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发帖数: 229 | 1 CRITICAL ACTION ITEM ALERT
Dear Friend,
We are excited to share with you that H.R.1044/S.386 - The Fairness for High
Skilled Immigrants Act is expected to be brought up in the Senate by
Unanimous Consent (UC) on Thursday, September 19th.
We are grateful to the Senator Mike Lee and Senator Kamala Harris for
leading Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act in the Senate. Senator
Harris and Lee have led the negotiation with Senator Paul to find a
reasonable compromise. And we are very happy to share that an agreement has
been reached so Senator Paul has agreed to remove his hold on the bill.
Under this agreement, Schedule-A shortage workers identified by the
Department of Labor will receive a set-aside of 5,000 green cards per year
for the next nine (9) years. We think that this is an extremely fair
agreement and we applaud all parties to this negotiation for further
improving a very good bill. Schedule-A workers currently receive around 5,
000 green cards every year, and this agreement will be consistent with the
current demand for this specific classification of workers, which makes this
agreement reasonable and fair.
As a result, we expect that the Senate will UC Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren’s
bill H.R.1044, which already passed the House with 365 bipartisan votes.
During the UC process, the Senate will amend H.R.1044 to improve the bill
with the language from Senator Durbin and Senator Grassley’s bill for
worker protections, plus, Senator Paul’s amendment to allocate specific
visas for Schedule-A workers.
We are extremely grateful to Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren for her leadership, plus
224 House Democrats Members who voted for the bill in July. We are also
extremely grateful to Ranking Member Ken Buck for leading the bill in the
House, plus 140 House Republican Members who voted for the bill around two
months back.
As you are probably aware, it is illegal under labor law for employers to
discriminate on national origin during the hiring process. However, once an
employer has hired an employee for a job and sponsored the employee for a
Green Card for that very same job (where national origin discrimination is
illegal), suddenly employees born in specific countries are forced to wait
up to 150 years for green cards http://bit.ly/150yrwait. Not only does any human being has no control over their country of birth, but a person’s country of birth has no bearing on their ability to do their job. Apart from being clearly discriminatory and irrational, the current Per-country caps paradoxically result in the United States discriminating against better paid and higher qualified immigrants http://bit.ly/higherpaid.
The lengthy wait times for tax-paying law-abiding skilled immigrants from
certain countries is the result of antiquated Per-country caps on employment
-based Green Cards, which have no meaning in an egalitarian society where
the value a person brings to the table has nothing to do with immutable
factors like race, gender, sexual orientation or country of birth. There is
a wide-spread bi-partisan consensus that these unfair and arbitrary country-
caps must go. The fact that the bill H.R.1044 has over 311 bi-partisan co-
sponsors http://bit.ly/hr1044cosponsors, including a majority of both political parties (and the majority of every Caucus in the House), is a testament to the bipartisanship and fairness of the bill.
Common people like us from across the country want Congress to pass sensible
reform. And we are thankful for the bipartisan leadership of thirty-four (
34) Senators without whose Cosponsorship http://bit.ly/s386cosponsors this bill would not get the necessary attention.
On behalf of a grateful community, we would like to relay our gratitude to
Senator Lee and Senator Harris, along with Senator Cramer, Senator Moran,
Senator Blunt, Senator Grassley, Senator Cotton, Senator Collins, Senator
Carper, Senator Wyden, Senator Cantwell, Senator Gardner, Senator Baldwin,
Senator Merkley, Senator Bennet, Senator Sinema, Senator Portman, Senator
Wicker, Senator Lankford, Senator Duckworth, Senator Crapo, Senator McSally,
Senator Braun, Senator Hoeven, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Coons, Senator
Risch, Senator Jones, Senator Warner, Senator Young, Senator Romney, Senator
Cornyn, Senator Ernst, Senator Murkowski, Senator Smith, and Senator Cortez
Masto.
We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to the staff in all
the Senate Offices. You have been kind and generous to give us your time and
listen to our stories. And we cannot thank you enough for your service to
the constituents.
ACTION ITEM: Starting today (September 18th), we request everyone to please
call your Senators and request them to support Fairness for High-Skilled
Immigrants Act when it comes-up for UC on the Senate floor on Thursday,
September 19th.
Thank you,
Immigration Voice |
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