One of the most serious problems in our broken Immigration system is that there are not nearly enough immigrant visas – also known as Green Cards – available each year. As a result, immigrants are stuck in crippling backlogs for many years.  The Relief Act introduced by Senators Durbin and Leahy on October 16, 2019.

Close to four million future Americans are on the State Department’s immigrant visa waiting list,
which doesn’t include 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 caps, further restricting the number of available green cards.
The backlogs are a particular hardship on families who are caught in immigration limbo. For
example, children of LPRs often because they are no longer “children,” as defined
under immigration law, by the time green cards are available for them.

The solution to the green-card backlog is clear: increase the number of green cards.

The Relief Act would treat children and spouses of LPRs as immediate relatives, just as
they are considered when their family members become citizens. The Senate did exactly this in
S. 744, the comprehensive immigration reform bill which passed the Senate in 2013 on a strong
bipartisan vote.

The Relief Act would also lift green-card country caps, which were designed to preserve immigration
diversity but have contributed to backlogs because of the insufficient number of green cards and
the large number of immigrants in the United States stuck on temporary work visas. However,
lifting country caps alone without increasing the number of green cards will not eliminate
backlogs for Indian immigrants (the nationality with the most people in the employment
backlog), and will dramatically increase backlogs for the rest of the world.

The Relief Act would:

• Eliminate the family and employment green card backlog over five years in the order in
which applications were filed (based on S. 744, the Senate CIR bill).
• Keep American 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 (based on S. 744, the Senate CIR bill).
• Protect “aging out” children who qualify for LPR status based on a parent’s immigration
petition.
• Lift country caps (House-passed H.R. 1044).
• Extend the “hold harmless” clause from H.R. 1044 that exempts immigrant visa petitions
approved prior to enactment from the lifting of country caps to petitions approved for
five years after enactment.

Will the Relief Act become law as is? Probably not. There are too many Senators who would like to reduce immigration to the US. However, the President Trump has called for increasing merit-based immigration, and the Relief Act would do just that. Congress could work out a compromise to eliminate the DV Lottery and give these green cards to the best and brightest.

Relief Act – Additional Information

• Senator Durbin Introduces the Relief Act (Video)
• IEEE-USA Supports the RELIEF Act to Clear Immigration Backlog
• Relief Act Would Double Immigration Over 10 Years

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