Lawmakers for cutting Green Card backlog and resolving H-1B issues

Washington: Eminent lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties at an immigration summit have called for urgently addressing the Green Card backlog, an issue that is majorly impacting Indian professionals and the issues related to the H-1B visa. At the first-of-its-kind 'Tech Immigration Summit' at the US Capitol on Monday hosted by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora (FIIDS), the lawmakers pushed for removing the seven per cent country quota when it comes to issuing Green Card or legal permanent residency to foreign guest workers in specialised categories.

In the absence of such a move, the Green Card waiting period for Indian immigrants would be more than 20 years and over 70 years in many cases. A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

Congressman Ro Khanna, who is also co-chair of the Congressional India Caucus, called for a rational immigration policy. “We know that immigrants have helped build Silicon Valley, that so many of the companies that have started, that have created so many jobs that have created so much employment have been founded by immigrants from India, from China, from Asia, the Middle East, from Europe,” he said.

Khanna is co-sponsor and lead of the Eagle Act, which he said would get rid of the country caps so that people aren't perpetually in status because that hurts American workers. “You are hurting American workers by allowing corporations to underpay folks on an H1-B, and you're hurting the families on H1-B. And that's why we need to move them to green cards and ultimately citizenship,” he said. Congressman Eric Swalwell said 40 per cent of his constituents in California were born outside of the United States. “If we want to take on the bigger challenges, we need the fix. If we want to cure cancer in America, we need to fix a broken immigration system. If we want to see fewer emissions when it comes to how we get our energy, we need to fix our immigration system. If we want to pay less in childcare, we need to fix our immigration system,” he said.

The American immigration system is broken, Indian-American Congressman Shri Thanedar said. “We need legal immigration solidified; our businesses need that. Every time I meet CEOs of companies, they tell me how important it is to be able to find a skilled workforce. Today we are losing so many people to Australia to Canada because they're taking advantage of our broken immigration system,” he said.

Congressmen Rich McCormick and Raja Krishnamoorthi called for passage of the relevant legislation from the US Congress. Khanderao Kand from the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) said technology immigrants are leading entrepreneurs in big industries. “From an innovation point of view, the largest innovators, patent holders are coming from the immigration background,” he said.

In addition to several US lawmakers, representations from think tanks, and an official from the Department of State, there were testimonies from the various impacted people, whether they are the pending backlog green card, or could be the documented dreamers, or the family members or the students, all of them.