{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/exclusive-fox-news-digital-senator-launches-assault-on-illegal-immigration-gaps-as-gop-races-midterm-clock-to-lock-in-key-wins/", "EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Digital: Senator Launches Assault on Illegal Immigration Gaps as GOP Races Midterm Clock to Lock in Key Wins", "2026-08-24", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "Senate", "IN", "Jim Banks", "B001299", "www.banks.senate.gov", "banks", "https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "The Indiana Republican warns executive actions alone risk being erased by a future Democratic administration\n\nClick here to read the full story from Fox News Digital or read below.\n\nEXCLUSIVE: Republicans risk seeing some of President Donald Trump\u2019s signature immigration priorities erased by a future Democratic administration unless Congress acts now to lock them into law, Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Fox News Digital as he presses the Senate to take up a package of seven immigration bills.\n\nBanks said his immigration package is needed as Republicans approach the midterms with control of Congress at stake and a shrinking window to deliver legislative wins to voters. The bills target birthright citizenship, visas, commercial driver\u2019s licenses and other immigration policies Banks wants Congress to codify.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t just fear a Democrat majority. I fear a Democrat-Socialist majority because the [DSA] who control today\u2019s Democrat Party support wide open borders, they support eliminating ICE, they are anti law enforcement, they want to defund the police,\u201d Banks said.\n\nWhile current Senate Democratic leaders are not aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, Banks argued a future Democratic-led Senate would be \u201cowned by the socialist wing of their party.\u201d\n\n\u201cI cannot believe that the Democrats are so radical and extreme today that they\u2019re OK with what\u2019s happened to our country [with] illegals taking jobs for Americans or allowing illegals to be behind the wheel of semi-trucks,\u201d Banks said, pointing to his \u201cDalilah Law.\u201d\n\nThe bill honors Dalilah Coleman, a first-grader who was critically injured when an illegal immigrant driving a big rig caused a multi-car pileup on an Indiana highway. Partap Singh, an Indian national licensed in California, was driving the truck. Coleman suffered catastrophic injuries, spent months in the hospital and had a craniectomy.\n\nThe Dalilah Law, described by supporters as the CDL equivalent of the Laken Riley Act, would require states to stop providing commercial driver\u2019s licenses to illegal immigrants and certain foreign nationals. It would also require states to revoke certain existing licenses and administer commercial driving tests only in English.\n\nBanks compared the CDL measure to Congress\u2019 Reagan-era push to raise the drinking age by threatening federal transportation funds. He argued that several Hoosiers have been injured or killed in crashes involving foreign drivers licensed by \u201cstates that hand CDLs out like candy,\u201d including California, Pennsylvania and New York. He also wants Congress to take greater control over Temporary Protected Status authority, which he said previous Democratic administrations abused.\n\n\u201cIf we legislate it and give Congress power to determine when TPS is appropriate when it\u2019s not, then we\u2019ll be able to address these issues long after President Trump leaves the White House,\u201d Banks said.\n\nThe American Tech Workforce Act would raise the minimum salary threshold for many H-1B visa positions from $60,000 to $150,000. Experts have said the change would significantly alter incentives for companies seeking to hire young foreign workers.\n\nImmigration attorneys argued Banks\u2019 bill would make the U.S. \u201cfar less attractive as a study destination\u201d and encourage foreign talent to look to Canada instead.\n\n\u201cMany employers would be unable or unwilling to meet this threshold, effectively limiting H-1B hiring to top tech companies or highly specialized roles,\u201d Texas firm Reddy Neumann & Brown said on its website.\n\nProponents have argued such changes would give American graduates a better chance of entering the job market after college.\n\nOther bills in the package would provide additional border security funding to the War Department, restrict chain migration and target grants to colleges employing illegal immigrants.\n\n\u201cThese seven bills are common sense, everything from stopping illegals from driving semi-trucks to banning birthright citizenship, to stopping chain migration, to cracking down on those who misuse the H-1B visas for cheap labor,\u201d Banks said.\n\nFox News Digital reached out to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., for comment on the package and to ask whether any of the bills will be expedited ahead of the midterms.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-25T05:31:37Z", "2026-08-25T05:33:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.banks.senate.gov/news/press-releases/exclusive-fox-news-digital-senator-launches-assault-on-illegal-immigration-gaps-as-gop-races-midterm-clock-to-lock-in-key-wins/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3695360869169235, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}