Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3648, the Equal Access to Green cards for Legal Employment, or the EAGLE Act of 2022. While I, like many others here today, would prefer to see a more robust approach to fixing our broken immigration system, the bill before us today is an important step in the right direction. This bill will have a large impact on many immigrants and notably an overwhelming impact on Asian immigrant workers who have been historically barred from applying for U.S. citizenship. Right now, there are approximately 1.4 million individuals trapped in our backlogs waiting for available employment-based visas. The vast majority, as high as 80 percent, are Asian immigrants who are currently facing waiting times as high as 90 years from India or 44 years from China. Critically, the bill also more than doubles the per-country limit on family-sponsored visas from 7 to 15 percent, bringing relief to the nearly 4 million people who are forced to languish in limbo due to a backlogged and broken family-sponsored system. This backlog keeps families separated; causes birthdays, weddings, and funerals to be missed; and hampers the ability of immigrants to build their lives here in the United States while their families are waiting overseas.…”