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Indian-American Representative Ro Khanna has been a strong advocate for the EAGLE Act, which aims to alleviate the green card backlog faced by immigrants, particularly those from India. This bipartisan legislation seeks to eliminate the per-country limit on employment-based green cards and increase the limit on family-sponsored green cards from 7% to 15%. By doing so, it could potentially ease the backlog that ensnares hundreds of thousands of immigrants, predominantly from India and China.
Khanna emphasized the economic advantages of removing per-country green card limits, highlighting its potential to address the longstanding backlog experienced by immigrants, particularly those from India, who are seeking permanent residency in the United States. Despite his efforts to include the EAGLE Act in this year’s US National Defense Authorization Act (NDA), the Republican supermajority on the committee opposed it, resulting in disappointment as the House chose not to advance the bill for a vote.
The Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment (EAGLE) Act aims to address the lengthy wait times faced by immigrants, who are seeking permanent residency in the United States. The current employment-based green card backlog exceeds 1 million, primarily impacting Indian and Chinese applicants. By eliminating per-country caps, the EAGLE Act aims to ease these wait times.
While the Biden administration supports the EAGLE Act, significant steps to accelerate its passage through Congress have not yet been taken.
