[Pages S2464-S2466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Religious Workforce Protection Act

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader for locking us 
in, and I think we will complete our comments well on time for the 
vote.
  I am very pleased to be joined by my colleague Senator Collins as we 
introduce a bill called the Religious Workforce Protection Act. Our 
third cosponsor, Senator Risch, is chairing a Foreign Relations 
Committee hearing right now but wanted me to comment that he is also a 
cosponsor of the bill.
  This bill deals with a problem that I first saw in my parish, that, 
at the time, when I was talking to folks in my church about it, seemed 
like a small local problem, but it turns out it is a big national 
problem.
  My church, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, in Richmond, VA, was founded 
as an immigrant church. It was heavily for Italian- and German-American 
Catholics, right after World War I, who felt sort of looked askance 
upon because of the war, and they wanted to have their own parish that 
could be a haven for them. Now, a hundred-plus years later, my church 
is still an immigrant church, but it is about a third Congolese.

[[Page S2465]]

  But in addition to the fact that many of our churches of all 
denominations--synagogues and temples and gurdwaras and mosques--in the 
country serve new American populations, it is also the case that many 
of our religious workers in the United States are also immigrants.
  Two of the last three priests in my parish were immigrants, one from 
India and one from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and I began to 
hear about a problem with the way our immigration laws work for 
religious workers.
  There is a visa called an R-1 visa that allows, upon the petitioning 
of a church or a mosque or a synagogue, for a religious worker to come 
and work for a congregation for a period of 5 years.
  The R-1 visa lasts for 5 years. Often, during the course of that 5 
years, the faith congregation decides, ``Here is somebody who is really 
great; we would like to keep him''--or her--and they apply for an EB-4 
visa, which is a more extended visa. And the idea would be you would 
apply, and the application process would finish before your R-1 visa 
expires.
  Well, it turns out we have huge backlogs in processing these EB-4 
visas. So many religious workers get to the end of their 5-year term, 
and their EB-4 is pending--likely to be approved but not yet approved--
and they have to depart the country. They are required to go back home 
and stay for at least a year before they come back.
  There can also be some challenges for religious workers. If, say, one 
starts working at St. Elizabeth's parish and gets moved to St. Paul's 
Parish just a mile or two away, they have to restart the process 
because it is a new employer even though they are essentially doing the 
same thing.
  So Senator Collins and I--and she will describe her own story that 
she sees in her native Maine with the same topic. We started to talk 
about this, and it turns out this is an issue in Catholic parishes, but 
it is an issue much more broadly.
  So what we have done is introduced a bill we call the Religious 
Workforce Protection Act. It would allow someone in this R-1 category 
to file the application for the EB-4, and if the 5-year R-1 period ends 
before the EB-4 has been granted, this bill would give discretion--not 
a mandate but discretion--to the Secretary of Homeland Security to 
grant an extension of the R-1 visa for a worker who has applied for the 
EB-4 and who fully qualifies, has no disqualifying factor that would 
suggest that they would not be eligible for the EB-4.
  It also allows a little more flexibility so that a religious worker 
can move from one parish to the next or get a promotion from associate 
pastor to pastor without restarting the application process as long as 
they maintain continuous work as a religious worker, as the R-1 program 
was designed for.
  We think this is going to be a good fix for many of our religious 
communities.
  I am happy to say, before I yield the floor to Senator Collins, that 
the support we have gained from religious communities nationally is 
pretty notable. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the 
National Association of Evangelicals, the U.S. Council of Muslim 
Organizations, the Hindu American Foundation, the Immigration Committee 
of Agudath Israel of America, and the Episcopal Church of America have 
all weighed in because so many different faith congregations are seeing 
this same challenge--the backlog in processing applications for R-1 
religious workers to be able to convert their status to EB-4.
  We think it is a basic, commonsensical provision, and giving the DHS 
Secretary on a case-by-case basis the ability to review and then extend 
someone's R-1 status while their EB-4 is processing seems like a way to 
solve this problem for so many faith congregations all around the 
United States.
  With that, I am very, very pleased to be joined in this by my 
colleague from Maine, and I would like to yield to Senator Collins.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join today with my friend 
and colleague from Virginia Senator Kaine to introduce the Religious 
Workforce Protection Act.
  Our bill would allow foreign-born religious workers in the United 
States to continue to perform essential work in their communities all 
across the Nation, including the State of Maine.
  I would also like to thank our friend and colleague Senator Jim 
Risch, who joins us in introducing this important bill.
  Like my colleague from Virginia, I, too, learned about this problem 
from my local parish in Maine. In the summertime, I tend to attend 
Catholic mass in either Lincoln or Howland, ME. Both parishes are 
served by the same priest. The priest, until last year, came from 
India--Father Tony. We all loved him. Unfortunately, when he went back 
home, there was a change in his visa status, and he was unable to 
return.
  Our legislation would grant the Secretary of Homeland Security the 
authority to extend the temporary R-1 status for a religious worker 
past 5 years until he or she receives a decision on the permanent EB-4 
visa application. In doing so, the bill would provide a solution to the 
significant problems that religious organizations and workers are 
experiencing with our current system.
  Our bill would help religious workers of all faith traditions 
continue their work providing services, such as acting as a chaplain at 
a hospital, conducting worship services, and serving as religious 
educators.
  The issue religious employees have faced with our visa system have 
evolved over time, but the result is the same: Religious organizations 
are harmed, communities are hurt, and religious workers are unable to 
pursue their missions.
  In 2021, the severe backlog in the processing of religious workers' 
visa petitions was worsened by the COVID pandemic. It forced many 
religious employees who were already in the United States to leave the 
communities that they were serving so well and for which they were so 
essential or cease working altogether, such as a Catholic priest being 
unable to perform mass for fear of violating immigration law. There 
were also additional workers outside of the United States awaiting 
entry, unable to serve in our religious communities.

