Obama Draws Line on the Sand on Immigration
Immigration issues continue to be a major political issue in the United States. Now, a new system will help get the country back to its normal levels.
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Obama Draws Line on the Sand on Immigration
Bobby Castro is the online editor at the NRI community, where he has published a number of articles about NRI Indians living in America and many other topics.
US President Obama, after the resounding State of the Nation address, issued an election year challenge to Republican lawmakers regarding the politics of immigration. He has even pledged to sign reform measures because opponents of his programs have lost all excuses to continue with their inaction.
Obama insisted on working on comprehensive immigration reform when he made key stops in Hispanic rich vote rich states such as Arizona, Colorado and Florida.
He declared, “The opponents of action are out of excuses. But if election year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let’s at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses and defend this country.”
He further added, “Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away.”
This is a clear departure from the stand taken by Republican presidential hopeful and current frontrunner Mitt Romney. For his part, Romney has vowed to veto a law that would offer permanent residency for skilled but undocumented migrants who graduated from US schools or took part in military service. This hard line stance is consistent with party hardliners who advocate expulsion of undocumented aliens even at the expense of family separation and anxiety.
Even groups of Indian American IT professionals have lobbied US Senators to support key legislation that would drastically decrease the waiting time for green card issuances to workers coming from India. The primary legislation is the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act or HR 3012 that proposes the elimination of the per nation quota on employment based visas and go into a first come, first served system where applicants would have the same waiting period when they have completed all their requirements.
Down in the trenches though, US State officials are trying to fast track visa processing for Indian tourists and employees to the country. This is in line with the US President’s announcement to make the US the top travel and tourist destination of the world.
The fast tracking includes streamlining visa application processes to make it easier for foreigners to travel to the country. According to Minister-Counselor for Consular Affairs James Herman, “We want to make it easier for travelers to apply for a visa to visit the United States.”
He further added, “Indians represent the highest volume of work visa travelers to the United States and the second highest number of foreign students. We continue to support the people-to-people ties that define the growing partnership between our nations. Each year, we reach out to more students to help them achieve their educational goals. We work closely with the business community to meet their needs, with hundreds of companies members of our business executive programme.”
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