Immigration

John Joyce is a reliable border-first vote. He has even registered some notable dissents to the right of his party on legal inflows, including H-1Bs. He is not much of a speechmaker on immigration, nor has he initiated any border-strengthening legislation. He joined a Democrat to sponsor a bill allowing family farms easier access to legal migrant labor. We have no complaints.

Particularly welcome was his vote against the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 (H.R. 1044). The bill would have eliminated the per-country cap on employment-based green cards, entrenching the Bangalore H-1B pipeline and supercharging Indian immigration. The House passed it 365–65, with Republicans split 140–57. Joyce stood with the principled minority. Thankfully, the bill was deconstructed and buried in the Senate.

Joyce also voted no on the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (H.R. 1865), which authorized DHS to release a large supplemental round of H-2B visas — the non-farm guest-worker program used by hotels, landscapers, seafood plants, and contractors. The statutory H-2B cap is 66,000. Appropriations riders have been used for years to roughly double that number. The bill became Law in 2019, but Joyce was a no. He also rejected the companion minibus, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (H.R. 1158), which is also now federal law. It included language that blocked ICE from working with HHS to detain or remove illegal-alien sponsors of unaccompanied minors.

Another good vote was on the Bridging the Gap for New Americans Act of 2022 (S. 3157), which cleared the Senate by unanimous consent. The bill instructed the Labor Department to study how immigrants and refugees with foreign professional degrees could be steered into matching U.S. jobs. The House voted it through 363–52. Republicans split 153–52. Joyce was in the no column. It is now Public Law 117-210.

Our congressman voted for the Laken Riley Act, now law, requiring ICE to detain illegal immigrants arrested for theft, burglary, assault on police, or crimes causing death or serious injury. He voted with the party against H.R. 1689, the 2026 bill to revive the Haiti temporary protected status (TPS) designation after the administration moved to kill it. He voted against the 2021 Farm Workforce Modernization Act, a farm-labor amnesty bill backed by 30 agribusiness Republicans.

Joyce joined a unanimous GOP conference voting for the 2025 SAVE Act, which would have required documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections. The House passed it 220–208, with four Dems voting yes. The Senate never touched the bill. A follow-on House measure on February 11, 2026, the SAVE America Act, passed 218–213, with one Dem turncoat, Henry Cuellar. A Senate amendment with the same rule failed 48–50 after GOP Senators Collins, Murkowski, McConnell and Tillis lined up with the Dems.

The one border-easing bill Joyce supported was H.R. 1778, the Dairy and Sheep H-2A Visa Enhancement Act. Rep. Anthony Brindisi (D-NY) was the sponsor of record; Joyce was an original cosponsor, one of three total, alongside Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT). It died in committee. It was nonetheless the right vote for Joyce’s district, which holds about 20% of Pennsylvania’s dairy farms. Dairies have trouble accessing H-2A labor because the work is not designated as “seasonal.” The bill would have let year-round dairy and sheepherding operations use H-2A workers on three-year terms. The H-2A visa is not a big immigration pipeline like H-1Bs are (although there are overstays and marriages). A legal foreign agricultural workforce, mostly from Mexico, that reliably returns home upon visa expiration is an economic necessity.

All told, we see Joyce as an ally on immigration, deserving of our top grade.