There are millions of undocumented immigrants in America and about 40 percent of them have fallen out-of-status as they have overstayed their visas. The Gang of Eight that includes 8 bipartisan Senators, crafted an immigration reform legislation and 301 amendments were filed to that bill. The Senators debated on all the sections of the bill and finally the Senate Judiciary Committee considered Title II of the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill. Title II is the centerpiece of the immigration reform bill as this part of the bill deals with the legalization of the nation’s undocumented immigrants. This bill would bring millions of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows. At the same time, it would toughen immigration rules. This immigration reform bill aims at putting an end to the country’s immigration problems as the country does not want to face the same immigration problems in future.
This Senate immigration reform bill would curtail illegal immigration. This would be achieved by fixing the gaps in the immigration system and by strengthening border security. This bill would address the needs of the undocumented immigrants, US employers and the others in the country. This bill would focus on family unification. By legalizing undocumented immigrants, the bill would add millions to the economy of the country. New visa programs would be created and foreign nationals would be permitted to legally travel to the United States. Likewise, billions of dollars would be allocated and the country’s borders would be secured.
The bill would create a new visa program for the low skilled foreign workers, called the W visa program. This non-immigrant visa program would permit low skilled foreign nationals to travel to and work in America, along with their spouses and children. Likewise, a new merit based visa program would be created and the bill would issue immigrant visas to the people who get more merit points. Based on education, employment and family ties in the United States, merit points would be awarded to the immigrants.
This bill would focus more on high skilled foreign nationals and would increase the cap on employment based immigrant visas. Nevertheless, it would eliminate a family preference category that currently helps US citizens to sponsor their siblings. This bill would benefit the spouses and children of Green Card holders who are now required to wait for years to obtain immigrant visas. These immediate relatives of permanent residents may not be subject to annual quotas and they may not be put on a waiting list, if the Senate bill is signed into law. They would immediately become eligible for immigrant visas similar to the immediate relatives of US citizens. This would help the relatives of Green Card holders to immigrate legally to America. This bill would also help the refugees, asylum seekers and the stateless individuals.
This Senate immigration reform bill has cleared the Judiciary Committee and is headed to the Senate floor. The Senators have approved several amendments that would improve the bill. The Senate immigration reform bill would improve the country’s legal immigration system and it would attract the world’s best and the brightest.