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« back to news and press releases UniteFamilies.org Analysis of the Senate/White House Compromise May 20, 2007; updated May 22 Update May 23: Please call your Senators and ask them to support the amendment offered by Senators Clinton and Hagel to reclassify spouses and children of permanent residents as immediate relatives (S.A. 1183 to S. 1348/S.A. 1150). See our talking points for what to say. A few Senators and the White House have been working behind closed doors for several weeks to hammer out a compromise immigration proposal. A draft version of the proposal has been published. Here is our analysis of the draft version. We note that the proposal has not yet been introduced as a bill. After introduction, it will need to be approved by the Senate and the House before being signed into law by the President. Several amendments could be offered during that process and the bill may be radically changed. Please note that this analysis is preliminary and based on what is known. The proposal does not address our issue of extended family separation faced by spouses and children of lawful permanent residents. While recognizing the nuclear family issue, the proposal does not increase the number of visas available to spouses and children. In fact, the number of visas is reduced from the 87,934 under current law to 87,000. The bill creates a cap for parents of U.S. citizens and eliminates all other family categories. Family unity has been the cornerstone of the American Immigration system and this proposal has crushed that beyond recognition. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is considering an amendment to reclassify spouses and children of permanent residents as immediate relatives, thus exempting them from numerical limits. Let us hope that she offers the amendment and it is approved. The fate of the proposal is uncertain since several lawmakers in the House and Senate as well as several immigrant groups have expressed their distaste for several aspects of the proposal. The New York Times and the Washington Post have highlighted our issue in their respective articles. |
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