Current Affairs

Recently there has been legislation passed by the House of Representatives that is aimed at eliminating the quotas put on individual countries regarding how many green cards can be issued to people from that particular country. The system, as it stands, has a limit on the total number of green cards which can be issued in one year.

Individual countries are assigned a percentage of that total number. Large countries, like India and China, each receive seven-percent of the total number of green cards. Smaller countries receive a smaller percentage of the whole.

The problem with the system is that the percentages that are assigned are not in line with the population of the countries, nor do they take into account the demand differences. Some countries, such as India, have a high demand for green cards, and they are a very large country. Even though the get 7% of all green cards issued, that is not nearly enough to keep up with demand, and so the waiting list of applicants from Indians can be as long as 7 years.

Smaller countries, for instance Bulgaria, get a smaller number of the complete green cards issued. However, there is also a much smaller need for green cards per capita from their country. As a result, smaller countries have waiting lists of only a few months.

The recent legislation would eliminate quotas and put all applicants into one pool. The waiting time for every applicant will generally become the average waiting time of everyone, today. Those who are from large countries will see a measurable decrease in their waiting time, and the ones from small countries will be a fairly dramatic development of their waiting time.

This legislation is favored by the larger countries and opposed by the smaller countries. There is also opposition from a group of legislatures who only want comprehensive immigration reform, and not piece-by-piece legislation. They are against laws addressing only partial issues of the immigration program.

It is the opinion of this author that the immigration issue cannot be construed to be one concern. Immigration faces many issues that must be dealt with in a legislative manner. To answer those who want one strategy to the immigration problems facing our country, it seems unlikely that one law will solve every concern.

It will take guidance and leadership to straighten out the the immigration concerns. A good place to start is to divide up the immigration issues into smaller pieces, and address one-at-a-time instead of everything, all at once.