Hatch on CNN: “You’d have to look long and hard to find a better nominee for this court than Neil Gorsuch.”
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the senior Republican in the United States Senate, joined CNN this morning to discuss the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee vote on the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch, the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court.
In the interview, Hatch—who is now participating in his fourteenth Supreme Court confirmation—spoke to Judge Gorsuch’s qualifications and his strong record on the federal bench.
“You’d have to look long and hard to find a better nominee for this court than Neil Gorsuch,” Hatch said. “Yes, he’s conservative. But he voted 99 percent of the time with the other judges on what really was a liberal-dominated court.”
[Excerpt Via YouTube] [FULL INTERVIEW]
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ICYMI: Utah Press on Hatch’s Missionary Visa Bill
SALT LAKE CITY—Yesterday, Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced a bill to streamline worker visa processing for missionaries. Utah media reported on the importance of Hatch’s bill in addressing unpredictable visa delays for religious workers coming to the United States. Such delays are a major issue for hundreds of religious organizations across the country, including the LDS Church, which has its headquarters in Utah.
Mormon church turns to Hatch for bill to speed up missionary visas
By PEGGY FLETCHER STACK
http://www.sltrib.com/home/5122288-155/mormon-church-turns-to-hatch-for
At the prompting of one of his most-influential constituents — the LDS Church — Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced a bill Thursday that would streamline the visa process for missionaries and religious workers coming to this country from abroad.
In recent years, it has taken up to nine months or more for foreign religious workers to secure a U.S. visa.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires religious organizations to submit extensive documentation of their organizational structure, financial status and missionary program as well as information about each individual applicant.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — with 75,000 full-time missionaries, including about 1,000 foreign-born proselytizers who enter the U.S. every year — has a well-established structure and identical documentation submitted in every case, but different immigration officials have varying questions.
"The problem has existed for several years," church spokesman Eric Hawkins said. "Senator Hatch's office has been helpful to a number of organizations in Utah, including the church, who have challenges with religious-worker visas."
Hatch's bill, the Religious Worker Visa Improvement Act, would trim visa-processing times by allowing eligible religious organizations to offer a "blanket petition process," his office said in a release. "Missionaries covered by the blanket petition would be able to get their visas in just a few weeks
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Hawkins said the church is "grateful" for Hatch's work on the issue.
"This will help alleviate concern about the significant delays caused by the current .... visa process, and would also provide some helpful predictability in the timing of a missionary's arrival."
Guest editorial: Fix religious worker visas
By Elaine Young
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865676807/Elaine-Young-Fix-religious-worker-visas.html
Our visa system is a tangled mess. But Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah has a modest bill that will fix part of it.
For many decades, churches have brought religious workers to the United States for limited terms of religious service. Some are Catholic priests who serve in parishes that have no priest and limited resources. Others serve Evangelical congregations, caring for the homeless and the poor. Some are youth missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These religious workers come legally under government-issued visas and then depart when their time is up.
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Unfortunately, U.S. churches run into needless roadblocks and bureaucratic delays when seeking visas for foreign missionaries. Federal law allows a foreign missionary sponsored by a U.S. church to get a religious worker (“R-1”) visa. But federal regulations require sponsoring churches and religious organizations — even those with large, long-established missionary programs — to submit the same extensive documentation over and over again. For each R-1 visa application, a church must start from square one, proving that it actually exists, verifying its tax-exempt status, demonstrating financial support, explaining the nature of its missionary work, and so on — even if it has done so numerous times before. The LDS Church, for example, has submitted essentially identical documentation over 7,000 times over the last eight years, which already-swamped federal officials then had to review.
As a result, a process that once required no more than 30 days routinely takes at least 7-9 months. Religious workers ready to serve in the United States are forced to put their lives on hold for unreasonable periods of time, forgoing schooling and careers while waiting for a visa. Some begin their missionary service in their home nations, anxiously awaiting visa approval. Sometimes it never comes (or comes too late), necessitating a change in their assignment. Others are forced to cancel their service as the months drag on without any hope of resolution. These disappointments and delays can discourage foreign missionaries from volunteering and impose real burdens on the religious organizations that desperately need them.
None of this makes America safer. Instead, it forces federal officials to waste time and resources on pointless paperwork when they could be protecting our nation from real threats.
Sen. Hatch has a solution. He recently introduced the Religious Worker Visa Improvement Act, a bill that would break the R-1 visa logjam by allowing U.S. churches with established track records to submit a single petition for their foreign missionaries. This “blanket” petition would contain all the religious organization’s key documentation, replacing thousands of costly and repetitive individual petitions.
Sen. Orrin Hatch's new bill seeks help for missionary visas
Genelle Pugmire
LDS missionaries called from foreign countries to serve in the United States are just as inclined to wait several months to get their visas, as are U.S. missionaries waiting to go to foreign countries.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced legislation to help streamline religious worker visa processing for foreign missionaries in established international missionary programs, according to a statement released from his offices.
Visas are always issued from the country to where the missionary has been called.
According to Hatch, under federal law, religious organizations seeking to bring missionaries to the United States must obtain a religious worker visa for each missionary. Because of regulations promulgated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in 2008, such organizations must submit extensive documentation to USCIS about their organizational structure, financial status, and missionary program with each individual application. Even organizations with long-established missionary programs must submit the same lengthy paperwork over and over again.
Hatch’s bill, the Religious Worker Visa Improvement Act, would reduce visa processing times by allowing eligible religious organizations to participate in a streamlined blanket petition procedure. Missionaries covered by the blanket petition would be able to get their visas in just a few weeks.
“Missionary service is the lifeblood for many churches across the nation, yet long and unpredictable visa delays are taking a toll on those who have answered the call to serve,” Hatch said in a press release. “My bill will shorten the visa processing time for long-standing and reputable religious organizations while preserving existing anti-fraud and security protections. It’s a win-win for everyone involved: USCIS can dedicate its limited resources to other pressing matters while missionaries in established programs can travel to their missions without lengthy delays.”
