Speech #1100052894

That means a lot of family gets cut off. The rights of U.S. citizens get cut off as well. Right now. the legislation also says that if you overstayed a visa or came to this country without proper documentation before January 1. 2007. you can ultimately become a lawful. permanent resident between the 9th and 13th year of the process that the bill describes. But if you applied for a visa outside of the country and you applied by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and you followed the rules. there is nonoguarantee you will ever be able to be reunified with your family. Our amendment would remedy this injustice by moving the cutoff date for those who legally applied for visas to January 1. 2007 the same cutoff date that is currently set for the legalization of undocumented immigrants. And we would add the appropriate number of green cards to ensure we dont create a new backlog or cause the 8year deadline for clearing the family backlog to slip by a few years. So we stay within the framework of the underlying bill. we just bring justice and fairness to the bill for those who have obeyed the law. followed the rules. and aie the family members of U.S. citizens. Now. why shouldnt legal applicants be able to keep their place in line if they applied before January of 2007? Clearly. this legislation. as it is currently written. is unfair to those who legally applied for a visa. The legislation unfairly says that those who followed the rules. lose their place in line. The legislation unfairly says that those who followed the rules will have to wait at least an additional 8 years before they even become eligible to coin pe teeligibl e to competefor a new proposed meritbased green card. The legislation unfairly says that those who followed the rules would have to wait a total of 10 years in addition to the time they have been waitingin addition to the time they have been waitingbefore they are eligible to compete under a new and different system. with a different set of rules. and no guarantee they will ever be able to be reunited with their family member. that U.S. citizen or permanent resident. Clearly. at a minimum. we should allow those who played by the rules to have the same cutoff date of Now. not only is it unfair to make people who follow the rules wait longer than those who chose not to. it is also wrong to make people who applied under our current system have to reapply under a totally different one. Those who applied on May 1. 2005. or after. applied under our current immigration system that values family ties and employment at a premium. unlike under this bill. would now be subject to a completely different standard that is primarily concerned with education and skill levels. This is like changing the rules of the game halfway through it. People who applied after May 2005 would not only lose credit for the up to 2 years they have been waiting under the legal process. they would also have to apply under a completely different system than the one under which they originally applied.