Read in the news today that have a new deal on immigration reforms which proposes restrictions on family migraton including parents of US citizens.

How likely is it to become law and how soon?

There doesn't seem to be a lot of support for it from the anti-illegals or the pro-illegals, so it may have a pretty good chance of passing.

It may be that people who already have applications in the system for types of family immigration that will become redundant will be grandfathered in, i.e. they'll continue to process those but may not accept new ones. This is just a guess.

I think right now it's too early to say when it will pass, IF it will pass, and what the overall effects will be. Right now it's just a proposal.

This is more than a proposal. The bill will be introduced on Monday and the Senator Reid has said he wants a final vote by next Friday.

There is a cap of 40,000 on parents, which never existed before. This means the introduction of a waiting list for parents. In other categories that have quotas, there is a wait of 5 - 30 years. Whenever you are in that waiting list, you are barred from visiting because the assumption is that you will not return because you have "immigrant intent". Things are even worse for brothers and sisters.

When this was just a proposal, I spoke out against it:
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/D...mp;pageId=3.2.1

Now is another opportunity to speak out, but time is running out. Please contact me if you will be affected, and I can help connect you to the press. Personal stories are extremely important. My contact information is on our web site:
http://americanfamiliesunited.org

That's not a guarantee it will pass in its current form, though.

Yes, if we act, there is a chance to change it.

This is absolutely terrible. If this bill passes, some of us may have real problems getting our parents here, especially if they are unskilled. Instead of solving one immigration problem, they are creating so many more! We must do something about it. If our parents are going to be barred from visiting as well, thats simply disaster!

I am going to see if I can contact Sen. Kennedy's office.

Thanks for the information Randall Emery.
My brother was thinking of sponsoring our mother by end 2007, when he beomes a USC.
Do you think if the bill passes, the laws will be changed by then?

Where are you getting this information?

I think the bill in question is S.1348. Is that correct?

The bill text can read by accessing http://thomas.loc.gov/

The paragraph in the bill that amends INA 201(b ) relating to immediate relatives is Section 504 of the bill, entitled, "RELIEF FOR MINOR CHILDREN AND WIDOWS." However, I don't see anything more than some restructuring of 201(b ) and additional provisions for expanding benefits to windows as immediate relatives. I also don't see any major changes removing categories from the family visa preference system either (see section 503 of the bill).

Where is this 40,000 annual cap you speak of? Is some Senator planning to offer than as an amendment on Monday?

On the other hand, the bill does a lot of things, such as allowing the filing for adjustment of status before a visa number is available upon payment of a supplement fee, authorizing the passport card proposed last year by Dept. of State, and granting survivor benefits to grandparents.

I don't think the rumor is true in the present form of the bill, but it still might be a good idea to remind representatives that Immediate Relatives don't deserve to be limited visas in exchange for legalizing illegal entrants, a corrupt bargain if so by all measures.

S.1348 is not the bill. The bill is not out on thomas yet -- it will probably be out on Monday or Tuesday. The 40,000 cap on parents is there.

My understanding of the bill with regards to brothers and sisters is that it will apply retroactively and if you did not file before May, 2005, you will never have the opportunity to do so. They are planning to clear the backlog of anybody who applied prior to that within 8 years, and for everybody else, you will not have the option.

And yes, this is a disaster of a bill. Now you know where the so called "anti-illegal immigration" groups really stand. Your in-laws are "chain immigrants" and your children are "anchor babies."

People are already being interviewed by the NY Times and the Associated Press. Again, please get in touch if you want to speak out on this. It is not that easy to get this kind of press coverage, and if you pass it up, you might not get a second chance.

My contact information is on our web site:
http://americanfamiliesunited.org

Hi Chris,
Almost every news website I've checked says that one of the clauses in the bill indicates a cap for parents, siblings and adult children of US citizens. It also uses a point system which puts higher weight on English proficiency and superior skills (more points) as compared to less-skilled people. I just sent off a letter Ted Kennedy's office this morning about the bill asking them to not let the bill pass in the current form. I think others who are concerned should contact their senators and representatives too.

c_mat

c_mat

Knowing full well that any senator or representative can offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute, as well as introduce a new bill, my wife and I are writing our 3 representatives protesting and suggesting the creation of a K5 nonimmigrant category for parents of U.S. citizens if prevailing winds succeed nevertheless.

I'll look at your organization's website too.

I have already written to my 2 senators about my concerns on this bill.

Good! We had a lot of press coverage today that will come out over the weekend. We need to make a lot of noise on this issue. Over the weekend, we will have talking points up on our website and we will also have a petition.

Is this something we should be worried about once my wife becomes a US citizen in 2008 she will no longer be able to petition her parents?

