Green Cards for siblings, adult children to be done away with
By Sujeet Rajan
WASHINGTON, DC: As speculation grows over the final shape of the immigration reform bill now being deliberated by the Senate Judiciary committee, as to who will get on the fast track to a Green Card, and who may be totally left out, an argument is shaping on the family reunification Green Cards, some categories of which may be on the chopping block.
According to the Gang of Eight Senators proposals, some of the family reunification Green Cards, for siblings and adult married children of citizens, are to be done away with, and instead, Green Cards in the future will be allocated to educated and highly skilled immigrants on a merit points system.
However, some family reunification Green Cards, like for parents, will continue to be doled out.
Since a lot of the applicants of the family reunification visas are from Asian countries, some Democrat legislators are now scrambling to make sure that they don’t invite the wrath of their constituents by seeing as being opposed to family reunification visas.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of the eight Gang of Eight who co-authored the immigration reform proposals, held a conference call with Asian American leaders, while Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), one of the eight lawmakers crafting a separate House bill, told another Asian American group that he is making family unity a top priority of those talks, reported The Hill.
“I am here to pledge to you that, as the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, as a negotiator on this immigration reform [bill], there is no true, complete fix to our immigration system until … everyone who is signed up to have their loved one, immediate relative, come into this country – whether a citizen or lawful permanent resident – has a chance to bring that family member to America,” Becerra said last week, addressing a crowd gathered for the annual Capitol Hill conference of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC).
CAPAC and the Congressional Black Caucus are also opposed to eliminating the Diversity Visa program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, which helps a lot of people from Africa and the Caribbean get Green Cards every year, and help in getting relocated and settled in the US.
The State Department estimated last year that roughly 40 percent of those in line for family visas are from Asia, particularly Southeast Asian countries like China, the Philippines, South Korea and Vietnam.
Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-NY) had sent a couple of letters to Sen. Schumer, expressing her approval of some of the immigration measures which will ease backlogs, and also expressing her concern at the elimination of family reunification Green Cards, copies of which were sent to The American Bazaar too.
The correspondence objects to the limitations that the legislation would impose on family reunification, and requests that changes be made to the bill so that the country’s family-based immigration system remains in place.
Meng’s letter also expresses concerns about the negative effect that the E-Verify system proposed in the bill would have on immigrant communities. The letter was endorsed by 17 New York immigration advocacy groups including prominent South Asian immigration advocacy groups like Adhikaar, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and South Asian Council for Social Services
Meng, in her other letter, emphasized that there are parts of the bill that are good for Asians.
“The legislation would reunite hundreds of thousands of Asian families by clearing the visa backlog,” said Meng. “It is also far better for Asian Americans than the status quo. In addition, it would ensure that tens of thousands of undocumented Asians would be brought out of the shadows and put on the path to citizenship.”
To contact the editor, e-mail: sujeetrajan@americanbazaaronline.com