  Although the backlog did decrease as Embassies and consulates 
reopened post-COVID, other issues have arisen.
  Due to a change in the statutory interpretation made by the State 
Department in 2023, many religious workers who are in the United States 
on temporary R-1 visas are unable to receive decisions on permanent EB-
4 visa applications within the maximum 5-year duration of an R-1 visa. 
In other words, their R-1 visa expires before they get a decision on 
their EB-4 permanent visa. The result is that they have to leave our 
country and the communities, parishes, mosques, synagogues, and 
churches they are serving for at least 1 year before they can return.
  In Maine, local communities have experienced this problem firsthand 
and would be greatly helped by our legislation. Of the 50 Catholic 
parishes in Maine, 35--more than half--benefit from the ministry of 
international priests. Recently, three rural Maine communities--St. 
Agatha, Bucksport, and Greenville--were left without any priests at all 
for months. These priests were unable to work because their R-1 visas 
expired before their EB-4 applications could be fully processed.
  If this issue is not addressed, religious organizations in Maine and 
across the Nation will continue to lose pastors, priests, rabbis, and 
other religious workers who lead and support their congregations and 
communities.
  As I explained, this bill solves this problem by granting the 
Secretary of Homeland Security the authority simply to extend the 
temporary R-1 status past the 5 years until the religious worker 
receives a decision on the permanent EB-4 visa application. This just 
makes sense.
  Senator Kaine and I have pressed the Departments of State and 
Homeland Security to do everything they can to administratively address 
this problem.
  When I first learned of the issue in 2021, Senator Kaine and I wrote 
to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to express our 
concern about the long backlogs in processing religious worker visa 
petitions.
  In 2023 and 2024, we again wrote to the two Secretaries about the 
change

[[Page S2466]]

in interpretation that had the effect of worsening the problem by 
further lengthening the time it takes for applicants from most 
countries to receive their employment-based visas.
  Although some progress has been made as a result of our efforts, a 
true and lasting fix requires an act of Congress.
  I want to be clear that our bill is carefully tailored. It is 
extremely narrow. It does not change any requirement or bars to 
obtaining an employment-based visa. It does not allow entry for any 
person who is not already permitted under the law to enter the United 
States. Religious workers would continue to face the same vetting and 
other requirements that are applicable to other noncitizens who are 
seeking to work in our country.
  Let me also emphasize that there is no doubt that our country has 
faced an illegal immigration crisis, but that is not what we are 
talking about here. We are talking about people who have lawfully 
entered the United States under a religious worker visa, and we simply 
provide a tailored, carefully crafted solution for those who are 
lawfully present in our country and serving our churches, our parishes, 
our synagogues--our religious organizations. They are of many different 
faiths, and they have developed important ties to their communities.
  As we have highlighted in a letter that we sent to the Secretaries of 
State and Homeland Security, these employees provide basic necessities 
to those in need. They care for and minister to the sick and dying in 
hospitals. They work with adolescents and young adults to help them. 
They counsel those who have suffered severe trauma and hardship. They 
serve as educators and mentors, and they are critical as faith leaders.
  Surely, this is one area where we should be able to come together as 
Republicans and Democrats and do something worthwhile, something that 
will have a real-world impact in communities across this country.
  The broad support for this effort is shown by the many organizations 
of different faiths that have endorsed our legislation.
  I urge my colleagues to support our efforts so that we can allow much 
needed religious workers to continue their ministry and their service 
in communities all across America.

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