Wary green card backlogged community wonders whether the new legislation is another jaded promise that fails to deliver
It may not be the first time that a legislation is introduced that promises to have the potential to have a powerful impact in reducing the green card backlog.
But looks like, the work based visa holders who are in line for a potential green card have gotten wary of the jaded promises that fail to deliver.
Five Democratic senators introduced a legislation Monday that, if enacted, stands to provide considerable relief to hundreds of thousands of professionals working on visas in America.
The RELIEF Act (Resolving Extended Limbo for Immigrant Employees and Families) is cosponsored by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Mazie Hirono (D-HA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), and Alex Padilla (D-CA).
Read: What is the ‘RELIEF Act’ that Sen. Dick Durbin is proposing in place of S.386? (October 17, 2019)
The act aims at eliminating both family and employment-based green card backlogs. It also would help reclassify spouses and children of legal permanent residents as immediate relatives and protect immigrant youth who age out of their legal permanent resident status.
It would also lift the 7 percent per-country limitations. While on paper the act looks promising, the reactions from the backlogged community are far from exciting.
Kavita V, who is on an H-1B visa and is working with a software development firm noted, “It is not the first time that a bill has been introduced.
“However I urge senators to understand that we are educated, professionals, highly attuned to the workings of the Congress,” she said. “Until a bill becomes a law, it is merely false promises and we have seen this happen in the past.”
Some advocates of immigration reforms also feel that acts and bills such as these do more harm than good as they retract the attention from the clear pathway that would actually pave the way for a fairer immigration system.
Seattle based Anushka Shah says, “If I am not mistaken there was a RELIEF Act introduced back in 2019 too. Does anyone care or know what happened to it?”
New Jersey based small business owner Naveen Kumar says, “I have an immediate family that is on work based visas. For many like me whose parents arrived early and we were born here we do not even know the struggle the new entrants have to go through.”
“It is anyway so confusing to go through the changing legislations or visa formalities. I see that every few months there is a new bill or legislation to ponder upon,” he says.
“I mean we all have jobs to do, we can’t be studying the new proposals every now and then with no guarantee of it ever seeing the light of the day.”