A potential amendment to the
forthcoming budget bill may dramatically raise the employment-based visa quota,
if Senate Democrats can
rewrite it in a way to appease the Senate parliamentarian. Over the weekend, Senate Democrats attempted
to pass a positive immigration bill, but the Senate parliamentarian said that
it was inappropriate to include wide-ranging immigration language in a budget
bill. Senate Democrats are said to be
working on a back-up plan.
A budget bill is expected to pass
before October 1, 2021 to prevent a federal government shut down. Between now and then, the budget negotiations
are expected to consume Washington. As
part of the process, House and Senate committees propose and suggest language
to place into the bill.
The House
Judiciary Committee last week approved immigration language for the budget
bill, which included several positive immigration measures. Notably, the HJC language included a
“recapture” of immigrant visas that were authorized but unused by DHS from
1992-2021. A 2010
report by DHS found that between 1992-2010 about a half million employment
based visas were authorized by Congress but unused simply because of
bureaucratic delays and inefficiencies. Recapturing
these visas would dramatically clear up most retrogressed green cards and would
be an amazing piece of legislation for foreign nationals, US employers, and the
US economy as a whole.
The language included a few other
positive items:
-A legalization path for a large
number of undocumented people in the US
-A similar recaptured visas for
family-based visas
-A liberalized Adjustment of Status
process for those with priority dates that are 2 years old
-An increased budget allocation for
USCIS