She would still be able to petition her parents, but the bill would introduce a cap of about 1/4 of the people who apply being allowed in each year -- so there would likely be at least a three year wait by 2008. Bottom line: yes, you should be worried.

What do you mean by 3 year wait? From what I was told right now it takes about 6 months to bring parents over. I am talking about the proposed change in immigration which converts the existing family based petition to employment based, meaning citizens would only be allowed to petition their spouses and children.

There's a little bit of information here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/20...20070518-4.html



Visas for parents of U.S. citizens are being capped, while visas for siblings and adult children are eliminated.

A new merit-based system similar to those used by other countries will give preference to attributes that further our national interest such as: job offers in high-demand fields, ability to speak English, and education.

Monday's vote is only a procedural vote to bring the bill to the floor for debate, not a vote on the bill itself.

The House of Representatives will kill this bill. They are much more responsive to the thoughts of the American people on Immigration, seeing as they only serve 2 year terms instead of 6 year terms. The vast majority of American citizens, myself included, are sick and tired of illegal aliens taking advantage of our immigration system, health care system, welfare system, and educational system. Giving any kind of path to citizenship to people who have violated immigration laws and evaded deportation, cheapens all of our efforts to gain citizenship and immigrate through legal channels.
In my opinion, the Senate bill should be killed in the House, and I hope it is.

The bill has a provision to limit 40,000 visas each year for parents of citizens. Some other family categories are not be converted, they are being eliminated.

When you get a limit on visas, they will give you a "priority date" which will tell you when the application will actually be processed. The more people apply, the longer the wait. I think the number of parents who come each year is in the range of 200,000 -- the statistics are up on the USCIS web site. You can look it up and make a guess as to the wait.

I read in the news that senate put off action on the bill till June but THE PRESIDENT STILL HOPES TO SIGN THE BILL BY SUMMER END.

If the president does sign the bill by summer end , will it become law right away?
What I am concerned about is the I-130 cap for parents. I have a USC brother planning to file an I-130 for mother in Dec 07. Will it be affected by the cap?
thanks

No one knows. No one knows when it might be signed into law and what the effective dates might be. Your only choice is to follow the news and wait and see what happens.

The Senators involved did their best to make sure they delayed publicly exposing a bill they would be ashamed of as long as possible, possibly forever...

However, thank you Senator Sessions for pointing it out yesterday afternoon, the contents of the bill are somehow available from The Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Immigrati...legislation.cfm

Read it and scream! (to your Senators)

BTW - While Canada does use the merit-system for permanent residence, that is only for employment-based permanent residence. They still have family-based permanent residence too, which is in fact much more generous than what the U.S. currently offers (permanent residents can sponsor grandparents to immigrate, for example). Canada's full immigration program is described well by their immigration agency at http://www.cic.gc.ca/

Here's the Schoolhouse Rock story of how a bill becomes law. Well worth reviewing, with catchy lyrics.

A bill only reaches the president's desk after the exact same bill has been been passed by both houses of Congress. At that time, the president can sign it, in which case it becomes law. Usually, the effective date is a few months after the presidential signature -- the effective date is part of the bill.

So yes, IF the president signs the bill by summer's end, it'll become law pretty soon thereafter. Maybe in January. Maybe sooner.

However, I have my serious doubts that both houses of Congress will get together and pass this bill and present it to the president for signing before the summer's end. Stranger things have happened, but not lately.

Can anybody share their email or a template to send to a Senator or Representative? It it make is easier for many of us to pass it along to their elected officials.

Now a question ... reading the thread I see that somebody has mentioned 2005 as cut-off for sponsoring siblings ... can somebody confirm?

This is sad.

23 Senators voted against closure on the bill (S.1348) today in an attempt to kill it in the Senate. They weren't successful. It has now moved on to the floor for debate and open to amendments. IMO it sucks too much to salvage and I hope it gets defeated and never makes it to the House of Representatives. Here are the 23 that came to their senses and tried to kill the bill from the get-go:

Allard (R-CO)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Coburn (R-OK)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Enzi (R-WY)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sununu (R-NH)
Tester (D-MT)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)

This bill is nothing more than a cheap mass blanket amnesty for every illegal alien that is now in our country. All 12 to 30 million of them.

It is, in fact, even worse.

Title V (500's section numbers) is what particularly upsets me and perhaps most others in this forum.

In no way, however, is that meant to discount your remarks, which 100% true as well.

It is bad, really bad, how the Senate doesn't want the people to see the legislation that it is debating. If not for The Heritage Foundation (see link earlier), we'd have nothing to see except the "highlights" posted at the White House.


CP

Any thoughts?

Awesome to see John-Boy and Kay Bailey behind this.

