On Wednesday, the government’s Democratic Party unveiled the Citizenship Act, which, among other things, aims to do away with the country-based cap on green cards and alter the H-1B visa system.
Congresswoman Linda Sánchez’s US Citizenship Act 2023 establishes an earned path to citizenship for all 11 million illegal immigrants while giving Dreamers, TPS holders, and select farmworkers an instantaneous route to citizenship.
It also paves the way for unauthorized immigrants who pass background checks and pay taxes to become citizens without having to worry about being deported after five years.
By removing per-country limitations, it suggests changing the employment-based immigration system.
The Act aims to improve access to green cards for employees in lower-wage industries, provide dependents of H-1B holders with work authorization, and stop children of H-1B holders from aging out of the system. It also aims to make it simpler for STEM advanced degree holders from US colleges to remain.
Additionally, the measure establishes a pilot program to boost local economic growth and encourages better compensation for non-immigrant, highly skilled visa holders to protect them from unfair competition with American labor.
The Citizenship Act suggests changing the family-based immigration system in order to maintain families by adding spouses and children of green card holders as immediate family members, increasing per-country caps for family-based immigration, and recapturing visas from previous years to clear backlogs.
Additionally, it ends discrimination against LGBTQ+ families, protects orphans, widows, and kids, and permits immigrants with accepted family-sponsorship petitions to temporarily live with relatives in the US while they wait for green cards.
