The country-based cap on green cards has been eliminated, and modifications to the highly desired H-1B visa system have been proposed as part of the Citizenship Act by the ruling Democratic party. Congresswoman Linda Sanchez presented the US Citizenship Act 2023, which establishes an earned path to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants and offers an instantaneous path to citizenship to Dreamers, TPS holders, and select farmworkers.
It also paves the way for unauthorized immigrants who pass background checks and pay taxes to become citizens without having to worry about being deported after five years. By removing per-country caps, it suggests changing the employment-based immigration system. The Act aims to improve access to green cards for employees in lower-wage industries, give dependents of H-1B holders work authorization, and stop children of H-1B holders from aging out of the system. It also aims to make it simpler for STEM advanced degree holders from US colleges to remain.
The highly desired H-1B visas are granted for periods of three years. A non-immigrant visa called the H-1B allows US businesses to hire foreign nationals for specialized jobs that need theoretical or technical skills. It is essential to the hiring of tens of thousands of workers each year from nations like China and India by technology companies.
The Citizenship Act ends discrimination against LGBTQ families, protects orphans, widows, and kids
A Green Card, often referred to as a Permanent Resident Card, is a legal document given to immigrants in the US as proof that they have been granted permission to live there permanently. Additionally, the measure establishes a pilot plan to boost local economic growth and encourages better compensation for non-immigrant, highly qualified visa holders to protect them from unfair competition with American workers. The Citizenship Act suggests changing the family-based immigration system in order to maintain families by adding spouses and children of green card holders as immediate family members, increasing per-country caps for family-based immigration, and recapturing visas from previous years to clear backlogs.
Additionally, it ends discrimination against LGBTQ families, protects orphans, widows, and kids, and permits immigrants with granted family-sponsorship petitions to temporarily live with family in the US while they wait for green cards. “As the daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico, I am honored to introduce the US Citizenship Act — a bold, transformative framework that will help fix our broken immigration system,” said Congresswoman Sanchez. “The US Citizenship Act will help us grow our economy, make our borders safer and more secure, and deliver a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants already living and working here,” she said.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries emphasized the role of immigrants in the making of America as he called for an immigration law overhaul. “We do have a broken immigration system here in the United States of America, and it does require a thoughtful and comprehensive solution, an approach that is anchored in our values as a country based on two pillars. “One, a nation anchored, of course, in the rule of law, but a nation of immigrants, people who come from all across the world to form the gorgeous mosaic that is America and the diversity in America that is and should continue to be the envy of the world,” Mr Jeffries said.
