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March 3, 2022 - WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. SenatorAlex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee onImmigration,joined Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and four of their Senate colleagues in introducing theResolving Extended Limbo for Immigrant Employees and Families (RELIEF) Act, legislation toeliminate the family and employment green card backlog by increasing the number of green cards available.

Almost four million future Americans are on the State Departments immigrant visa waiting list, in addition to hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. who are also waiting for green cards. However, under current law, only 226,000 family green cards and 140,000 employment green cards are available annually. Children and spouses of lawful permanent residents (LPRs) count against these numbers, further restricting the number of available green cards.

Immigrants are the backbone of our nation andour communities arestronger because of them,said Senator Padilla.For far too long, thebacklog of green card applications has restrictedaccess to the American dream for millions of people who are ready to contribute to ourcountry. This bill is a commonsensestep toward eliminating the green card backlog andproviding relief for immigrant families.

In addition to Padilla and Durbin, theRELIEF Actis cosponsored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).

Along with eliminating the family and employment green card backlog within five years, this bill will help keep families together by classifying spouses and children of LPRs as immediate relatives and exempting derivative beneficiaries of employment-based petitions from annual green card limits, protect aging out children who qualify for LPR status based on a parents immigration petition, and lift per-country limitations.

Specifically, theRELIEF Actwill:

Padilla is a strong advocate for immigration reform. He is anoriginal cosponsorof theU.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, legislation to overhaul the American immigration system, restore fairness and humanity to the system, strengthen families, boost our economy, and open a pathway to citizenship for millions. He recentlycalledon the Biden administration to Provide Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians on a visa in the United States. Padilla has alsopushedthe State Department to address the international student visa backlog.Source: Senator Alex Padilla

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California's US Senator Alex Padilla, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Increase Number of Green Cards and Eliminate Backlog - Sierra Sun Times

President Biden came to CapitolHill on the 404th day of his presidency, during perhaps the most pivotal moment of his short tenure to deliver the State of the Union address.

According to aWashington Post-ABC News poll, Bidens presidential approval rating is at a new low, with 37 percent saying they approve of the job he is doing and 55 percent saying they disapprove.Inflation is at a four-decade zenith and shows few signs of receding. Bidens appointments to the Federal Reserve are wedged behind an increasingly obdurate Republicanblockade. The COVID pandemic finally seems to be easing but faces a public rightlyskepticalthe virus is gone indefinitely and there is a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape.

If his approval rating were above 40 percent this would have been a typical State of the Union address, but it was not. In many respects, the nation and the world are balancing on a tightrope.

On almost every issue raised,Biden took a position that puts him in stark contrast with his party, especially the more progressive wing of the party. With 250 daysuntil the midterm elections,when voters will render judgment on Democrats control of Washington,the State of the Union,in my estimation did not move the needle. And the American people who are lukewarm about his presidency and unsure of how we might intervene in the Ukrainian crisis remain unmotivated or feel deflated.

So, who among the base, or generally, did this State of the Union address excite?

The president spent more time discussing the war in Ukraine than the war against voting rights at home. He also discussed strained engagements between some communities, especially communities of color, and law enforcement. He proclaimed, The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police, before ad-libbing: Fund them. Fund them.In that same moment, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) in her Republican response accused Democrats of wanting to defund the police.

This example of dog-whistle politics hit against some of the presidents most critical base young, progressive and African American voters. This is an apparent snub of the leftist wing of the party. The unfortunate political reality is that George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John LewisJohn LewisBiden's SOTU affirms what we already know: His progressive agenda is over The US can no longer ignore Tunisia's fight for democracy Harris to travel to Selma for 'Bloody Sunday' anniversary MORE Voting Rights Act are dead.

Additionally, Biden did notmention Build Back Better by name his chief legislative agenda, though he mentioned critical elements of the plan. For a while now, its been pretty clear that the signature package is dormant in Congress particularly as we turn to an election year in which passing legislation is much more difficult. However, he did mention one signature Democratic agenda:the Child Tax Credit.He saidhe hoped to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and extend the credit, which saw monthly payments expire in December. Unfortunately, there is no plan to revive them.

Also, his Test to Treat program for immunocompromised individuals and access to therapeutics might be met with resistance as new COVID-19 guidelines recommend most Americans go unmasked, harkening back to last summer before the emergence of the delta variant.

Bidens State of the Union speech was light on genuinely divisive issues. Towards the end, he briefly mentioned abortion, immigration reform, transgender rights and climate change. And at plenty of points in the speech, he seemed to be trying to speak to issues dear to Republicans and perhaps even disaffected Democrats.

