Thread by @gsiskind

Title II addresses issues the southern border. While there is not an enforcement section in the bill (like past comprehensive bills), there are enforcement provisions in this section. The title has a lot of programs designed to address the root causes of the problem. 5

Title III focuses on reforming legal immigration - family, employment and DV. Lots of really interesting reforms here which I'll get into. 6

Title IV deals with asylum, immigration courts, detention, and U visas. 7

Title V deals with worksite protections for immigrant workers. A lot of concepts beyond immigration law in this section. 8

I'm going to talk about Title I and Title III now, but it's worth browsing through the whole document if you want to get a good idea of what the bill does. The actual bill is 353 pages and a lot of it is extremely technical, but hopefully my summary will be a handy reference. 9

Title I creates a new immigration status called "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" status - LPI. It's an interim status people in the big legalization programs will have and then can eventually convert to a green card if they follow the rules of the particular program. 10

LPIs will have most of the same rights as green card holders - employment authorization, the ability to travel, etc. People will fill to adjust status to LPI in a similar manner to people adjusting status to get a green card. LPIs can adjust status to LPR after 5 years. 11

The 1st headliner is the DREAM Act. This version is similar to the version recently introduced by Senators Durbin & Graham. - younger than 18 when entering the country, educational requirements, etc. There are abbreviated procedures for DACA holders. 12

I know a lot of you want to know about legal DREAMers and I'd like @David_J_Bier or someone else who has read the text to weigh in here. I'm not seeing the restriction to only people out of status, but am pretty sure it's there. Need some help finding why. 13

@David_J_Bier I'll get back to you guys on that and change my summary to flag that issue as I confirm. 14

The American Promise Act is the section that allows people in TPS or deferred action status to qualify for LPI status. You have to have been present in the US since 1/1/2017. Spouses and kids also eligible. 15

Agricultural workers have a separate program if they've worked 2,300 hours or 400 workdays in agriculture during the past 5 years. 16

The V visa is being revived for beneficiaries of family visas or spouses and children in the legalization categories. This will allow family members to live and work in the US in a nonimmigrant category while waiting to apply to adjust when their priority date is current. 17

An important "crimmigration" change. An expungement of a past conviction will now work to make someone admissible. 18

Speedier naturalizations will become more readily available. 3 years instead of 5 years if the green card holder was lawfully present and eligible for employment authorization in the 3 years before getting the green card. 19

On to Title III, the legal immigration reforms. 1st, about 200K green cards are going to be "recaptured" based on numbers not used over the last 30 years. They'll be allocated to family and employment based on what category the wasted number came from. 20

Family numbers get a big boost on top of that. The cap of 480K remains the same, but immediate relative usage will no longer be subtracted. Right now, there's a floor of 226K family numbers and that's almost always the number because of immediate relative demand. 21

But it gets better for the family categories. Spouses and minor children of permanent residents will now be in the immediate relative category. So just F-2 instead of F-2A and F-2B. This is a big, big positive change. 22

The worldwide level of EB categories goes from 140K to 170K. The extra 30K go to EB-3 other workers.

No more per-country caps.

This is largely made for by having a maximum wait of 10 years for a green card. That will mean basically all categories will be current for a while. 23

It's a different approach than other bills and a nice solution to prevent a repeat of the status quo from ever happening again. 24

Also, family per country quotas change from 7% to 20%. Honestly, I wish they would just get rid of the caps. They're discriminatory and we need to let this go. This provision is probably not going to matter in practice for a while with the big number increases. But still... 24

One of my favorite changes won't matter to a lot of you, but the lawyers will appreciate it. The 3/10 year bars for overstays are done away with. That will make it possible to fix problems that have been unfixable for the last 25 years. 25

And getting waivers based on humanitarian arguments is going to make a lot of currently unfixable problems solvable. 26

Ages will freeze at the time of filing, not the date a visa becomes available. A big, big positive development that will protect a lot of young people. 27

People in same-sex relationships will now get to sponsor "permanent partners" & be treated as a legal spouse if the home country doesn't recognize same-sex marriages. About time. 28

The DV lottery number goes from 55K to 80K. Of course, we're having to sue to get Biden to let the ones already picked into the US... 29

Here's a big one. Doctoral STEM grads from US colleges are EXEMPT from numerical caps no matter whether they file under EB-1, EB-2, or EB-3. I guess EB-5 as well if there are those people out there. This will also obviously free up more EB numbers. 30

One section that concerns me. DHS/DOL can temporarily limit EB-2 and EB-3 numbers in geographic areas or labor market sectors experiencing high levels of unemployment. Very vague and somewhat scary if another Trump is elected. 31

Here's another interesting section. A new green card program for cities to sponsor up to 10K people per year who are "essential" to the economic development of the area. This is a 5-year pilot program. PERM required. This is on top of the other EB numbers. 31

The H-1B rule that prioritizes higher-paid H-1Bs would be put into law. Vague - basically just orders DHS/DOL to write a new rule. This could be good or bad depending on how it's written. 32

Some big changes coming for F-1 students and it's all good.

F-1s coming for full-time studies will be dual intent. This is the top reason for denials of student visas. 32

But wait, there's more. H-1Bs can get extensions beyond six years if they have a green card/PERM pending for a year. That will now be available to F-1s, Ls and O visa holders as well.

AND you get an EAD on top of your status being extended. This means F-1s can skip the H-1B. 33

Good news for H-1Bs as well. H-4 EADs will be available to ALL H-4s (spouses and kids) and not just those whose spouses have pending green card applications. 34

A couple more & I'll wrap up -
- in state tuition for refugees/asylees
- Waiver of English/civics requirement easier for elderly naturalization applicants
- waiver of English/civics natz test for grads of US high schools

& I'll end there. I'll see you tomorrow at noon on FB. 35