Chris Dodd: “my amendment prevents this bill from dividing millions of families by making it easier for U.S. citizens and their…”

“my amendment prevents this bill from dividing millions of families by making it easier for U.S. citizens and their parents to unite. I offer it with the cosponsorship of my good friends, Majority Leader Senator Reid and Senator Menendez. The amendment has also been endorsed by over 25 organizations including the American Jewish Committee, the National Council of La Raza, the Episcopal Church, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Under current law, parents are defined as immediate relatives and exempt from green card caps. Yet this bill arbitrarily and irresponsibly excludes parents from the nuclear family and subjects them to excessively low green card caps and a restrictive visitor visa program as well. This amendment does three things. First it increases this newly established cap from 40,000 to 90,000. 90,000 is the average number of green cards issued to parents each year. Last year, however, 120,000 parents entered the U.S. on green cards. If this bill is really serious about eliminating backlogs, then it ought to set practical caps. It is not the place of the Congress to tell American citizens to wait a year or two or three or more to see their parents. Second, it extends the newly created temporary parent visitor visa from 30 to 180 days. To think that a parent can only be with his child or grandchild for 1 month out of 12 is simply unacceptable. Yet under this provision, a tourist can be in America six times longer than the parent of a citizen.”