In yet another potential blow to Indians working in the US, two top Republican senators have introduced a legislation in the Senate, proposing to halve the number of legal immigrants coming to the country. The RAISE Act -introduced by Tom Cotton and David Perdue and said to have the support of the Trump administration - proposes to reduce the number of Green Cards issued every year from the current one million to half a million. The legislation, if cleared, could upset the plans of thousands of Indians aspiring to obtain Legal Permanent Residency in the US.
The current average waiting period for Indians to get a Green Card varies from 10 to 35 years. This could increase if the proposed Bill becomes a law. It, however, does not focus on H-1B visas. “It’s time our immigration system started working for American workers,” Cotton said.
“The Act would promote higher wages on which all working Americans can build a future, whether your family came on the ‘Mayflower’ or you just took the oath of citizenship,” he added. The Act would lower overall immigration to 6,37,960 in its first year and to 5,39,958 by its tenth year, a 50 per cent reduction from the 1,051,031 immigrants who arrived in 2015.
The RAISE Act would retain immigration preferences for the spouses and minor children of US citizens and legal permanent residents, while eliminating preferences for certain other categories. It also proposes to eliminate Diversity Visa Lottery. Also known as the Green Card Lottery, the programme provides 50,000 permanent resident visas annually to natives of countries with low rates of immigration.