We are excited to share with you that H.R.1044/S.386 - The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act is expected to be brought up in the Senate by Unanimous Consent (UC) on Thursday, September 19th.

We are grateful to the Senator Mike Lee and Senator Kamala Harris for leading Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act in the Senate. Senator Harris and Lee have led the negotiation with Senator Paul to find a reasonable compromise. And we are very happy to share that an agreement has been reached so Senator Paul has agreed to remove his hold on the bill. Under this agreement, Schedule-A shortage workers identified by the Department of Labor will receive a set-aside of 5,000 green cards per year for the next nine (9) years. We think that this is an extremely fair agreement and we applaud all parties to this negotiation for further improving a very good bill. Schedule-A workers currently receive around 5,000 green cards every year, and this agreement will be consistent with the current demand for this specific classification of workers, which makes this agreement reasonable and fair.

As a result, we expect that the Senate will UC Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren’s bill H.R.1044, which already passed the House with 365 bipartisan votes. During the UC process, the Senate will amend H.R.1044 to improve the bill with the language from Senator Durbin and Senator Grassley’s bill for worker protections, plus, Senator Paul’s amendment to allocate specific visas for Schedule-A workers.

We are extremely grateful to Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren for her leadership, plus 224 House Democrats Members who voted for the bill in July. We are also extremely grateful to Ranking Member Ken Buck for leading the bill in the House, plus 140 House Republican Members who voted for the bill around two months back.

As you are probably aware, it is illegal under labor law for employers to discriminate on national origin during the hiring process. However, once an employer has hired an employee for a job and sponsored the employee for a Green Card for that very same job (where national origin discrimination is illegal), suddenly employees born in specific countries are forced to wait up to 150 years for green cards (http://bit.ly/150yrwait). Not only does any human being has no control over their country of birth, but a person’s country of birth has no bearing on their ability to do their job. Apart from being clearly discriminatory and irrational, the current Per-country caps paradoxically result in the United States discriminating against better paid and higher qualified immigrants (http://bit.ly/higherpaid).

The lengthy wait times for tax-paying law-abiding skilled immigrants from certain countries is the result of antiquated Per-country caps on employment-based Green Cards, which have no meaning in an egalitarian society where the value a person brings to the table has nothing to do with immutable factors like race, gender, sexual orientation or country of birth. There is a wide-spread bi-partisan consensus that these unfair and arbitrary country-caps must go. The fact that the bill H.R.1044 has over 311 bi-partisan co-sponsors (http://bit.ly/hr1044cosponsors), including a majority of both political parties (and the majority of every Caucus in the House), is a testament to the bipartisanship and fairness of the bill.

Common people like us from across the country want Congress to pass sensible reform. And we are thankful for the bipartisan leadership of thirty-four (34) Senators without whose Cosponsorship (http://bit.ly/s386cosponsors) this bill would not get the necessary attention.

On behalf of a grateful community, we would like to relay our gratitude to Senator Lee and Senator Harris, along with Senator Cramer, Senator Moran, Senator Blunt, Senator Grassley, Senator Cotton, Senator Collins, Senator Carper, Senator Wyden, Senator Cantwell, Senator Gardner, Senator Baldwin, Senator Merkley, Senator Bennet, Senator Sinema, Senator Portman, Senator Wicker, Senator Lankford, Senator Duckworth, Senator Crapo, Senator McSally, Senator Braun, Senator Hoeven, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Coons, Senator Risch, Senator Jones, Senator Warner, Senator Young, Senator Romney, Senator Cornyn, Senator Ernst, Senator Murkowski, Senator Smith, and Senator Cortez Masto.

We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to the staff in all the Senate Offices. You have been kind and generous to give us your time and listen to our stories. And we cannot thank you enough for your service to the constituents.