Stylistically, he spokeover the applause, seeming to rush through the speech without pause to allow for more extended ovation and for critical points to have their moments. It felt swifteven with his mention of the historic appointment of Judge Ketanji Brown JacksonKetanji Brown JacksonBiden's SOTU affirms what we already know: His progressive agenda is over Sen. Lujn returns to Senate after stroke Collins to meet with Biden's Supreme Court nominee Tuesday MORE, the first Black woman appointed to the Supreme Court. There was no recognition of the landmark diversity in the judiciary and he quickly pivoted to immigration, where he failed to lay out a comprehensive plan for reform.

All things considered, President Biden affirmed what we already know he is the epitome of moderation consistently appealing to the political attitudes of right-of-center Americans and small C conservatives who dont support him despite his efforts.

Furthermore, his unity agenda, which supports needed initiatives for issues such as opioids, cancer research, mental health and veterans care, is more of the same as what we have heard previously. No innovation, no big legislative agenda, no exceptionally comforting and enduring vision for the country. Democratsneed a winning strategy; President Biden has yet to exercise his bully pulpit in full support of this strategy.

Biden concluded: Fellow Americans: Look, we cant change how divided weve been ... but we can change how to move forward on COVID-19 and other issues that we must face together. Regrettably, the president did not provide a framework for change moving forward.

He enthusiastically concluded, Go get em.And I am afraid that is precisely what the Republican Party will do deliver a shellacking to the Democrats in November.

Quardricos Bernard Driskell is an adjunct professor of legislative politics atThe George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management.Follow him on Twitter @q_driskell4

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Biden's SOTU affirms what we already know: His progressive agenda is over | TheHill - The Hill

Executive Summary

Introduction

The United States needs comprehensive immigration reform. The last time the United States significantly changed its method for awarding visas was in 1965, when Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). This law changed the immigration system from one based on country-of-origin limits to one based on family reunification. Today, however, the country faces severe demographic pressure from slowing population growth, an aging population, and declining birth rates. To counter these trends, Congress should undertake reform to increase the level of legal immigration, which can translate into greater labor force growth. Moreover, it should refocus immigration criteria toward economic considerationsthat is, prioritizing immigrants based on skill level, rather than family reunification. By taking this approach, the United States can raise productivity and Americans standard of living, as well.

Thus far, the 117th Congress has not undertaken immigration reform in regular order. The only immigration reforms attempted were those included in the Build Back Better Act to be considered under reconciliation protections. Ultimately, the Senate parliamentarian held that these reforms did satisfy the conditions of the Byrd Rule and were removed from the reconciliation bill.

House Democrats recently released The America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022, their plan to increase the United States economic competitiveness with China. The House bill includes three major immigration-related provisions that would reshape the United States high-skilled immigration policy.

This paper provides a brief summary and evaluation of The America COMPETES Acts proposed immigration reforms. While the reforms would modestly raise the amount and skill levels of U.S. immigration, they are no substitute for a comprehensive overhaul.

Reforms in The America COMPETES Act

The first major provision of The America COMPETES Act would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to create a new visa category focused on start-up companies. The W visa category would be composed of three classifications of foreign nationals: W-1, entrepreneurs with ownership interest in a start-up; W-2, essential employees of a start-up; and W-3, W-1 and W-2 holders spouses and children.

Nonimmigrants on a W-1 visa would start with a three-year visa and could apply for an extension of up to another five years if they and their start-ups meet certain requirements and benchmark measurements. Eventually, W-1 visa holders could apply for legal permanent resident status as immigrant entrepreneurs if their start-up proves successful. W-2 visas would be limited and allocated based on the size of the start-up and could be used for up to six years, assuming the nonimmigrant meets certain requirements.

The second major provision would exempt certain foreign nationals (and their families) from the numerical limits on immigrant visas if they have a doctoral degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) from a qualified U.S. institution or from a foreign institution with a STEM program equivalent to that of a U.S. institution.

The third major provision focuses on residents of Hong Kong. The bill would provide Temporary Protected Status and refugee status for qualifying Hong Kong residents for 18 months after the bills enactment, allowing them to live and work in the United States. Also, the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security would provide a special immigrant status for up to 5,000 qualified high-skilled Hong Kong residents for up to five fiscal years.

Finally, the bill would require W-1 visa holders, immigrant entrepreneurs, and immigrant STEM doctoral holders to pay a one-time supplemental fee of $1,000 that would go toward funding STEM scholarships for low-income U.S. students.

