Indians awaiting Green Cards see hope in immigration talks
WASHINGTON: Negotiations got underway in the US Senate on Monday on an uncertain but ambitious immigration deal that is expected to determine the fate of an estimated 1.5 million Indians on H-1B visas waiting for their Green Cards in a backlogladen queue.
They expect their case to be a part of the deal, whose headline components are the future of 690,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children and, as demanded by President Donald Trump, a wall along the border with Mexico, and end to family-based chain migration and diversity visa lottery.
The Senate voted 97-1 on Monsenators day to start the debate that will feature a variety of proposals put together by senators acting alone or in groups, with some of them trying for bipartisan support. One of them was a White Housebacked bill encompassing Trump’s proposals.
There is another bill, introduced in January by Republican Orrin Hatch and Jeff Flake, called the Immigration Innovation (“I-Squared”) Act of 2018, which seeks to address the issue of backlogs by removing the annual country cap and drastically cut the Green Card waiting period for Indians. The current backlogs could take decades to clear, upwards of 70 years.
Flake has since gone on to propose a compromise bill that encompasses Trump’s plan, more or less, and other issues such as H-1B visas, Green Cards and removing the country cap. This sent a wave of excitement coursing through the Indian H-1B community. Leon Fresco, an immigration expert, tweeted: “good news coming out soon ...hopefully including removing per country limits.”