Lofgren Statement on Passage of Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants bill

M. Speaker, this country hasneeded to eliminate the "per country" limits for employment-based immigrants,and increase those for family-based immigrants, for a very long time.

Although these are relativelysmall fixes, and a great deal more needs to be done, these fixes represent abalanced approach to addressing some of the long-standing problems in ourbroken immigration system. And they are the right thing to do.

We all know that ourimmigration system is severely broken, and it has been broken fordecades. At the heart of this broken system are the outdated employment-and family-based immigration systems, which suffer under decades-longbacklogs. In combination with the per country limits, these backlogs keepnuclear families apart for decades, while preventing U.S. employers fromaccessing and retaining the employees they need to stay competitive.

H.R. 3012 begins to addressthese problems by eliminating the employment-based per-country limits andadjusting the family-based per-country limits to make the system fairer forpeople caught in the backlogs. This is a good step that will lead to moreequitable outcomes.

But I must note that until wedo something about the backlogs themselves, we will continue to have adysfunctional system. This bill will help certain Indian nationals, whonow face a wait of 70 years to get green cards. But because the bill doesnot address the scope of the backlogs, it will increase the wait time for manyothers. Under this bill, everyone seeking an employment-based thirdpreference green card will have to wait 12 years. That may be moreequitable, but it doesn't fix the underlying problem.

In any event, the bill makesthe system fairer, and that is why I support it. I just hope that we cancome together, as we have done today, to fix other areas of our immigrationlaw.

Hopefully, this type ofbalanced legislation, in combination with true cooperation across the aisle,can serve as a model for addressing other areas of our broken immigrationsystem. This country desperately needs that we try.

I thank the author of thebill, Jason Chaffetz, as well as Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith andRanking Member John Conyers, for working with me on this bill and addressingsome of my concerns.

I urge my colleagues tosupport the bill.