Steve Cohen: “I also rise in support of this bipartisan proposal that provides two small, technical fixes to our country's immigration…”

“I also rise in support of this bipartisan proposal that provides two small, technical fixes to our country's immigration laws. The bill removes the so-called ``per-country'' limits from applying to employment-based green cards. Current immigration law provides 140,000 green cards annually to employment-based immigrants. The law, however, prevents any one country from receiving more than 7 percent-- or 9,800--of the total 140,000 visas. Because of this per-country limit, a country like India, with a population of 1.2 billion, is limited to the same number of visas as a country like Iceland, with a population of 300,000 and a lot of ice. This makes no sense and has resulted in decades-long backlogs for nationals from India, as well as China, and it makes it impossible for certain U.S. employers to attract and retain certain essential workers they need to help keep America competitive. Indeed, from India and China there are many people trained in STEM areas that we need in our country to keep competitive. Eliminating the per-country limit for employment-based immigrants would level the playing field and treat everyone on a first-come, first-served basis. Because the bill does not provide additional green cards, it does not address the current overall backlogs. And that's unfortunate. But the bill does treat people and those backlogs more equitably.…”