{"id":24953,"date":"2021-09-07T14:29:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T18:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24953"},"modified":"2021-09-07T14:29:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T18:29:25","slug":"lobby-pushing-more-legal-immigrants-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/09\/07\/lobby-pushing-more-legal-immigrants-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigration Lobby Cries Over Visas \u2018Lost Forever\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
In the midst of the persistent COVID pandemic and high jobless rates, immigration enthusiasts are pressing the Biden administration to approve more employment and family-based visas<\/a>.\u00a0Upset that 262,000 visas might go unallotted\u00a0this year, they demand action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The American Immigration\nCouncil (AIC) warns, \u201cmost of those additional visas \u2026 could be lost forever\nunless Congress decides to make them available to current-day green card\napplicants.\u201d Good luck with that, given Congress\u2019 virtually inert condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In their alarm, AIC and allied groups such as the libertarian Cato Institute<\/a> sound like little boys crying wolf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services<\/a> (USCIS) has gone into overdrive. Since Joe Biden took office, it had completed 732,000 citizenship naturalizations as of Aug. 13, putting the agency on a pace to reach pre-pandemic levels. Meantime, visa denial rates<\/a> have declined sharply, from 28.6 percent last year to 7.1 percent this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biden administration also has lifted several coronavirus-related visa restrictions<\/a> imposed by Donald Trump. Other measures taken by the administration include boosting refugee admissions, and scrapping public-charge rules that denied green cards to immigrants who might use Medicaid and taxpayer-funded services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If employment-based visas fall short of pre-COVID levels this year, there are sound reasons for that. With 45.1 million<\/a> working-age immigrants and native-born Americans unemployed, it is risible to argue that still more foreign workers are needed at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n