US Senator renews push for green card bill

WASHINGTON: A Democratic Senator has made a fresh bid to push a bill to provide a pathway to lawful permanent residency for millions of long-term US residents, including H-1B visa holders.

California Senator Alex Padilla on Monday reiterated support for his 'Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929' bill, first introduced last year.

The bill seeks to provide a "commonsense" fix to US' "outdated" immigration system to counter President Donald Trump's “systemic attacks” on migrants across the country.

The legislation also seeks to allow long-term US residents to apply for permanent residency if they have lived in the country continuously for at least seven years before filing the application.

"A year ago, I introduced this bill to push back against the Trump administration's cruel treatment of hardworking immigrants," Padilla said.

"Since then, President Trump's campaign of fear has only escalated, with families living under constant uncertainty despite having built their lives in this country.

"Congress cannot continue to ignore millions of long-term residents who contribute to our economy and communities every day. It's past time to modernise our immigration laws and create a fair pathway to lawful permanent residency,” he said.

The proposed legislation, if enacted, would provide a much-needed pathway to green cards for more than eight million people, including Dreamers (undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children), forcibly displaced individuals (Temporary Protected Status holders), children of long-term visa holders, essential workers, and highly skilled professionals such as H-1B visa holders, who have been waiting years for employment-based green cards.

The bill proposes to amend Section 249 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, commonly known as the Registry provision, which gives the Secretary of Homeland Security the discretion to register certain individuals for lawful permanent resident status if they have been in the country since a specified date and meet other eligibility requirements.

Section 249 was first codified in 1929 and last updated in 1986 during the Reagan administration. The current eligibility cutoff date remains January 1, 1972.

Padilla's legislation proposes replacing the fixed cutoff date with a rolling eligibility date, eliminating the need for Congress to periodically amend the law.

According to a statement from Padilla's office, only 305 people adjusted their immigration status under the current Registry provision between 2015 and 2019, rendering the current 1972 entry cutoff largely ineffective.

The bill is co-led by Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin and cosponsored by US Senators Cory Booker, Tammy Duckworth, Andy Kim, Ben Ray Lujan, Edward J Markey, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Patty Murray, Bernie Sanders, Brian Schatz, Adam Schiff, Tina Smith, and Elizabeth Warren.

It has also received endorsements from over 30 organisations.

The US employment-based immigration system has, for years, been plagued by long green card backlogs, particularly affecting Indian H-1B professionals because of per-country visa caps.

Tens of thousands of highly skilled Indian professionals, primarily in the tech and science sectors, working on H-1B visas, apply for permanent residency every year.

Because demand from India vastly exceeds the 7 per cent annual allotment, a huge queue forms. Data suggest that Indians account for roughly 80 per cent of the entire pending employment-based green card backlog, translating to wait times estimated anywhere from 15 to several decades.