Here's some short and sweet thoughts to incorporate into a letter....

- Which is better for America, 12 million illegal immigrants or 12 million legalized illegal immigrants?

- Don't make U.S. citizens give up valuable immigration petitioning rights just to offer illegal immigrants (mostly from Mexico) the privilege of lawful status despite their disregard of our laws.

- Parents are not chain migrants, they are from the past generation and cannot bring any of their own family members (i.e. derivatives) with them, and they are often elderly and retired and will die of old age before a visa number becomes available.

- Parents with adult children who are naturalized U.S. citizens are also very often grandparents [of U.S. citizens] and deserve very much a chance to meet and live with them in their final years.

- On the subject of chain migration in recent congressional hearings, expert witnesses had only a brief word or two to say about parents compared to a considerable amount more on other immigrant categories.

- Please don't stand for Congress alienating our citizens and our country with this bill.


BTW - I read in the Congressional Record today that Sen. Dodd (CT) and Sen. Menendez (NJ) will soon be proposing an amendment to improve the plight of parents as family immigrants, but their proposal as described is only to raise the proposed cap from 40,000 to 90,000 (still a cap, still a big problem once oversubscribed, which it will be once 12 million illegal immigrants naturalize) and expanding the parent visitor visa admission period from 30-days to 6-months. That still is selling the U.S. citizen short of something that many consider to be a natural right of parents to perform the function of grandparenting.

Also, can somebody please tell me why a parent should be allowed to bring a whole new family with them? (as they would be if they are reclassified as family-preference immigrants as the bill presently does)

Fabulous how no one from FL or NY stood up and tried to kill the bill. NY, the bleeding heart liberal state (and I am a Dem, so there) with useless reps (won't even go into what happened in my parent's district) and awful, awful senators. And FL...well FL seems to be pretty useless as well.

GUH.

What kills me is my husband has ONE sister who may want to come here once her English gets better. And they're from Peru, so the chance of getting a tourist visa (which she would not overstay as he once did) is extremely low. Fine. But if she wanted to come here as an immigrant, she can't now. Only if she does the diversity visa, which I'm not a big fan of anyway. My husband asks why they don't get rid of that and let the families come, but I don't know.

Using Chris Parker's thoughts, here is what I email my House Rep and two Senators, please help refining it ....

----------------------------------------

Honorable Senator <name>,

I am writing to inform you of my strong displeasure of the proposed immigration bill. While this bill helps a lot of illegal aliens, it penalizes law abiding citizens who intend to sponsor their parents or siblings. I hope you reconsider the impact on legal law abiding citizens compared to illegal folks who have little respect for immigration laws.

My thoughts...

- Which is better for America, 12 million illegal immigrants or 12 million legalized illegal immigrants?

- Don't make U.S. citizens give up valuable immigration petitioning rights just to offer illegal immigrants (mostly from Mexico) the privilege of lawful status despite their disregard of our laws.

- Parents are not chain migrants, they are from the past generation and cannot bring any of their own family members (i.e. derivatives) with them, and they are often elderly and retired and will die of old age before a visa number becomes available.

- Parents with adult children who are naturalized U.S. citizens are also very often grandparents [of U.S. citizens] and deserve very much a chance to meet and live with them in their final years.

- On the subject of chain migration in recent congressional hearings, expert witnesses had only a brief word or two to say about parents compared to a considerable amount more on other immigrant categories.

Please Senator, don't stand for Congress alienating our citizens and our country with this bill.

Thank you very much.

Regards,

<My Name>
Your voting constituent


----------------------------------------
Hopefully others will help refine the letter above, spread the word, and at the very least email their elected representatives.

What is so bad about our government trying to control the numbers and "types" of people coming across our borders? While illegals will still be flooding unchecked across the river, its a symbolic attempt at least. As for the Title V stuff, I see nothing wrong with capping family-based visas. The immigration process in my mind is largely an individuals attempt to come to our country and start a new life and contribute to our country. Immigration policies are not intended to be a "lets bring the whole family over" system. If an immigrant didn't want to leave their family behind, then they never would chose to live in America (I would think).

With all due respect, the immigration system already controls numbers and types of people coming here. The current system does allow family-preference immigrants to bring the rest of their family with them, and the current bill doesn't stop that, but instead entirely removes most categories (though not all, and now moves parents to a new category where they can bring spouse/children for the first time). Furthermore, the categories removed are all U.S. citizen-only benefits. Illegal immigrants, on the other hand, get immediate lawful status just for being here illegally, without regard to their numbers. There is nothing fair about any of this!

Any ideas when will this be in effect if passed? If i submit an I-130 for my parent before the bill is passed, will it apply?

Any sample letter to send to my reps? the one above seems good but wondering if there are others floating...