For here or to go?

For here or to go?

For the estimated 1.5 million Indian Americans waiting for a green card, or permanent residency, in America, this is more than a question about a meal.

Context:

Indian Americans are now mobilising for legal reforms that would allow them to pursue their American dream

The issue of ‘Dreamers’:

•  ‘Dreamers’ are undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children
•  Recently the Trump administration has announced that it planned to scrap Daca, the program that gives temporary protection to undocumented migrants who arrived in the US as children.
• Nearly 800,000 dreamers currently face a dire situation as they will begin to lose their legal status beginning early March

What is Daca?

Daca is a federal government program created in 2012 under Barack Obama to allow people brought to the US illegally as children the temporary right to live, study and work in America.

The issue of Green Card for skilled Indian-Americans:

• Amidst this urgent debate on dreamers, skilled Indian Americans are trying to get their voice in.
• According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USICS) data, in the 11 years until 2017, of the 34 lakh applications for H-1B visas, 21 lakh were from Indians
•  Of the million-plus green cards issued by the U.S. every year, around 140,000 are employment-based — the category that most Indians already in the U.S. are eligible for.
•  But according to the existing system, only about 9,800 of these can go to immigrants from any particular nation. Therefore, each year, at least 50,000 new Indians join the queue for Green Card, creating an ever-bulging backlog of applicants.

Legislations to address the issue:

Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act

Yoder (a district with significant number of Indians) has been pushing a legislation called the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which will remove country caps in green card allocations.

Immigration Innovation Act or the I-Squared Act:

•  Immigration Innovation Act has been released by Senators Orrin Hatch and Jeff Flake, both Republicans, in the last week of January.
• The proposed law will link the number of H-1B visas each year to market conditions, make the visa permanent (thereby reducing the worker’s dependency on employers), increase their mobility, and clear the existing backlog for green cards.
• To address concerns regarding the misuse of the programme, it proposes to raise wages, ensure stricter enforcement, and provide funds for training American science and technology talent.

H-1B Programme:

• The H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa given by the United States to employ skilled workers from other countries for various specialised fields of occupation for a certain period of time.
•   The Trump administration has been reviewing the H-1B visa programme and it is likely to bring new restrictions in its administration. Democrats and American businesses also agree that the current H-1B programme needs to be reworked to plug loopholes for misuse.