Bipartisan Bill Addresses Broad Range of Immigration Issues
Posted Jun 10, 2000

A new bill in the Senate, titled the Family, Work and Immigrant Integration Amendments of 2000, touches upon many issues of key concern to the immigrant advocate community. Senators Bob Graham (D-FL) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) introduced this bill, numbered S. 2668, in late May. 

S. 2668 includes the following provisions :

Extension to the filing deadline for NACARA (Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act);

NACARA parity for persons from certain other countries not currently included;

Adjustment of status for certain Liberian refugees;

Restoration of Section 245(i) (the penalty fee provision allowing otherwise eligible but out-of-status persons to complete their green card process within the U.S. rather than having to travel out and be subject to the 3- or 10-year bar);

Advance in the “registry” date (see articles on this subject in the May 11, 2000 and April 19, 2000 issues of the MURTHYBULLETIN);

Additional visas in the family-based categories;

Protections for unaccompanied or orphaned children apprehended by INS;

Restoration of some public benefits for legal immigrants;

Eligibility for tourist and student visas for family members of permanent residents;

Relief from per-country limits on employment-based immigration;

Increased portability of H-1B visas;

Encouragement to INS to process cases more quickly, and;

Ability to recapture unused immigrant visas from prior year.

According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Senators Graham and Smith introduced their bill to highlight the need for Congress to move on these key issues, and the Senators hope that the various items in the bill will be attached as amendments to other bills.

Please encourage your employers and U.S. citizen friends to support S. 2668’s reforms by calling their Senators.  While they are at it, they should express their support for S. 2045 (the H-1B bill discussed in prior issues of the MURTHYBULLETIN which also includes measures to alleviate employment-based green card backlogs) as well. On the House side, the companion bill to S. 2045 is H.R. 3983, also discussed previously in the MURTHYBULLETIN.