Dear Friends,

Last week, the I-Squared Act and Startup Visa Act were introduced in the Senate. We expect more similar bills to be introduced in the House and Senate. Immigration Voice applauds Senator Hatch for introducing I-Squared Act. Under the leadership of Senator Hatch, we continue to petition other Senate offices to consider the I-Squared Act.

You may also recall that about two (2) weeks back, Congressman Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced H.R.213, the bill to eliminate the per-country numerical limitation for employment-based immigrants. This bill has bipartisan support with Representative Lofgren (D-CA) and Representative Labrador (R-ID) as original co-sponsors, and now it has five (5) more cosponsors.

All bills related to skilled immigration are led by lawmakers working on different ideas about reforming specific parts of the skilled immigration system. However, as evident, all these bills have one common denominator – strong bipartisan support to eliminate per-country limits in the employment-based green card category.

Presenting a solution and finding a champion in Congress is a difficult proposition. This is usually the first step and we achieved this sometime back. However, for bringing any change by passing a bill, the next mandatory step involves creating a broad consensus for an idea, which is even more difficult. The broad consensus in Congress never happens overnight on any subject, and it always requires a large community that is willing to consistently demand a just change, time after time, without giving up. Often it takes years to create such a broad consensus. But together we have successfully endured the long and difficult part of this movement to achieve this broad consensus.

Now we enter the phase of our efforts where we need to stay focused and take this to the finish line. With bipartisan champions and with such broad bipartisan support where elimination of per-country limits is the only common denominator across all skilled immigration reform bills, the chances of this fix happening are far greater than any time in the past. We believe that if H.R.213 is brought up for a vote today, it will pass with an overwhelming majority in both, the House and the Senate.

To request for fairness and an up or down vote on the bill to eliminate per-country limits, we are organizing an advocacy event in Washington, D.C. on February 9th and 10th. We ask that you please join us in this meaningful endeavor.

Even if you are unable to make it to Washington, I know that you are, and will always be, vested in the solution on this subject. This is why, to help organize the advocacy event and to continue to take our fixes to the finish line, I ask you to please consider contributing $100 today (donations.immigrationvoice.org) so we can continue the good fight.

Thank you for your support. We Will Win

Aman KapoorImmigration Voice