I recently had the honor of being chosen by the American Immigration Lawyer Association to be a leader of the New York delegation in their National Day of Action on April 10th of this year. The National Day of Action is a nationwide lobbying event in which immigration attorneys from all over the country flock to Washington DC to push their congressional representatives to fix America’s broken immigration system. The goals of this year’s event included 1) pressuring the House of Representatives to allow for a vote on Senate Bill 744, the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act”, a comprehensive immigration reform bill which has already passed the Senate and is stalled in the House of Representatives, 2) asking congressional Democrats to increase pressure on President Obama to take administrative action in slowing down the high rate of deportation, and 3) gathering information on Republican sponsored immigration bills.

I have personally taken an interest in House Resolution 2131, the SKILLS Visa act. This bill has already been passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and is also awaiting a vote by the full House of Representatives. This bill would be extremely helpful for many of my clients because it increases the number of green cards available for immigrants with advanced degrees, increases the number of H1B visas available, and, most importantly, ends per-country green card limitations, which unfairly affect high skilled researchers from India and China.

Our first meeting was with the legislative staff for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who is currently my member of Congress. I called on the Congresswoman to formerly request administrative action from the President and also asked about the general feelings of Democrats in Congress concerning the SKILLS Visa Act. Although this is a Republican sponsored bill, several Democrats in Congress are willing to support it since it does a lot to help make our economy more competitive by attracting and retaining high skilled foreign talent. I was very happy to learn that Congresswoman Maloney is not one to let partisanship on Capital Hill prevent our nation from moving forward on this issue.

Following this meeting, a lunch presentation was held in which several members of Congress addressed our delegations and gave speeches on the importance of immigration reform. The list of speakers included Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Rep. Joe Garcia (D-FL), and Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA). Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) gave an electrifying speech and lit up the room when he announced that the Obama Administration is very open to using administrative action and prosecutorial discretion to provide relief for working undocumented immigrants with no criminal record if a legislative solution in Congress cannot be reached. This news was greeted by the AILA delegations with a standing ovation.

Afterwards, we met with legislative staff from Rep. Chris Colin’s (R-NY) office. It was a very informative meeting and gave us some insight on how the Republican Representatives in the House are approaching immigration reform. As you may be aware, Republicans have rejected the Senate Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill and have instead proposed several smaller bills which focus on specific aspects of the immigration system, rather than a comprehensive solution. Chris Collin’s staff expressed support for the SKILLS Visa Act but they expressed doubt about the chances of the Act being voted on until the Republican primary elections are finished, since a vote on almost any immigration reform measure would anger the Republican base and make the Representatives vulnerable to a primary challenger attacking from the right. However, he did indicate strong support for this Act. After the meeting, I was left with the distinct impression that the SKILLS Visa Act would likely receive a vote but it may be several months from now when the primary election season is over.

Our final meeting was with senior legislative staff for Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY). Rep. Tonko’s staff was very supportive of a comprehensive immigration reform but was a little more skeptical about supporting the Visa SKILLS Act since this act only fixes one aspect of the problem. We plan to follow up with Rep. Tonko’s office and continue to make a case for the importance of this Act. We hope to see it pass with bipartisan support in the House of Representatives.

Overall, the trip was a very useful fact finding mission. Unfortunately, it remains unlikely that Republican leadership in the House of Representatives will allow the Senate Bill to come up for a vote and this message was clearly communicated in all of the meetings. However, my hope was renewed upon finding out that other avenues of reform are likely to be pursued this year, such as the SKILLS Visa Act and administrative relief from President Obama. If you would like to get involved in this fight, please contact your House Representative and express your support for reforming America’s frustrating and often arbitrary immigration system.

 

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Founded in 1996, Zhang & Associates, P.C. offers legal services to clients nationwide in all aspects of U.S immigration law. We have successfully handled thousands of immigration cases.

At Zhang & Associates, P.C., our attorneys and supporting professionals are committed to providing high-quality immigration and non-immigration visa services. We specialize in NIW, EB-1, PERM, and I-485 cases. In the past eighteen years, we have successfully helped thousands of clients get green cards. If you plan to apply for a green card, please send your CV to Attorney Jerry Zhang (info@hooyou.com) for a free evaluation.

Zhang & Associates, P.C.

Silicon Valley • New York • Los Angeles • Chicago • Houston • Austin • Seattle

Tel:	1-800-230-7040, 713-771-8433
Email:	info@hooyou.com
website:	http://www.hooyou.com

 

(04/18/2014)