US immigration framework to end green card backlog
WASHINGTON: The White House reiterated its commitment to an immigration plan that seeks to ensure people coming legally to the United States are “the best and the brightest, regardless of nationality, creed, religion, or anything else in between”.
Indian H-1B visa holders in line for their Green Card (permanent residency) have been lobbying in recent days to end the backlog that threatens to keep them waiting up to 70 years.
“He (the president) wants to see us move from a process that currently exists in law of extended-family chain migration toward merit-based immigration reforms,” deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters on Thursday when asked about the H-1B visa holders and their plight.
The White House had earlier said in a factsheet that Green Cards saved from ending a diversity visa lottery will be used to clear the backlog for high-skilled workers, an estimated 1.5 million of whom are from India. The factsheet was released after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech in January in which he had proposed a fourpillar immigration plan.
Shah did not refer to that move contained in the factsheet but said,“We want to ensure that people coming into the country are the best and the brightest, regardless of nationality, creed, religion, or anything else in between. We want to look at educational backgrounds, ability to contribute to the workforce in a way that helps American workers.”