Different Green Card Recapture Proposals Offer Wildly Divergent Outcomes

David J. BierThis Congress has shown increased interest in increasing the green card limits by “recapturing” the number of green card cap numbers that went unused under the annual immigration caps in prior years largely caused by bureaucratic delays. But Congress has not arrived at a uniform approach. Instead, members are proposing legislation that adopts wildly divergent approaches to re covering lost green card numbers.Table 1 shows the number of unused green cards in each category since the current green card allotment system took effect in 1992. The number of unused immigration slots available for “recapture” under the annual numerical limits could reach about 2.21 million, depending on what is included and over what period. This includes about 561,000 family-based numbers, 582,000 employment-based numbers, 491,000 employment-based numbers that were “recaptured” by Congress but initia lly went unused again, 151,000 diversity lottery numbers, and 423,000 refugee slots. Table 3 at the end of this post provides the full data on caps, used, and unused numbers.H.R.1177/S.348 - U.S. Citizenship Act:TheU.S. Citizenship Act—the bill that President Biden ' s team had a role in drafting —would recapture 1.6 million unused family, employment, and employment recapture green cards from 1992 to 2021, 73 percent of the maximum available (Table 2). If these visas were unused at the end of the fiscal year in which they were recaptured, they would pass from family to employ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs