The Biden Administration Needs to Change Course on Green Cards Before It’s Too Late

The Biden administration did not problem lots of the immigrant visas—extra generally often called inexperienced playing cards—that have been allotted final 12 months for immigrants who’ve been sponsored by a U.S. employer or member of the family.

Statistics launched by the State Division point out that 66,781 visas for employment-based immigrants and 141,430 visas for family-based immigrants went unused in Fiscal Yr (FY) 2021. One other 35,938 Variety Visas additionally went unused. This marks the second 12 months in a row that over 100,000 visas for family-based immigrants went unused.

Present immigration legislation permits the federal authorities to grant as much as 675,000 everlasting immigrant visas (inexperienced playing cards) every year. Ordinarily, 480,000 visas are reserved for immigrants within the “household choice” classes, 140,000 for employment-based immigrants, and 55,000 for winners of the Variety Visa lottery. Unused visas within the household choice classes are added to the allotment of employment-based visas for the next 12 months. Nevertheless, unused visas within the employment-based classes are typically misplaced and may solely be recovered by way of an act of Congress.

Due to the Trump administration’s COVID-19 immigrant visa ban and the closing of U.S. embassies and consulates overseas within the spring of 2020, about 122,000 family-based visas for FY 2020 went unused. These visa numbers have been added to the FY 2021 cap on employment-based visas, elevating the entire quantity obtainable final 12 months to a bit of over 262,000. This report quantity raised the hopes of many staff who’ve been caught within the visa backlog for years. However it’s now clear that almost all of these extra visas went unused and at the moment are misplaced, probably ceaselessly.

The Biden administration’s failure to problem tons of of hundreds of accessible visas final 12 months will make the large backlogs and wait occasions which plague the U.S. immigration system worse.

Immigrants from anyone nation can’t exceed 7% of the entire variety of immigrants who come to the US in a single fiscal 12 months. This arbitrary cap imposes unrealistically low limits on immigration from international locations which have in depth social and financial ties to the US. That is very true within the case of family-based immigration from Mexico and employment-based immigration from India and China.

Because of this, there’s a backlog of tons of of hundreds of eligible circumstances filed on behalf of Mexican nationals by U.S. relations. There’s additionally a backlog of circumstances filed on behalf of Indian nationals by U.S. employers. Immigrants caught in both of those backlogs face a wait time of a few years—generally a long time—for a everlasting visa to change into obtainable.

As an example, as of April 2022, the federal authorities started issuing family-based immigrant visas for the Mexican brothers and sisters of U.S. residents in circumstances filed in January 2000 or earlier. Equally, the federal government was issuing employment-based immigrant visas for expert staff from India in circumstances that have been filed in January 2012 or earlier.

The additional 122,000 visa numbers added to final 12 months’s cap on employment-based immigration might have been used to scale back the backlog of employment-based immigrant visa functions. Sadly, this chance was wasted as greater than 66,000 employment-based visa numbers went unused.

The Biden administration should act now to stop the identical factor from occurring once more this 12 months. The 141,430 family-based visa numbers that went unused final 12 months have been added to this 12 months’s cap on employment-based visas—elevating the entire variety of employment-based visas obtainable to 281,430 in FY 2022. This as soon as once more offers the Biden administration with a chance to chop by way of among the backlog by utilizing all of the employment-based immigrant visa numbers which can be obtainable this 12 months.

As well as, the administration should do all the pieces doable to make the most of all of the 480,000 family-based immigrant visa numbers which can be obtainable this 12 months. In any other case, the backlog of family-based immigrant visa functions will proceed to develop.

A key problem is the large backlog of circumstances wherein immigrant visa petitions have been authorized by the Division of Homeland Safety, however the place beneficiaries are being compelled by the State Division to attend for an interview at a consular submit overseas. In keeping with the State Division, as of April 2022, there have been 421,358 noncitizens with authorized petitions who have been ready to be scheduled for an interview on the U.S. consulate of their house nation.

The Biden administration should mobilize the assets wanted to completely restore entry to authorized channels of immigration. If the administration doesn’t change course now, extra everlasting immigrant visas are more likely to go unused this 12 months and the visa backlogs will proceed to develop. Congress can even assist to rectify this drawback by stepping in to recapture the immigrant visas which have gone unused over the previous two years.

FILED UNDER: Biden-Harris Administration, inexperienced card