By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Joe Biden has promised to support family-based immigration system and streamlining processing for religious worker visas, reform the H-1B visa system, and eliminate the country-quota for the United States Green Card.
The Democratic Party presidential candidate made the pledge as part of his pitch to beat President Donald Trump in the election on November 3.
Trump has all but blocked immigration to the U.S. up to the end of 2020. Nigeria was included on the list in February.
But even if Biden is elected, Nigeria may not immediately benefit from his pledge, as President Muhammadu Buhari himself has acknowledged that overturning the ban on Nigerians will take “enormous resources.”
Nigeria was among six countries in an expanded version of Trump’s travel ban, announced in January, which blocked their citizens from obtaining U.S. visas that can lead to permanent residency.
U.S. officials cited issues such as sub-par passport technology and failure to sufficiently exchange information on terrorism suspects and criminals.
Interior Minister Ogbeni Aregbesola asked the U.S. ambassador in Abuja to drop the ban, but also chaired a committee to address U.S. concerns.
Buhari said in a statement issued in Abuja that after suggestions from a report by the committee, they had “fully resolved” two out of six U.S. concerns, “substantially satisfied” two others and had made “some progress” on the last two.
He explained that they were still drafting a “workable plan” for the report’s full suggestions, which require “enormous resources.”
“I am delighted that this progress, especially the uploading of Lost and Stolen Passport and Travel Documents, has been acknowledged by the United States Government,” Buhari said.
Buhari said Nigeria would harmonise citizen identification data held by different parts of government, create a national criminal management system modelled on INTERPOL and start a national criminal DNA laboratory.
His statement did not specify what Nigeria had done already.
Nigerians can still obtain visas for study, work and travel in the United States, but, in the 2018 fiscal year, just 8,000 Nigerians obtained immigrant visas.
Visa system reform
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
Companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. Citizens of other countries, including Nigeria, also get the H-1B visa.
In a major policy document for Indian-Americans, the Joe Biden Campaign also said steps would be taken to stem the rising tide of hate and bigotry, address the security needs of house of worship, eliminate language barriers and honour the diversity and contributions of Indian-Americans.
There are 1.3 million eligible Indian-American voters across eight battleground states.
Biden will support family-based immigration and preserve family unification as a core principle of the immigration system, which includes reducing the family visa backlog, his campaign said.
“He will increase the number of visas offered for permanent, work-based immigration based on macroeconomic conditions and exempt from any cap recent graduates of PhD programmes in STEM fields,” the campaign added.
“And, he will support first reforming the temporary visa system for high-skill, specialty jobs to protect wages and workers, then expanding the number of visas offered and eliminating the limits on employment-based Green Cards by country, which have kept so many Indian families in waiting for too long.”
According to the policy document, Biden will restore and defend the naturalisation process for Green Card holders. A Green Card allows a non-US citizen to live and work permanently in America.
“He will increase the number of refugees we welcome into this country by setting the annual global refugee admissions target to 125,000 and seek to raise it over time to commensurate with our responsibility, our values, and the unprecedented global need.
“He will also work with Congress to establish a minimum admissions number of 95,000 refugees annually.
“Biden will remove the uncertainty for Dreamers by reinstating the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) programme and explore all legal options to protect their families from inhumane separation.”
It said Biden will end workplace raids and protect other sensitive locations from immigration enforcement actions.
Muslim ban reversal
As a largely immigrant community, but in some cases with American roots reaching back generations, Indian-Americans know firsthand the strength and resilience that immigrants bring to the U.S., the campaign said.
“But … Trump has waged an unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants. It’s wrong, and it stops when Biden is president.”
“Biden will rescind Trump’s Muslim ban on day one and reverse the detrimental asylum policies that are causing chaos and a humanitarian crisis at our border.”
“He will immediately begin working with Congress to pass legislative immigration reform that modernises our system, with a priority on keeping families together by providing a roadmap to citizenship for nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants – including more than 500,000 from India.”
Indian-Americans of all backgrounds – Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Jain, and others – have been subjected to bullying and xenophobic attacks and need now, more than ever, a reassurance that the leaders in Washington will have their backs, the campaign said.
During the Obama-Biden administration, the FBI expanded its hate crime statistics programme to include Sikhs, Hindus, and Buddhists.
Biden promised that as president, he will directly address the rise in hateful attacks and enact legislation prohibiting someone convicted of a hate crime from purchasing or possessing a firearm.
“Biden will appoint leaders at the Department of Justice who will prioritise the prosecution of hate crimes, and he will order his Justice Department to focus additional resources to combat hate crimes – including religion-based hate crimes – and to confront white nationalist terrorism,” the campaign said.
“He will also seek legislation that increases the potential sentence for certain hate crimes that occur in houses of worship and other religious community sites, such as gurudwaras, mandirs, temples, and mosques.
“And, he will use his executive power to ensure that the Department of Justice pursues such heinous acts of violence against houses of worship to the fullest extent of the law.”
The campaign recalled that in 2012, the Sikh community suffered a terrible tragedy when a white supremacist opened fire in an Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing seven and wounding four.
It also recalled that in January 2019, a Hindu temple was the victim of a horrific act of vandalism and destruction, with windows shattered and xenophobic messages spray-painted across the walls.
