（这个模板只针对GOP Senator）End the “Reparation” immigration bill that will kill the American Dream
Dear Senator XX,
I am writing to oppose legislative bill S.386, “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019”, one of the most potentially damaging legislation in the Senate. This legislation and its counterpart in the House, H.R.1044, is against the interest of America. It favors only one country and one industry, encourages H1b abuses, and allows it to completely co-opt the entire Employment Based Green Card program. From a glance it eliminates discrimination, but since the bill does not include further immigration reforms, it will create more problems and discrimination than we already have. A proper reform should right the wrongs of the past without sacrificing the present. Otherwise, how is it different from a Reparation bill?
Voting in favor of or co-sponsoring S.386, “Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019”, would be a vote against America’s best interest and truly high-skilled foreign nationals with an American Dream across the world. Voting in favor of this bill is a vote against the GOP in 2020.
S.386 will only make the current situation worse because:.
Green card backlog is not a clean start and Indian IT workers will take almost every employment based green card quota for more than a decade without a temporary expansion in employment sponsored green cards and migration towards merit-and-American-interest-based system.
Indian nationals constitute about 17% of the world’s population & about 17% of the international students; but at the same time, they receive about 75% of H1B visas AND 55-60% of PERM Labor Filings.Currently Indian nationals in EB2/3 queues have priority dates in 2009, and most are in the IT industry. Under S.386, more than 95% of EB 2&3 visas will go to Indian IT workers, with 2023 to 2029 quotas going 100% to them. Currently, there are 466K Indian nationals in the backlog (per CRS Dec 2018 report in EB/2), so it will potentially take about 12 years for these applicants to receive their GC. As a result, every new applicant from the rest of the world will be thrown into an overnight 12-year wait.
Eliminating the per country quota without fixing the broken immigration system means nothing but a political stunt to the American people. It only redistributes some pain from Indian nationals to everyone else (including Chinese nationals) waiting for green card. AMERICA WILL GAIN NOTHING, and given the history of malpractices from Indian consulting firms when applying for H1B, many workers may actually have taken outsourcing jobs that US citizens could take.
Furthermore, this political stunt will enrage GOP supporters and will benefit Democrats in 2020. Objections for this legislation on social media are predominantly from American workers who are aware of the abuse of outsourcing American jobs. These are the people that helped President Trump secure the Rust Belt and Florida in 2016. In addition, S.386, initially co-sponsored by the top Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, will be used by her and Democrats to boast their record on immigration reform in 2020, although this bill does not actually do anything good and will ruin many things, like many other bills from Democrats.
America will break its promise to high-skilled immigrants with an American heart. Every non-Indian national working on employment-based green card in recent years will potentially be impacted. The process leading up to the final green card application (form I-485) can typically take from 6 months to 2.5 years. With only a few months to pass the bill and a 3-year transition period which still gives most of the quota to Indian nationals, every non-Indian foreign worker in the US suddenly needs to prepare for additional 6~10 years waiting period OVERNIGHT. For Chinese nationals who got their Priority Dates in 2018 and 2019, their applications can potentially be pushed back for 10 more years OVERNIGHT. Non-Indian immigrants’ voices are rarely being listened to in this legislation process that will damage them the most.
HR1044/S386 encourages H1b abuse, which is disastrous for nearly every American business and industry except for multinational tech giants and outsourcing companies, who are utilizing the H1B as well as the EB2/3 programs to exploit cheap labor from other countries. Due to the institutional support from outsourcing companies, it has been much easier for the outsourced personnel to enter the EB2/3 queue compared to people who come to study and file green card application after they have landed a job in the US. As this bill does not have any clauses to restrain H1b abuse effectively, passing it will encourage more H1b abuse, which benefits the tech giants but worsens the situation of local workers. It also kills the dream of most foreign nationals (including Indians) seeking to immigrate to the US via fair market competition rather than through outsourcing companies. With this bill passed, it will become even harder and almost impossible to survive a chance if they have to compete individually against the outsourcing companies.
S.386 will effectively prioritize applicants with foreign undergraduate degrees over US PhDs & Master’s degrees. This will cause more talents, including those from India, to avoid studying in the US since it does not pay off. Furthermore, because the majority of MDs and RNs are NOT from India, this bill will lead to sudden and critical shortages in underserved areas.
On the other hand, there are much better ways to solve the backlog problem without the catastrophic side effects as listed above:
Gradually increase the per country quota. This is the most moderate approach. The current bill puts 85% cap on each country for the first 3 years “transition period”. It is a lazy carbon-copy from the 2011 version of this bill and does not fit the situation of the GC backlog today. It will cause India to dominate the system from the start. However, if we can raise the per country quota gradually, say 10% for the first year then 10% increment each year until it reaches 100%, it will still speed up the backlog significantly but also give other foreign nationals who are already waiting for green card or about to start the process much more time to prepare for this legislative change. It will also give Congress more time to work on additional immigration reforms.
Reform H1B and EB2/3 to end abuse, and penalize offenders. This will also significantly help with the situation. The current huge backlog for Indians are partially caused by the abuse of GC process by outsourcing companies and Indian consulting firms. It was a known practice that some companies will file multiple H1B applications to increase the odds of visa lottery for its Indian employees, and some companies put its employees in both EB2 and EB3 backlogs. Cheaters should be penalized, not rewarded like the current S.386 bill does.
Cut a deal to clear the current backlog. This may be the most aggressive yet most fair approach. The catastrophic side effect of the S.386 bill is a result from the huge backlog, so why not do a one-time deal to issue green cards to people who have been in the backlog for 3+ or 5+ years? They have proven themselves capable of doing their jobs, and their jobs are already taken from Americans anyway. This will be a bill that rights the wrong of the past without sacrificing anyone’s interest in the present.
Comprehensive immigration reform such as the RAISE Act. This is the much needed option and will effectively make green card process more fair and measurable. The prerequisite may be to clear the current backlog with option 1 or 3, but this should be the ultimate goal.
Above are my arguments against the HR1044/S386 bill and suggestions to improve the bill. I urge you to vote "NO" to the bill until it addresses all the above issues. The current bill is playing American and immigrant workers like pawns without doing anything constructive. The real immigration reform should not just right a wrong of the past, but damage the American and America-loving immigrants’ interest at present. Please listen to more voices from non-Indian immigrant workers on this bill!
感谢！我已经给nj的两位民主党参议员在senator.gov上提交过comment了。一点小建议啊，因为咱们中国人所在的州蓝州居多，而且有些同学们可能直接复制粘贴这个请愿信，所以最好把Voting in favor of this bill is a vote against the GOP in 2020.这些话去掉，万一发送给民主党senator会适得其反。
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