Immigration Bills

The bill would eliminate the extended family visa categories (e.g., married sons and daughters of citizens, etc.), thus ending “chain migration” as recommended by the bi-partisan Barbara Jordan Commission in 1997. Chain migration is the process where seemingly endless “chains” of foreign nationals are allowed to immigrate to the United States, since our laws allow citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring in their non-nuclear, adult family members. It is the primary mechanism that has caused legal immigration in this country to quadruple since the 1960s.

S. 703 would expand chain migration by expanding the definition of "immediate relative" for purposes of exemptions from the numerical cap. It would include children of U.S. citizens' parents accompanying or following them to join the parent.

H.R. 938, the Nuclear Family Priority Act, would end chain migration by restricting allocation of family-sponsored immigrant visas so that only spouses or children of a lawful permanent resident (LPR) alien can obtain such visas. Furthermore, it would reduce the number of family-sponsored immigrant visas available per fiscal year to 88,000 minus the number of aliens who were paroled into the United States for humanitarian reasons in the second preceding fiscal year.

H.R.

S. 2454, the Securing America’s Borders Act, would increase chain migration through a one-time increase of 105,660 visas for exempt families of "unused" employment-based visa holders, plus a one-time increase of 115,000visas for "unused" family-preference holders, plus a permanent increase of 254,000 per year in the family-preference categories. The bill would also increase worker visas by a one-time increase of 90,000 for "unused" employment-based visas, plus a permanent increase of 754,000 employment-based visas per year, plus a permanent 100,000 increase in H-1B visas.