- If 150,000 family-sponsored visas
and 100,000 employment-based visas go unused this year,
then are they just being wasted?
We have some important news for you today.
Last week, a federal judge in Texas
rule that DACA was created illegally,
effectively preventing new applications
from being accepted,
and calling into question the future of the program.
And earlier this week,
the Department of State and USCIS received accusations
that they were wasting hundreds of thousands of employments
and family-based visas.
We are going to cover all the details right now.
Make sure you stay tuned until the end
to hear how this might affect your case.
And if this is your first time on my channel,
please be sure to subscribe and like this video.
What was the bad news about DACA?
On Friday, July 16th, a federal judge in Texas
ruled that the DACA program is illegal
and has effectively prevented
the Department of Homeland Security
from approving new applications.
While this does not immediately impact the 600,000 Dreamers
who are currently protected underneath DACA,
it does stop approximately 80,000 applications
that are pending right now.
Those who already have DACA
will be able to renew their DACA status.
But anyone who has not received
an initial grant of DACA already
will be prevented from having their application processed.
To put this decision into context,
it is estimated that more than 1.3 million people
inside the US are potentially eligible for DACA
more than double the number of people
who are already covered by it.
The judge who issued this decision
is Texas District Court Judge, Andrew Hanen,
who was appointed by former president George W Bush,
and is described as one of the most anti-immigration judges
inside the US.
Hanen has voiced his opposition to DACA for years,
and its recent decision has been expected for months.
President Biden has promised to appeal the decision
in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,
but it is a notoriously conservative court.
And the Supreme Court also features
a six to three conservative majority
if the case does ends up there.
Nobody knows what the outcome of this appeal will be,
so pressure is mounting for a more permanent solution.
The easiest fix of course,
would be for Congress to pass a law.
But over the past decade,
every DACA related bill
has been opposed in the Senate.
As we discussed in a separate video,
the American Dream and Promise Act
provides a pathway for citizenship to Dreamers.
And it passed the house of Representatives in 2019,
and, again in March of this year.
But it currently has no chance of passing the Senate.
The more realistic chance that Dreamers have
of gaining citizenship is by including it
in the upcoming budget reconciliation package
that we discussed in my previous video.
Doing so would allow Senate Democrats
to pass a permit solution for DACA
with a simple majority of 50 votes,
bypassing a Republican filibuster.
So, what is my opinion and my take on this?
I am hoping that this is what is going to be the final straw
that breaks the camel's back
and finally gets Congress
to do something permanent for Dreamers.
As we can see,
the DACA was never actually meant to be
a permanent solution, but rather it gaps up measure.
And as the courts and the president
previously has been playing around with the future of DACA,
it grows more and more apparent every day
that we must have a permanent solution today.
Before we move on any further,
we spent a lot of time putting this video together,
so if you're enjoying watching the content that I bring,
please do me a favor and subscribe to my channel,
and give this video a thumbs up.
Okay, next, are US visas being wasted
by the Department of State?
On Monday, July 19th,
the monthly live stream of the Bureau of Consular Affairs
received an unusually high number of dislikes.
And the comments were filled with visa applicants
who were claiming that USCIS and the Department of State
were actually wasting hundreds of thousands of visas.
The outcry was made in response
to a comment made by Charlie Oppenheim,
who is the chief of Visa Control and Reporting Division
at the Department of State,
which is the office responsible
for compiling the Visa Bulletin and posting it online.
Charlie was asked to comment on the unused family-sponsored
and employment-based visas for the fiscal year 2021,
and here's what he had to say.
- I can tell you there's been a significant increase
in the amount of family-sponsored number used
in our overseas posts during the past two months.
And therefore, I have lowered my previous estimate
of unused family numbers slightly.
And now believe there'll be approximately 150,000
unused family numbers.
On the employment side, the USCIS use of employment numbers
continues to increase.
It's may not be at the levels many people would like,
but it is increasing and they're doing their best.
But I do believe there could be approximately 100,000
unused employment numbers.
- If 150,000 family-sponsored visas
and 100,000 employment-based visas go unused this year,
then are they just being wasted?
As some of you may already know,
unused family-based visas are carried over
and added to the employment visa limit the following year
and vice versa.
This way, all the visas are eventually used
and none go to waste.
My guest is that some of the viewers
didn't know how this works,
and that is why they commented the way that they did.
They accused USCIS and the State's Department
of wasting hundreds of thousands of visa this year,
even though this is not actually true.
However, there is a flaw in the system
that results in lost green cards every year.
The system works as it should
when it comes to employment-based visas.
Each fiscal year, the limit is calculated as 140,000
plus the number of family-based green cards
that went unused the year before.
But the family-based category is different.
The limit is calculated as 480,000
minus the number of immediate relatives who were admitted,
plus the number of employment-based green cards
that went unused the year before.
If the total is less than the baseline of 226,000,
then the following year,
the number of family based green cards
is automatically set to 226,000.
And the number of immediate relatives has been high.
High enough to keep the family-based annual cap
at the minimum of 226 for the past 20 years.
The thing is, Congress is able to recapture
these green cards and has done so before.
If they were to recapture all the green cards
that have been lost since 1992,
it would provide an additional 220,000
previously unused green cards
that could be used immediately to help fix the visa backlog.
The process for doing so already exists in law,
Congress just needs the will to enforce it.
What do you think?
Will USCIS or the Biden administration
actually do something to fix the visa backlog?
Leave a comment below and let me know.
If you saw my previous video,
you already know that the Department of Homeland Security
released a $52 billion funding bill
that would supposedly allow unused family
and employment-based visas to be carried over into 2022.
Charlie refused to comment on it
on the Bureau of Consular Affairs' livestream,
but he did acknowledge it.
So I will include a link to that video here
for those who haven't seen it.
I will also continue releasing new videos
as news becomes available.
So, if you have not subscribed yet
and wants to know about the latest immigration news,
please be sure to follow me here.
Check this video out here and I'll see you soon.