Evaluation

The provisions in The America COMPETES Act would modestly raise the amount and skill levels of U.S. immigration. These are desirable changes. Greater immigration raises the growth rate of the employed population, leading to more output and income. Improving skill levels results in higher productivity growth, which translates into higher worker compensation and standards of living. Finally, promoting entrepreneurial vigor through the bills new visa categories will spur new methods and products, and improved competitiveness.

Nevertheless, The America COMPETES Act reforms are changes at the margins of the existing system confined to high-skilled individuals and entrepreneurs. This is not a substitute for broader substantive reform for all classes of immigrants. Congress should consider a total overhaul of the legal immigration system, shifting from a focus on family reunification to one of economic growth. The American Action Forum has proposed such a legal immigration system that could advance entrepreneurship, augment productivity gains, fill skills gaps, and combat demographically driven labor force declines.

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Immigration Reform in The America COMPETES Act of 2022 - AAF - American Action Forum

As the Biden administration completed its first year, a flurry of news reports highlighted the bipartisan disappointment with its record on immigration. While liberals objected to the continuation of some of former President TrumpDonald TrumpTrump: 'RINO' Graham 'wrong' on pardoning Jan. 6 rioters Jan. 6 panel probing Trump's role in effort to seize voting machines: report Overnight Energy & Environment Virginia panel votes down Wheeler MOREs policies, such asclosing the U.S. borders, conservatives alleged that President BidenJoe BidenBriahna Joy Gray: Biden's Supreme Court promise 'bare minimum' gesture to Black voters House GOP leader says State of the Union attendance could be capped: report Record enrollment numbers send a clear message about health care affordability, access MORE has embraced open borders.

The criticisms directed at Biden are not entirely fair. Consider the immigration situation that he inherited in January 2021. Trump had dedicated four years to restrictive immigration measures like no president in modern U.S. history. To that end, policy after policy was put into place. Reversing course in a massive federal bureaucracy is not something that can be done overnight or even in a year.

Additionally, four years of tough measures and verbal attacks on immigrants did not solve the nations immigration problems, but arguably, made them worse. The Trump administrations efforts ensured that the longstanding and serious immigration problems remained for the new administration: Approximately11 million undocumented migrantslived in the country before and after the Trump presidency.

With the election of Biden, hope sprang eternal among immigrants rights activists. The truth of the matter is the Biden administration has dismantled some harsh Trump immigration policies. Gone are the Muslim ban and immigration raids on7-Eleven convenience storesand state courthouses. Vitriol about immigrants no longer comes from the White House and the Biden administration has brought rationality to the discussion of federal immigration policy. In that vein,Vice President Kamala HarrisKamala HarrisSen. Lujn suffers stroke, expected to make a full recovery Congress, not Biden, should be held accountable for immigration reform Biden to relaunch 'cancer moonshot' effort at Wednesday event MOREhasstarted a discussionof long-term solutions to stem migration flows from Central America.

The administration has also faced resistance in its efforts to change the direction on immigration. For example, the courts have rejected attempts to reopen to new applicants theDeferred Action for Childhood Arrivals(DACA) policy, which provides relief to undocumented young people, or to dismantle theRemain in Mexico policyrequiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims are being decided. Republicans have adamantly fought against any effort by the Biden administration to moderate the harsh measures embraced by Trump.

That said, if one is truly interested in immigration change, the appropriate measuring stick is not what Biden did in year one but what Congress has failed to do for decades pass meaningful immigration reform. Democrats and Republicans repeatedly claim that the current immigration system is broken but have done absolutely nothing to fix it. Presidents Bush, Obama and Biden have been unable to move Congress to pass reform legislation. Early in Bidens term, theU.S. Citizenship Actwas introduced in Congress. The bill, backed by the president, has languished in Congress.

Reform is long overdue. The comprehensive U.S. immigration law, theImmigration and Nationality Act of 1952, was forged at the height of the Cold War and designed to exclude and deport communists. Although amended on many occasions, it focuses more on keeping people out than letting people in. Economic and humanitarian concerns, not fears of the spread of communism, must be the touchstone for the immigration laws of the 21st century.

Immigration solutions need long-term blueprints most appropriately written by Congress, not quick fixes by a president. For example, economic development and building political institutions in Central America that diminish migration pressure take time and congressional appropriations. Effective efforts cannot realistically be achieved in one year by a new president.

The bottom line is that the nations immigration issues can only be effectively addressed if Congress engages in the serious and difficult task of formulating long-term solutions and approaches that outlast any president. In a time of political discontent, that is no small feat.

But, there are much-needed reforms that Congress could make to the U.S. immigration system. To start, Congress could provide a path to durable legal immigration status for DACA and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, as well as for other undocumented immigrants.

