{"id":652,"date":"2013-04-21T16:22:45","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T16:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refugeeresearch.net\/ms\/km\/?p=652"},"modified":"2013-04-21T16:22:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-21T16:22:45","slug":"caribbean-and-african-immigrants-getting-blocked-in-new-us-immigration-reform-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refugeeresearch.net\/ms\/km\/2013\/04\/21\/caribbean-and-african-immigrants-getting-blocked-in-new-us-immigration-reform-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Caribbean and African Immigrants Getting Blocked In New US Immigration Reform Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Immigration<\/a><\/h1>\n

The new immigration reform bill only betters the plight of Mexican border jumpers<\/p>\n

AFRICANGLOBE<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Black lawmakers and civil rights groups are concerned by a proposal in the Senate\u2019s immigration reform bill that would do away with \u201cdiversity\u201d visas that are often a pathway for African and Caribbean immigrants to enter the United States.<\/p>\n

Advocates said they haven\u2019t seen evidence yet that a new merit-based program is an acceptable replacement for the diversity visas, which total 55,000 each year and are granted via a lottery.<\/p>\n

Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau, said he is telling lawmakers not to eliminate the diversity program when comprehensive immigration reform moves forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we are urging lawmakers not to eliminate the diversity visa program,\u201d Shelton told reporters. \u201cThis is one of the places in the bill that needs to be addressed. We will work with our friends in the Senate, and we have started working with our friends in the House as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), co-chairman of the immigration task force for the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), called the Senate bill \u201ca significant step in the right direction\u201d but said his caucus is worried about the plan to eliminate diversity visas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to the abolishment of the diversity visa lottery program, the CBC is extremely concerned that it might limit the future flow of immigration for people from certain parts of the world,\u201d Jeffries said. \u201cThat\u2019s troublesome, and we\u2019re evaluating the merit-based visa proposal to determine if it\u2019s fair and balanced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diversity program makes 55,000 visas available each year to countries with low immigration rates to the United States. Those awarded the visas are chosen by a lottery, with about half typically going to African immigrants.<\/p>\n

Republican lawmakers have targeted the program in the past for elimination, arguing the program\u2019s lottery system can lead to fraud and undermine national security.<\/p>\n

The Senate bill proposes ending the diversity visas in 2015 and creating a new, merit-based visa program. It would make 120,000 visas available per year, rising to a maximum of 250,000, depending on the need for them and the unemployment rate. Immigrants would earn points toward visas based on their education, employment, family ties and other criteria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jury is still out on whether the merit-based visas will be sufficient to address the concerns we have identified with diversity visas,\u201d said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. \u201cWe are concerned but we are still looking, and we are still making a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some groups are furious with lawmakers for putting the diversity program on the chopping block.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a zero-sum game where we take from one to give to another. That is not how comprehensive immigration reform should work,\u201d said Bertha Lewis, president of\u00a0The Black Institute<\/a>. \u201cWe are really, really angry about this diversity visa business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries said it was \u201ctoo early to say\u201d whether he would support the Senate bill without changes. The CBC is in talks with lawmakers negotiating a House immigration overhaul, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is still very much in flux, and we won\u2019t know until the end of the month what that bill might ultimately look like,\u201d Jeffries said.<\/p>\n

Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), another co-chairman of the CBC\u2019s immigration task force, said the group met on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the diversity visa issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to be concerned about the discontinuation of the diversity waiver, and the fact that \u2026 African and Caribbean immigrants who are participating in the diversity visa [program] per year could lose that pathway,\u201d Horsford said.<\/p>\n

Horsford said CBC leaders have been in talks with immigration reform negotiators in both the House and the Senate. He suggested the merit-based replacement program was included in the Senate bill at the urging of the CBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn large part, this alternative has been proposed because of our concerns with the diversity visa [discontinuation]. Meaning, we brought this issue up when we heard that it was being talked about [being] eliminated,\u201d Horsford said. \u201cAnd we said, \u2018Look, without some meaningful alternative that ensures that all communities, including Caribbean and African immigrants, are protected, then, you know, we [the CBC] would have major concern.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Horsford said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), another leader of the CBC\u2019s immigration task force, has been in talks with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate\u2019s \u201cGang of Eight,\u201d about diversity visas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now that we have the language, and now that we can see the alternative specifically, we can, you know, begin to work on how it affects our communities,\u201d Horsford said.<\/p>\n

Horsford said he expected the House immigration reform bill would have similar language related to diversity visas and the merit-based replacement program.<\/p>\n

Shelton of the NAACP said he was hoping for \u201ca strengthening\u201d of the diversity visa program in the immigration reform bill by increasing its numbers of visas and expediting their processing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has not been demonstrated yet that the merit-based visas that are being lifted up will solve the problems that diversity visas were intended to solve,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cThere may be a need for an amendment to fix this problem in the future to help African and Caribbean immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By: Kevin Bogardus and Russell Berman\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new immigration reform bill only betters the plight of Mexican border jumpers AFRICANGLOBE\u00a0\u2013 Black lawmakers and civil rights groups are concerned by a proposal in the Senate\u2019s immigration reform bill that would do away with \u201cdiversity\u201d visas that are often a pathway for African and Caribbean immigrants to enter the United States. Advocates said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-migration-headlines"],"yoast_head":"\nCaribbean and African Immigrants Getting Blocked In New US Immigration Reform Bill - Knowledge Migration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/refugeeresearch.net\/ms\/km\/2013\/04\/21\/caribbean-and-african-immigrants-getting-blocked-in-new-us-immigration-reform-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Caribbean and African Immigrants Getting Blocked In New US Immigration Reform Bill - Knowledge Migration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new immigration reform bill only betters the plight of Mexican border jumpers AFRICANGLOBE\u00a0\u2013 Black lawmakers and civil rights groups are concerned by a proposal in the Senate\u2019s immigration reform bill that would do away with \u201cdiversity\u201d visas that are often a pathway for African and Caribbean immigrants to enter the United States. 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