Tuesday, July 24, 2012

SEN. "BIG GOVERNMENT" GRASSLEY

Sen. Grassley (R-IA) has released his “hold” on HR 3012. HR 3012 has many components to it. It notably calls for an elimination of “per-country” immigrant visa (Green card) caps, which historically have limited the amount of employment-based green cards from any one country to seven percent of the total immigrant visa total. These per-country caps have created a longer processing time for those from high visa-demand countries such as India, China, and to some extent, the Philippines. These per-country caps have been based not on the skill-level of the immigrant, but on the immigrant's country of birth. It seems unlikely that such a policy would ever be passed today. Congress is right to get rid of them.

That having been said, HR 3012 comes with some warts, mainly as a result of a necessary deal with Sen. Grassley (R-IA), who passionately believes that employment-based immigration is bad for America. Sen. Grassley's amendment gives broad, "big-government" power, to the Department of Labor. The DOL will be allowed to delay and deny Labor Condition Applications for the vaguest of reasons. Sen. Grassley's expansion of government oversight is intellectually inconsistent for a Senator who just last week found expansions of government oversight by the Food and Drug Adminsitration to be "shocking".

With the Senate's summer recess drawing near, whether HR 3012 moves forward is an open question, although still more likely to happen than not. There are rumors that several other Senators are concerned with Sen. Grassley's amendment and may delay or deny the bill's passage. This would be a shame because the bill's main purpose, elimination of per-country caps, is an admirable one.

3 comments:

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  2. This article is a shame. You call elimination of per-country caps "an admirable" purpose, but have you ever considered what will happen to people from ROW you are already in line? Did you forget about long backlogs in EB3-ROw? What would be the impact of the Bill on them and their families?
    Should I wait for another five years just because someone want to change rules all of the sudden? Do you really believe that shifting the burden of the backlog from Indians to ROW a good and fair solution?

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  3. @Average Joe - See my 7/26 blog post that I just put up. I think it addresses your very fair criticism.

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