Promising Legislation in the House!

Finally some good news from Congress!

The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration approved three appropriate pieces of immigration-related legislation:

H.R. 6020, would allow soldiers who have served in support of contingency operations to be eligible for naturalization and for other purposes.

H.R. 5882, would recapture employment-based and family-sponsored immigrant visas lost to bureaucratic delays and to prevent losses of these visas in the future.

H.R. 5924, sponsored by Representative Wexler (D-FL) would provide 20,000 employment-based visas per year for three years specifically for nurses.

All three of these bills still have to be voted on by the House Judiciary Committee, and then paired with a companion bill in the Senate, voted on by both houses of Congress, and submitted to the President for signature or veto. They have a long way to go, but the thinking towards correcting some of the problems with legal immigration is encouraging.

Here are some of the issues the House Subcommittee on Immigration should consider:

(the Maney Bill to fix legal immigration)

1. Section 245(i) is made permanent with no cut-off date. Increase the fine for those who enter with fraudulent documents or enter without inspection to $3,000.00.

2. The quota for H-1b and H-2b visas is eliminate. There are ample safeguards in place to protect American labor without the use of arbitrary quotas.

3. A special non immigrant visa category is created for nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists that allows for admission for up to six years without any quota. Our nation is already facing a health care crisis with a severe shortage of these professionals, when they are readily available abroad. States would still govern on licensing issues.

4. The prohibition against the applicant paying for PERM labor certification fees is eliminated as violating equal protection. There never was a relationship between who paid for the labor certification and any fraudulent activity. The Department of Labor clearly violated its rule-making authority in passing this regulation.

5. Family based immigration visas annual allotment is increased from 226,000 to 450,000 per year to help eliminate severe backlogs in the family based immigration preferences.

6. Employment based immigration visas annual allotment is increased from 140,000 to 300,000 per year to help eliminate severe backlogs in the employment based immigration preferences.

7. Eliminate the 3 and 10 year bars to readmission after unlawful presence of 180 days and one year respectively. These bars to readmission most often affect relative of US citizens and lawful permanent residents. These bars actually result in more undocumented aliens remaining in the US to avoid the bars to readmission, rather than returning home.

8. Restrict the aggravated felony definitions to felonies that carry a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment or more.

9. Create a permanent visa category that is based on humanitarian need, that can be granted at the sole discretion of the Attorney General.

10. Recognize the doctrine of sanctuary and prohibit ICE or any other agency from entering any house of worship or temple for the purpose of questioning or arresting suspected foreign nationals.

11. Appointment a special Ombudsman to investigate and identify racial profiling or discrimination by USCIS or ICE against persons of Muslim heritage.

12. The initial grant for a "start-up" L-1a visa holder would be two years instead of one.

13. Persons entering on a K-1 visa would be allowed to change or adjust status where a marriage to the K-1 sponsor did not occur, upon showing of the bonafide nature of the original K-1 relationship.

This is just a beginning. More to come later!