Today, the White House released its legislative agenda reiterating his
earlier START UP America legislative agenda. This agenda includes key
components of H.R. 3012 as follows:
III. RELIEVING THE BACKLOG OF IMMIGRANT VISAS
A. ADJUST EXISTING VISA CAPS:
The President is committed to fixing our broken immigration system through
comprehensive immigration reform. This includes creating a legal immigration
system that meets our diverse economic needs and honors our rich traditions
as a nation of immigrants that attracts entrepreneurial immigrants and
strengthens the American workforce. In an effort to reduce backlogs in the
legal immigration system, the President is calling to:
Eliminate the per-country caps on employment-based immigrant visas ("green
cards")
Raise the caps on family-based green cards from 7 percent to 15 percent.
These small but meaningful reforms represent a balanced approach to
addressing some of the long-standing problems with our broken immigrant visa
system. These measures would not increase the total number of available
immigrant visas but it would help address some of the longest backlogs that
occur because of annual per country caps. For the White House release today,
please click here.