The legislation ‘Securing America’s Future Act’, backed by the Trump administration has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
Pushing for merit-based immigration and increasing the allotment of Green Cards by 45 percent, the legislation if passed by the Congress and signed into law by President Trump will end the diversity visa programme and reduce the overall immigration levels from currently averaging 1.05 million to 26,000 a year.
As the legislation seeks to increase the allotment of Green Cards by a hefty 45 percent from the current 120,000 to 175,000 per annum, technology professionals, who go to the US mainly on H-1B visas and opt for Green Cards or legal permanent residence status, are expected to be a major beneficiary of the ‘Securing America’s Futures Act’.
The increase in the number of Green Cards per year is also likely to extremely reduce the waiting period of those waiting in the queue for Green Cards.
As per an unofficial estimate, nearly 500,000 Indians are currently waiting in the queue for Green Cards and have to seek annual extensions of their H-1B visas. While several people wait for decades to get their Green Cards, the H-1B programme offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers.
The Trump administration believes that a merit-based immigration system would admit the best and the brightest around the world while making it harder for people to settle in the US illegally.
The legislation was introduced by Martha McSally, House Homeland Security Committee Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee chairwoman, Michael McCaul, House Homeland Security Committee chairman, Bob Goodlatte, House Judiciary Committee chairman and Raul Labrador, House Judiciary Committee Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee chairman.
According to McCaul, the bill offers common-sense solutions that will finally secure the US borders, better support the country’s frontline defenders, strengthen interior enforcement, and get tough on those who break US’s immigration laws.
“With this president at the helm, we have the opportunity to provide the security and rule of law our founding fathers intended,” he added.
While according to Labrador, the bill will modernise America’s immigration system for the next generation, enacting conservative reforms that will make the nation strong, the authors of the legislation say that the legislation creates a workable agricultural guest worker programme to grow the US economy.
