{"id":63186,"date":"2024-03-06T11:14:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T19:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=63186"},"modified":"2024-03-06T11:14:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T19:14:51","slug":"can-we-fix-a-century-of-green-card-backlogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=63186","title":{"rendered":"Can We Fix a Century of Green Card Backlogs?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_54 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_54\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span><a class=\"tdb-author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/author\/selen-ozturk\/\">Selen Ozturk<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_55 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_55\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><i class=\"tdb-date-icon tdc-font-fa tdc-font-fa-calendar\"><\/i><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2024-03-06T09:00:00-08:00\">Mar 6, 2024<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_56 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_56\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Slow-growing U.S. green card caps, delays and waste have characterized the system for a century, and are only worsening under politically polarized immigration laws.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_57 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_57\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"entry-thumb\" title=\"Green card\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card.png 1200w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1024x725.png 1024w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-768x544.png 768w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-150x106.png 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-696x493.png 696w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1068x757.png 1068w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-100x70.png 100w\" alt=\"Green card\" width=\"1200\" height=\"850\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_58 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_58\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Slow-growing U.S. green card caps, delays and waste have characterized the system for a century, and are only worsening under politically polarized immigration laws.<\/p>\n<p>At a Friday, March 1 Ethnic Media Services briefing, immigration policy experts discussed how we have reached our present crisis, economically sound solutions and the human cost of our current system.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A century of green card caps<\/h2>\n<p>In 2024, 1.1 million people are expected to receive green cards from 35 million pending applications. In other terms, only about 3% of the people who have submitted green card applications will receive permanent status.<\/p>\n<p>This low approval rate owes not to the convoluted process of applying for a green card but to green card caps, said David J. Bier, Associate Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute. Until 1922, when backlogs began, about \u201c98% of the applicants who tried to get the then-equivalent of legal permanent residence were approved.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-video-replacer\" data-id=\"undefined\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"UgxM9ZDkVM0\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget2\" title=\"\u201cYou\u2019ve Got to Increase Legal Immigration to Get the Border Under Control\u201d\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UgxM9ZDkVM0?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>David J. Bier, Associate Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, explains why increasing legal immigration is key to solving the border crisis.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By the mid-1920s, the approval rate was about 50% due to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/milestones\/1921-1936\/immigration-act#:~:text=The%20Immigration%20Act%20of%201924%20limited%20the%20number%20of%20immigrants,of%20the%201890%20national%20census.\">Immigration Act of 1924<\/a>, setting \u201cvery low numerical limits based on country of birth, particularly restricting legal immigration from Eastern Europe and Asia. In the early \u201830s, we adopted a later phased-out public charge rule that banned almost all applicants,\u201d explained Bier. Approvals remained below 20% during and after World War II, \u201cand this is how we got from open borders to what we have now, which is almost closed borders \u2014 a 98% approval rate down to 3% for the last few years.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26804\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 920px) 100vw, 920px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1.png 920w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1-768x554.png 768w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1-150x108.png 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-1-696x502.png 696w\" alt=\"Green card applications in 2019 and 2023-24. (Credit: David Bier \/ The Cato Institute.)\" width=\"920\" height=\"664\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Green card applications in 2019 and 2023-24. (Credit: David Bier \/ The Cato Institute.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Despite the fact that green card applications have more than tripled from about 10 million in 1996 to 35 million now, modern caps \u2014 which were originally set by the Immigration Act of 1990 \u2014 have barely risen, from 357,000 annually in 1922 to just over 575,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe caps are arbitrarily determined by the President in consultation with Congress, they have no basis in reality,\u201d said Bier.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. population growth \u2014 which was 0.1% in 2021 and has been roughly 0.25% this decade so far \u2014 has never been lower.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if after accepting the 35 million pending green cards, we increased ongoing legal immigration five-fold, we still wouldn\u2019t catch up to Canada\u2019s foreign-born population share,\u201d Bier added. \u201cThe U.S. is a huge country, there\u2019s no reason population wise we can\u2019t welcome these people.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26805\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 944px) 100vw, 944px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2.png 944w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2-150x113.png 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2-696x522.png 696w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2-80x60.png 80w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-2-265x198.png 265w\" alt=\"Annual U.S. average population growth by decade. (Credit: David Bier \/ The Cato Institute.)\" width=\"944\" height=\"708\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Annual U.S. average population growth by decade. (Credit: David Bier \/ The Cato Institute.