Green card backlog community seeks inclusion in reconciliation package

Social media campaign on to press lawmakers to join move initiated by Indian American congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi

Immigration groups on social media have initiated a campaign asking green card backlog community to call and write to their local Congress members for inclusion in the budget reconciliation package.

Some activists have also started online campaigns urging the Indian green card community to request their local congressmen to co-sign a letter Illinois congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is sending to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

In the draft letter he has demanded inclusion of relief packages for high-skilled immigrants stuck in the green card backlog in the budget reconciliation package.

Krishnamoorthi’s request struck a chord with thousands and thousands of Indians on work visas in the US currently stuck in a green card backlog that ranges anywhere between ten years to an unbelievable 150 years!

Read: ‘Include immigrants in green card backlog in budget reconciliation’ (August 24, 2021)

Many WhatsApp groups are circulating the message calling the green card backlog community not to miss this opportunity. It may be a momentous moment if those in the green card backlog are included in the package.

Currently the Congress is working on writing immigration provisions into a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint.

However not many in America are aware of the hardships documented immigrants are undergoing because of the backlog that almost exclusively affects Indians.

As the processes are underway, currently senators Schumer (New York) and Dick Durbin (Illinois) are sharing text with the senators about what can be included in the immigration provisions.

There are special calls to the Indian community in New York and Illinois to seize this moment and write or call their senators. There are also calls to request senators all across America to urge them to co-sign the letter.

In a letter written along with Kathy Manning and Deborah Ross, Krishnamoorthi requests “that the budget reconciliation package include relief for the approximately 1.2 million individuals languishing in the employment-based green card backlog.”

“It is our sincerely held belief that any package that includes immigrant reforms must address this backlog not only as a matter of fairness but as a central component of our long term strategy for economic prosperity and global competitiveness,” they wrote.

“Right now, no more than seven percent of employment-based green cards are available to individuals from a single country, which has created a decades-long backlog for would-be immigrants from India and China.”

“Indian nationals face a particularly daunting backlog of 80 years, and an anticipated 200,000 will die before achieving lawful permanent resident status,” the letter notes.

Read: US lawmakers seek to include employment based Green Card backlog as part of budget reconciliation (August 24, 2021)

“Under current law, the American economy is unable to access the full international talent pool of high-skilled workers already present and working in the United States today,” it says.

“Indeed, the very scientists, inventors, health care workers, entrepreneurs, and other professionals that give the United States its edge over its global competitors today,” the lawmakers write.

“This is because there is effectively a Green Card ban on high-skilled immigrants from India, China, and other countries with large populations of workers eager to remain in America and power forward our economy and social safety net programs for generations to come,” the letter says.