Lawmakers can work to restructure the immigration court system, which is poorly funded, inadequately staffed, lacks independence, and has abacklog of more than 1.5 million cases.The visa system needs reforms to eliminate visa backlogs and to allow for sufficient admission of immigrants to satisfy U.S. labor and family reunification needs.

Congress needs to create a system that is fair to immigrants and allows for effective enforcement, not a misguided border wall on the U.S./Mexico border, which will cause more deaths but not halt migration.

And finally, thedehumanizing term "alien,"which has helped to obscure and rationalize the treatment of people inconsistent with our constitutional values, needs to be removed from U.S. immigration laws.

Congress will, at some point, meaningfully address immigration reform. The sooner it does, the sooner the nation will begin the process of moving forward. One president can only be reasonably expected to do so much.

KevinR.Johnsonis dean and Mabie/Apallas professor of Public Interest Law and Chicanx Studies at the University of California, Davis, School of Law.

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Congress, not Biden, should be held accountable for immigration reform - The Hill

The strain of the labor pool facing agriculture is evident, especially with help wanted signs everywhere. Even as technology becomes a greater part of agriculture, much of dairy farming remains labor-intensive. Earlier this week at the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) Dairy Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., its President and CEO, Michael Dykes made the prediction that Congress will pass immigration reform in the next five years.

Labor issues are multifaceted, and Dykes noted that the U.S. has the lowest population growth rate in history over the last decade. More people [are] dying, and we have fewer people being born in the developing world, he stated. We have a people issue. Sustainability, health and wellness with research, many of these things we can fix with money, but we cant create more people.

Chief Operating Officer with Agri-Placement Services, Luis Carcamo, concurs with Dykes. These are exactly the reasons many of us in the dairy sector have been citing every time we submit comments to a government agency or when we have the opportunity to plead our case to staffers in Capitol Hill, he states.

Dykes shared with the IDFA audience that, were going to have to have people that are working, which means were going to need a system of legal immigration.

He also continued stating that he does not think Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., or Sen Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., will deliver immigration reform, but is optimistic that the next generation of politicians will step up.

While Agri-Placement Services, an employer placement company that serves dairy farms in 16 different states, doesnt share quite the optimism that Dykes does on seeing a comprehensive immigration reform. I think the best chance we had was with the Farm Workforce Modernization Act and that doesnt seem to be coming back to life, Carcamo remarks.

Future Labor Advice

Carcamo says that if he has his way, he would find an opportunity to amend the seasonality requirements for H-2A visas, which would allow dairy farmers and others working in year-round sectors to supplement their domestic workforce.

Agri-Placement Services has a separate entity that serves as an H-2A Labor Contractor and Carcamo notes it has gone very well. Were currently working directly with the Ministry of Labor from Barbados to source the workers and we employ them on concord grape farms in western New York, he shared. Since we're acting as a labor contractor and therefore, we are the employer, we take care of all paperwork and logistics. All the producers need to do is tell us when and where they need the workers. I wish we could do the same for dairy.

National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) strongly supports efforts to pass agriculture labor reform that provides permanent legal status to current workers and their families and gives dairy farmers access to a workable guestworker program.

With acute labor shortages in rural areas and no guestworker program available that works for the year-round dairy industry, dairy farmers are in a workforce crisis. Dairy producers typically offer higher wages and benefits than many other parts of the ag sector. But many still struggle to find employees because the domestic workers just arent there, making immigrant workers increasingly important to farmer success, Claudia Larson, senior director of government relations with NMPF says. A recent study estimates that immigrant labor accounts for over half of the dairy workforce and nearly 80 percent of the U.S. milk supply. A real solution to dairys workforce challenges must both provide legal status to current employees and their families, and it also needs to give dairy farmers access to a workable guestworker program.

The 2015 study by Texas A&M AgriLife Research, The Economic Impact of Immigrant Labor on U.S. Dairy Farms, shared that if the U.S. dairy industry lost its foreign-born workforce, it would nearly double retail milk price and cost the total U.S. economy more than $32 billion.

Future Leaders Needed

Carcamo also notes the need to keep engaging with elected officials to find a way to expand H-2A. Plus we need to keep working with sending countries to develop new paradigms of circular labor mobility.

Dykes echoed the same message to the IDFA Dairy Forum and challenged his membership, stating, You guys are going to lead this. Youre going to step up. Youre going to be bold, and youre going to do the things that you know are in the best interest of this industry.

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Predictions for the Future of Immigration Reform - Dairy Herd Management