Will President Obama Help Legal Immigrants, Too?# EB23 - 劳工卡
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2014/11/14/will-pres
Long-time immigration attorneys Gary Endelman and Cyrus D. Mehta have argued
in favor of counting all derivative family members in the immigration
preference categories as “one unit” rather than as separate individuals.
Endelman and Mehta explain: “There is nothing in section 203(d) that
explicitly provides authority for family members to be counted under the
preference quotas . . . nothing requires that family members be given
numbers. If Congress allocates a certain number of visas to immigrants with
advanced degrees, it makes no sense if half or more are used up by family
members.”
Contrary to some concerns, not counting dependents toward the annual limit
on employment-based green cards would not double legal immigration.
Calculating the number of dependents per principal over the past three
fiscal years finds that if that the reinterpretation of the law had been in
effect in FY 2011, 2012 and 2013, the annual level of legal immigration
would have risen approximately 17 percent or about 170,000. Almost 90
percent of the people in the employment-based backlogs are already in the
country, so in general we’re not talking about new people coming in.
Many U.S. citizens have family members waiting 3 to 10 years or more in the
family preference immigration backlogs. Not counting the dependents of those
sponsored in the family categories would likely increase legal immigration
by about 14 percent or 142,000 a year. S. 744, the Senate-passed bill the
Obama Administration strongly supported, would have increased legal
immigration by much higher levels.
There are other important administrative reforms that could be made in legal
immigration, such as streamlining the H-2A and H-2B categories for low-
skill workers, expanding additional years of Optional Practical Training for
international students to fields such as economics, accounting and health
care, and improved administrative guidance to ease the way for professionals
transferred to work in America with “specialized knowledge.” Some have
also advocated making available employment visas (H-1B and green cards)
unused in prior years.
Long-time immigration attorneys Gary Endelman and Cyrus D. Mehta have argued
in favor of counting all derivative family members in the immigration
preference categories as “one unit” rather than as separate individuals.
Endelman and Mehta explain: “There is nothing in section 203(d) that
explicitly provides authority for family members to be counted under the
preference quotas . . . nothing requires that family members be given
numbers. If Congress allocates a certain number of visas to immigrants with
advanced degrees, it makes no sense if half or more are used up by family
members.”
Contrary to some concerns, not counting dependents toward the annual limit
on employment-based green cards would not double legal immigration.
Calculating the number of dependents per principal over the past three
fiscal years finds that if that the reinterpretation of the law had been in
effect in FY 2011, 2012 and 2013, the annual level of legal immigration
would have risen approximately 17 percent or about 170,000. Almost 90
percent of the people in the employment-based backlogs are already in the
country, so in general we’re not talking about new people coming in.
Many U.S. citizens have family members waiting 3 to 10 years or more in the
family preference immigration backlogs. Not counting the dependents of those
sponsored in the family categories would likely increase legal immigration
by about 14 percent or 142,000 a year. S. 744, the Senate-passed bill the
Obama Administration strongly supported, would have increased legal
immigration by much higher levels.
There are other important administrative reforms that could be made in legal
immigration, such as streamlining the H-2A and H-2B categories for low-
skill workers, expanding additional years of Optional Practical Training for
international students to fields such as economics, accounting and health
care, and improved administrative guidance to ease the way for professionals
transferred to work in America with “specialized knowledge.” Some have
also advocated making available employment visas (H-1B and green cards)
unused in prior years.