Two top U.S. Senators have proposed legislation to cut the number of legal immigrants to the U.S. by half within a decade, a move that could adversely hit those aspiring to get a green card or permanent residency in the U.S., including a large number of Indians.
The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment, or Raise Act, introduced by Republican Senator Tom Cotton and David Perdue from the Republican party, would alter the U.S. immigration system to significantly reduce the number of foreigners admitted to the country without a skills-based visa.
The Bill proposed to reduce the number of green cards issued every year from currently about 1 million to half a million.
The passage of the Bill, which is said to have the support of the Trump administration, will have a major impact on hundreds and thousands of Indian Americans who are currently waiting to get their green cards on employment-based categories.
The current wait period of an Indian to get a green card varies from 10 to 35 years and this could increase if the bill becomes law. The Bill, however, does not focus on H-1B visas.
Mr. Cotton argued: “The growth in legal immigration in recent decades had led to a “sharp decline in wages for working Americans” and that the Bill represented an effort to move the U.S. “to a more merit-based system like [that of] Canada and Australia. It’s time our immigration system started working for American workers”.
