duty service member of the U.S. military. Finally, the “Criminal Alien Accountability Act” (H.R. 457) would impose mandatory minimum sentences on aliens that reenter the United States without authorization after having been removed for committing crimes in the United States.

The same day, Rep. Phil Gingrey, M.D. (R-GA) introduced the “E-Verify Modernization Act of 2013” (H.R. 478). This bill would make the E-Verify Program both permanent and mandatory for all U.S. employers. In addition, the bill would allow employers to wait until receipt of confirmation of the employee's identity and work eligibility before beginning to pay or train the employee, in essence turning E-Verify into a pre-hire screening tool. Finally, employers would be allowed to run current employees through E-Verify, but only if all current employees are screened, thus prohibiting employers from picking and choosing certain employees for additional scrutiny.