Bad news for People applying for Green cards in USA
Ritika Bhoora
Around 300,000 primary Indian applicants are waiting for employment-based Green Cards in USA. If we take into account the dependents of the primary applicants and others this number rises to around 1.5 Million.
The uncertainty of the Green Card, which could take decades at the current rate — over 100 years for new applicants, by some estimates — has been worsened by the Trump administration’s determination to rescind an Obama-era rule allowing dependents of those in queue which benefited mostly Indians.
Children turning 21, that were born outside and before their parents came to US, will be forced to get Independent US visas if their parents don’t get their Green cards on time.
While the future of those children that were born in US also seems uncertain. The US is among the few countries that grants citizenship to anyone born on its soil. This a right guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the Constitution enacted after the American Civil War. Trump has said he plans to nullify that right with an executive order. “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the US for 85 years, with all of those benefits,” he was earlier recorded to have said in an interview on Tuesday.
On Wednesday Trump said, “So-called birthright citizenship, which costs our Country billions of dollars and is very unfair to our citizens, will be ended one way or the other. It is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’.”
The word jurisdiction and it’s interpretation is debated and argued upon since a long time. If Trump presses ahead, the order will most likely be challenged in court.
