New Delhi: Set-backing the 12 million illegal immigrants, the US Senate has derailed a landmark Immigration Bill which would have paved the way for regularisation of their status.
The senators voted 53 to 46 against keeping the Bill alive. Bipartisan backers of the measure fell well short of the 60-vote super-majority needed to move the Bill.
The severe blow to the Comprehensive Immigration legislation has raised serious questions on the future of the more than 12 million illegal immigrants, including Indians.
The Senate had on Tuesday voted 64-35 to resume debate on the bill, which ties tough border security and workplace enforcement measures to a plan to legalise illegal immigrants.
Political analysts believe that lawmakers will now be disinclined to take up the controversial bill before the Presidential elections of 2008.
Of interest and concern to India were not only the potential implications on the family unifications via the green card but also the expectation of a spike in the numbers of the H-1B from 65,000 to 115,000 with built in annual increases.
One perception is that the current scheme of things on the H-1B and the L-1 visas will continue to remain until such time a comprehensive Immigration Bill is passed on Capitol Hill, but the other view is that the tough amendments on the H-1B and the L-1 visas could be taken up as "standalone" legislations in the months to come.
Max Gleischman, an immigration policy advisor to Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat from Illinois was qouted as saying in a media report that a standalone bi-partisan H-1B and L-1 anti-fraud bill introduced in April by Durbin and Sen Chuck Grassley, Republican from Iowa is currently "still in the Senate judiciary committee which could bring the bill up again."
According to the InformationWeek, technology vendors, which have been lobbying Washington policy makers for several years to raise the H-1B cap, say not all hope is dead on their side either.
Several bi-partisan bills introduced in recent months, including the SKIL bill, to raise the cap area are also still potential relief for employers who say they are finding it hard to hire tech talent with very specific degrees and talent, it is being pointed out.
"As long as Congress is in session and there's a light on Washington, we'll be making the our concerns for skilled worker relief known," said Robert Hoffman, VP for government affairs at Oracle and co-chair of Compete America, a coalition of tech companies and educators pushing for employer-based immigration reforms, including raising the H-1B cap.
"We're not putting a stop clock on ourselves," Hoffman said.
Even if a standalone bill raising the H-1B cap is unlikely to move forward prior to the presidential election in November 2008, it's possible the cap could be raised as part of an appropriation bill by the end of this year, he said.
That's what happened in 2004 when Congress created the H-1B exemption for 20,000 foreign students who get advanced degrees from US universities, said Hoffman.
(Inputs from Agency)
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