Bigger India
New House Bill Grants More Green Cards for Highly-Skilled Workers, But Eliminates Family-based Immigration
The bill would reduce the number of applicants for green cards by eliminating most family-based immigration, except for spouses and minor children.
The new ‘Securing America’s Future Act,’ introduced by four Republican members of the House Jan. 10, provided a mixed bag for Indian Americans by increasing the number of green cards for highly-skilled foreign workers but largely eliminating family-based immigration.
The proposed legislation is in keeping with President Donald Trump’s aim to end chain migration, and increase merit-based immigration. It provides temporary, renewable legal status to 800,000 undocumented minors – known as Dreamers – allowing them to work in the U.S., and travel overseas. Conversely, the bill also allocates resources to build Trump’s much-vaunted border wall.
The bill, H.R. 4760 – sponsored by House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R- Virginia; House Homeland Security Committee Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee chairwoman Martha McSally, R-Arizona; House Judiciary Committee Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee chairman Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho; and House Homeland Security Committee chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas – increases the number of green cards issued annually to highly-skilled foreign workers from 120,000 at present to 175,000, an increase of 45 percent.