Washington:
A group of Indian-American frontline healthcare workers languishing in the Green Card backlog held a demonstration in front of the US Capitol urging lawmakers and the Biden administration to finish the per capita nation-particular quota.
A Green Card, identified officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as proof that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently in the nation.
Indian IT pros, most of whom are hugely skilled and come to the US mostly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the existing immigration program which imposes a seven per cent per nation quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or permanent legal residency.
We are frontline COVID warriors, and we are right here to inform how we have been quick changed into a life of perpetual indentured servitude. Each of us has a story. We are right here from all more than the nation asking for justice. Justice that has precluded us for decades now, Dr Raj Karnatak, an infectious illness and crucial care doctor and Dr Pranav Singh, a pulmonary and crucial care doctor, stated.
Most of us are from India. We educated in the US and took oath as physicians to serve the sick and needy. Most of us are serving the rural and underserved regions. We are in a Green Card backlog due to archaic nation caps that let no nation to get more than seven % of employment-based green cards, stated the two Indian American doctors’ organisers of the peaceful protest stated in a joint statement.
According to them, due to decades of backlog, several higher-skilled immigrants are not in a position to adjust jobs due to worry of losing the spot in the Green Card line and are indentured to one employer.
Can only work in the specialty occupation the visa is allotted for decades. Many healthcare workers could not serve in COVID-19 hot spots as the visas are tied to the job and employer, they stated.
The smaller group of protestors stated that President Joe Biden can direct United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to finish the Green Card backlog for the frontline healthcare workers by utilising the unused green cards in the previous years.
There was an HR 1044 fairness bill that was passed in the House of Representatives by 365 votes in 2019 and its senate equivalent S386 passed the Senate in 2020.
Now it is back to House as a modified version. Representative Zoe Lofgren, initial co-sponsor of the bill HR 1044 has not shown any interest in bringing the bill to vote as a bipartisan answer to finish the suffering of skilled pros such as frontline healthcare workers, they alleged.
Dr Karnatak and Dr Singh stated that India is a land of more than a billion people today, but the quantity of green cards India gets is the very same as a nation as smaller as Iceland.
Indian higher-skilled workers are brought into the US on an H-1B visa. There is no nation cap on the H-1B visa and due to its sheer population, Indians make 50 per cent of the H-1B workforce.
The H-1B visa, the most sought just after amongst Indian IT pros, is a non-immigrant visa that permits US providers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that demand theoretical or technical knowledge. The technologies providers rely on it to employ tens of thousands of personnel each and every year from nations like India and China.
The discrepancy in the quantity of H-1B hired from India and a smaller quantity of green cards allotted to India creates an inhumane Green Card backlog.
Green Card backlog is adversely affecting the skilled and private lives of higher-skilled immigrants from India such as the frontline healthcare workers, they stated.
Frontline healthcare workers will need instant relief, they are suffering for a extremely extended time. As frontline healthcare workers who are risking their lives in this pandemic, the least we deserve is a certainty. A certainty that if we die or get disabled, our youngsters and spouses will not be kicked out of the nation, stated the joint statement on behalf of the protestors.
Last month, President Biden revoked a policy issued by his predecessor through the pandemic that blocked several Green Card applicants from getting into the US.
Reopening the nation to people today in search of green cards, or legal permanent residence, Biden in his proclamation stated that the policy of former president Donald Trump does not advance the interests of the nation.
To the contrary, it harms the United States, such as by stopping specific household members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their households right here, he stated.
The US is at present facing a backlog of practically 473,000 certified household-based Green Card requests.
As a outcome of Trump’s ban on issuing green cards, as several as 120,000 household-based preference visas had been lost. But this came as a significant boon for issuing employment-based green cards, mostly these on H-1B visas.
()