US lawmakers seek pathway to citizenship for over 250,000 documented ‘dreamers’
A GROUP of prominent Democratic lawmakers have renewed their push to provide a pathway to citizenship to some 250,000 documented ‘dreamers’, majority of them are Indian Americans.
Led by California Senator Alex Padilla and Congresswoman Deborah Ross, the lawmakers have urged their colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass the bipartisan America’s Children Act, which will allow staying children of those who immigrated to the country legally but are yet to get Green Card because of a massive backlog.
The so-called documented dreamers, who are estimated to be about 250,000, grew up legally in the US but risk deportation when they turn 21.
“For these young people, turning 21 means facing an impossible choice. Either to leave your family and self-deport to a country that you barely remember or to stay in the United States living, undocumented, in the shadows,” Padilla said.
Indian American Congressman Dr Ami Bera said that documented dreamers were raised in America and they know this country as their only home.
“Yet, they risk having to self-deport by the age of 21 because of backlogs in the immigration system. Congress must pass America’s Children Act to extend protections to these young people,” he said.
More than 40 of these children, who have created the group “Improve the Dream” joined these lawmakers at the US Capitol press conference. Earlier, White House officials met a representative group of documented ‘dreamers’, mostly Indian-Americans, for the first time.
“These talented young people have been left out of conversations about immigration reform for too long. We’re ready to change that,” Congresswoman Ross said. “Documented Dreamers represent the very best of America. Let’s give them the chance to stay in the country they love and call home,” she said.
Senator Richard Durbin, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told reporters that the legislation would likely need to move as part of a broader package that addressed the Republican Party’s concerns about border security. Green Card application process to speed up A presidential advisory commission has unanimously voted to recommend President Biden to process all applications for green cards or permanent residency within six months.
If adopted, it is likely to bring cheers to the hundreds and thousands of Indian-Americans including those waiting for it for decades.
Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven percent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency.
The recommendations of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (PACAANHPI) are to be sent to the White House now for approval.
A proposal on the issue was moved by eminent Indian American community leader Ajay Jain Bhutoria, which all its 25 commissioners unanimously approved it.
To reduce the pending Green Card backlog, the advisory commission recommended the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to review their processes, systems and policies and establish new internal cycle time goals by streamlining processes, removing redundant steps if any, automating any manual approvals, improving their internal dashboards and reporting system and enhancing policies.
The recommendations aim to reduce the cycle time for processing all forms related to family-based Green Card applications, DACA renewals and all other Green Card applications within six months and issue adjudicate decisions within six months of applications received by it.
The commission recommended National Visa Center (NVC) State Department facility to hire additional officers to increase their capacity to process Green Card applications interviews by 100 percent in three months from August 2022, and to increase Green Card Card applications visa interviews and adjudicate decisions by 150 percent – up from capacity of 32,439 in April 2022 -- by April 2023.
“Thereafter Green Card visa interviews and visa processing timeline should be a maximum of six months,” it said.
Only 65,452 family preference green cards were issued in fiscal 2021 out of the annual 226,000 green cards available, leaving hundreds of thousands of green cards unused (with many likely to be permanently wasted in the future) and keeping many more families needlessly separated.
There were 421,358 pending interviews in April compared to 436,700 in March, said the policy paper by Bhutoria.
Among other things, the commission also recommended the USCIS to expand premium processing to additional employment-based Green Card applications, all work permit petitions, and temporary immigration status extension requests, allowing applicants to pay $2,500 to have their cases adjudicated within 45 days in a phased approach.