After a long period of controversy and inaction, there is the possibility of comprehensive immigration reform taking place in the US, with a bipartisan group of senators presenting a legislative move and president Obama following it up with his own plan. America’s immigration system has been in bad shape for decades, in terms of law, policy and implementation, and Obama’s promise of streamlining it during his first term had come unstuck. This was mainly due to opposition from the Republicans who controlled Congress. But they seem to be amenable to co-operation now, mainly because most of the votes of the Hispanic group, who have the biggest stake in a fair and realistic immigration policy, went to Obama in the presidential election. Since there is some agreement now between both Republicans and Democrats on the issue, there seems to be some scope for agreement, though there are differences over details.
There are about 11 million illegal immigrants living in the US, and Indians constitute about 2.5 lakh of them. They live an underground existence, in constant fear of deportation and imprisonment. They span the entire economic and social life of the country and are exploited with low wages and lack of any security. The reality cannot be undone and the only solution is to accept it, legalise their presence in the country and offer them citizenship with enough safeguards and conditions. The plan involves payment of a fine and taxes and a waiting period for citizenship, improving border security and action against businesses that employ illegal residents. The Republicans want illegal border crossing to be completely stopped before the new system comes into force. But it may not be possible to formulate and implement the new system after completely securing the borders.
Another aspect of the proposed system is that it may allow increased numbers of skilled professionals to work in the US with liberalisation of the visa conditions including those relating to the H1B visa, and giving automatic residence and work permits to those who earn higher degrees in science and technology from US universities. This is because of the feeling that the US is not attracting enough foreign talent as it used to. The reforms, if they go through, will make the US a more transparent and legal society and benefit large numbers of people from all countries.
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