Thread by @wethelegal

In 5 minutes of testimony, @David_J_Bier has managed to not just illustrate the serious gaps in legal immigration policy, but also address why things stand the way they do.

Excerpt about employer-based Green Card path from his testimony on “Why Don’t They Just Get in Line?” 🧵👇

Employers may sponsor their employees, but their employees have a hard annual numerical limit of 130,000 green cards—half of which go to the spouses and minor children of the workers. This limit was last updated in 1990.

Immigrants from a single birthplace can obtain no more than 7 percent of the green cards in a single year unless they would otherwise not be used.

Since India-born immigrants make up about half of all the employer-sponsored immigrants, a massive backlog of about 800,000 applicants from India has developed.

Before the pandemic, this backlog was growing at a rate of more than 10,000 applicants per
month.

Indians who are receiving green cards right now typically waited 10 years, but
assuming no change in the rate of issuances, it will take—for anyone applying tomorrow with a master’s degree or less—at least 84 years for them to receive an employer sponsored green card.

Even if they could theoretically stay in line for that long, nearly 200,000 Indians in the backlog will certainly die before they could even theoretically become permanent residents.

In addition, roughly 100,000 of the minor children of the workers currently in line will age out and lose eligibility for permanent residence under their parent’s employer sponsorship when they turn 21—nearly 10,000 this year.

#GreenCardBacklog #H1B #H1BVisa #WorkVisa #LegalImmigration #Immigration #WeTheLegal #GreenCard #GCbacklog

Here's where you can watch this testimony this afternoon


Here's the full text:
docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU…