The US Senate on Thursday rejected all the four immigration reform proposals put forward, which, if passed, could have immensely benefited the 1.8 million young migrants who were brought to the country as children (Dreamers) and hundreds of thousands of ‘skilled’ Indian IT professionals.
Senators failed to get enough votes for either of the immigration bill to be passed. Furthermore, the one bill backed by President Donald Trump (would have paved way for giving permanent citizenship to 1.8 million Dreamers) lost 39-60 votes. The bill would have also curbed family-based immigration and ended diversity lottery visa.
After the bill failed to move ahead in Senate, the fate of the Dreamers (comprise majority of Indians) became uncertain as Trump had scrapped the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in September last year and gave the Congress six months to legislate a solution.
If no deal if reached by March 5, around 700,000 Dreamers who registered under DACA and the remaining 1.1 million who were eligible but didn’t sign up could begin to face deportation.
Another prominent immigration bill that failed was the one that aimed to ‘remove per-country cap on green card’. If passed, it could have benefited a large number of high skilled Indian IT professionals, who will have to wait as much as 70 years to get American citizenship as per the existing system. The proposal was to replace per-country cap system, which has created a huge backlog of Indian applicants, with a merit-based system.
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