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The economics<\/h2>\n<p>Clearing green card backlogs by welcoming more legal immigrants makes major economic sense, said Jack Malde, a senior immigration and workforce policy analyst at Bipartisan Policy Center.<\/p>\n<p>As 89% of the employment-based backlog involves people currently in the U.S. on temporary, work-restricted visas, \u201cremoving those labor market restrictions allows them to advance in their likely higher-skilled careers,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-video-replacer\" data-id=\"undefined\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"tEtkJ9G8k70\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget4\" title=\"Health and Human Services Report Shows Refugees Have Positive Net Impact on the Economy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tEtkJ9G8k70?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Jack Malde, Senior Policy Analyst, Immigration and Workforce Policy at Bipartisan Policy Center, discusses the importance of changing the narrative on immigration and ensuring Americans have an accurate understanding of how it impacts the United States.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOn the other hand, most of the family-based backlog are currently outside of the country, so green cards would allow them to contribute to our economy by paying taxes and entering our labor force, which is in dire need of new workers with shortages across industries and an aging population dependent on federal benefits,\u201d Malde continued<\/p>\n<p>As of March 2023 the employment-based adult backlog is 1.4 million (1.8 million total, across ages) and the family-based adult backlog is 4 million (5.8 million total), per a Bipartisan Policy Center\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bipartisanpolicy.org\/report\/green-light-to-growth-estimating-the-economic-benefits-of-clearing-green-card-backlogs\/\">report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What would be the final gain?<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-26806\" src=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-1024x572.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-150x84.png 150w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-696x389.png 696w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3-1068x597.png 1068w, https:\/\/ethnicmediaservices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Green-card-3.png 1310w\" alt=\"Employment-based and family-based green card backlogs as of March 2023. (Credit: Jack Malde \/ Bipartisan Policy Center.)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Employment-based and family-based green card backlogs as of March 2023. (Credit: Jack Malde \/ Bipartisan Policy Center.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Clearing current employment and family-based backlogs, not including future ones, would result in a moderate projection of $3.9 trillion in GDP gains in the next 10 years \u2014 though as low as $2.8 trillion or as high as $4.9 trillion.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. immigrants who arrive at age 25 as high school dropouts have a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/white-paper\/fiscal-impact-immigration-united-states#executive-summary\">net fiscal impact<\/a>\u00a0of +$216,000, not including descendants, which reduces their net fiscal impact to +$57,000. By comparison, American-born dropouts of the same age have a net fiscal impact of \u2212$32,000 that drops to \u2212$177,000 including their descendants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a mistaken perception that there are a fixed number of jobs in the economy,\u201d said Malde. \u201cWhen immigrants enter the country, they create more jobs for U.S.-born workers, because they contribute their skills.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The human cost<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cWorking legal immigrants and their children are in danger of falling out of status in a never-ending limbo,\u201d said Cyrus Mehta, an immigration lawyer and founding and managing partner of Cyrus D. Mehta &amp; Partners.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-video-replacer\" data-id=\"undefined\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"M-tTzjATvLM\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"widget6\" title=\"Immigrants Turning Away From United States Due to Lifetime Backlogs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M-tTzjATvLM?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" width=\"100%\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Cyrus Mehta, Immigration Lawyer and the Founder and Managing Partner of Cyrus D. Mehta &amp; Partners, discusses green card application backlogs and their longterm impact on immigration to the United States.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Employee-sponsored temporary visas like an H1 \u201cget them in backlogs that last forever with extension after extension as non immigrants bound to employers, and in the process, the US loses,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey get frustrated and go to countries with much more attractive immigration benefits and systems, like Canada, and so the US may not be able to maintain its world leadership with respect to attracting the best and brightest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alongside spouses, the children of these sponsored immigrants get temporary H4 visas until 21, when they\u2019ll most likely age out \u201cdue to horrendous backlogs,\u201d Mehta explained. Even if the child gets a student F1 visa for college, \u201cit requires them to have a non-immigrant intent to return to the foreign country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, there\u2019s an H1 cap for employees with U.S. master\u2019s degrees if the child continues to graduate school \u2014 and if the child is lucky enough to get one, they start the green card process again. The parent\u2019s priority date cannot be transferred.<\/p>\n<p>As a policy fix, Mehta suggested counting unified family units rather than discrete family members for caps in the employment and family-based categories, or allowing temporary visa holders already in the U.S. to file for early status adjustment before their priority date, so their children\u2019s ages are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uscis.gov\/green-card\/green-card-processes-and-procedures\/child-status-protection-act-cspa\">frozen<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut you can imagine what an unworkable, untenable, unhuman system this whole thing is, especially for a child who has been here for their whole life,\u201d he said. \u201cTo free up visas, bipartisan agreement from Congress is hard, this issue is politically fraught \u2026 but once you show that an administrative policy is successful, then Congress may someday bless it. Parole is one example.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BySelen Ozturk Mar 6, 2024 Slow-growing&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63187,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63186\/revisions\/63187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}