Almost two thirds of the permanent legal immigrations to the United States are based around family ties, with just 15 percent based around employment. However, the coming immigration bill could be about to change all that.
The Associated Press is claiming that Senator Lindsey Graham, who is a part of the bipartisan ‘Gang of Eight’ trying to draft a new bill, is arguing that more green cards need to be reserved for immigration that is employment based in order to help to boost the economy. This argument has already resulted in controversy from a number of groups that want to encourage the preservation of family ties, although the senators involved have cautioned that nothing yet has been decided.
Those who support the switch say that a green card should be reserved solely for members of the nuclear family, and not for adult children or grandparents. Six years ago in 2007, the Roman Catholic Church and the Democrats both objected to a similar attempt to cut down on the number of family US visas. According to the Washington Post, more than two dozen members from the House Asian Pacific Caucus have written a letter to the senators pointing out that such a move would only increase the hardship for US citizens and their families, and it would only marginally raising the amount of available visas.
Kevin Appleby, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ director of migration policy, says that the proposal fails to take into account the social cost of failing to preserve families within the immigration system.