S386 GOP Politics and Sen. Durbin

[qesehmk]

Let's use this thread to discuss S386, Unanimous Consent, and how IV may have inadvertently hurt EB-I community.

Context

S386 is a bill that primarily aims to remove country quota for EB green cards.
A very similar bill HR1044 is already approved in the congress.
S386 is waiting to be passed in the senate. If it does pass the senate then the two bills can be merged be made into a law.

Timeline

Feb 2019 HR1044 Introduced in the senate by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (DEM)
Feb 2019 S386 Introduced in the senate by Sen. Mike Lee (GOP)

July 2019 HR1044 passed by the House
July 2019 Sen. Rand Paul (GOP) opposes S386. Proposes a fixed quota amendment for healthcare workers.
July 2019 S386 Referred to the Judiciary Committe

? Sen. Lindsey Graham (GOP) asked for Unanimous Consent for S386 and did not want to spend too much time on it in the senate.
Sep 2019 Sen. Purdue (GOP) lifts his opposition to S386

Dec 2019 Sen. Durbin (DEM) and Sen. Lee (GOP) agreement on S386 and HR1044 (See clip )
Dec 2019 Durbin and Lee announce that S386 would not be put to vote since they do not believe the bill could muster enough votes.

Mar 2020 Sen. Lee announces more changes to the December agreement between him and Durbin
Mar 2020 AILA opposes S386 changes proposed by Sen. Lee

Jul 2020 Sen. Durbin declared that Democrats were on board with the December agreement with Lee.
Jul 2020 Sen. Durbin asked for Unanimous consent for 3 bills in this order viz. 1) his own version of S386 2) The dec agreement
with Lee 3) a narrow bill only removing aging out provision. All 3 versions were objected to by Sen. Lee.

Aug 2020 Sen. Durbin and Sen Lee agreed to a version jointly on the senate floor. Rick Scott (R) Florida, objected.

Current Status - S386 is yet to pass senate.

All along IV had painted Sen. Durbin (minority whip in the senate) as a racist senator opposed to S386. Even as of Aug 2020 IV continues to maintain the same position while disregarding the fact that Sen Durbin has helped the junior senator from UT come this far where they both agree on S386. But it GOP senator Rick Scott who is opposing.

Analysis

GOP chose a lightweight senator from Utah and asked for Unanimous consent for a such a contentious bill was a tell tale sign of GOP's intentions about S386. GOP did not honor their own senators agreement with Lee nor they were really interested in even a partial but critical amendment for "Aging out children". This establishes their position quite clear.
Historically speaking this fits GOP's anti immigrant pattern. The 2013 CIR was passed by democratic controlled senate but held back by GOP controlled congress. Currently the dem controlled congress has passed HR1044 but the GOP controlled senate is engaged in delaying tactics using unanimous consent.

Conclusion

It is amply clear that republicans' never had the intention of to pass S386.
They used Unanimous consent as a way delay this bill and pin the blame on Sen. Durbin. And later on they wasted time by making changes to the Dec. agreement.
Now that both Sen. Durbin and Lee have agreement on the record on Senate floor, another GOP senator objects on a very flimsy ground and asks for quotas based on language spoken (racist flag folks !!! ).
Unfortunately it seems IV can not see these games. Worse, IV is willing to be partisan and personal and that too with a senator who was one of the original architect of CIR.
IV is hurting EB-I immigrant community.

What Now

Regardless what IV does, it is important for backlogged EB-Indians to acknowledge both Sen Durbin and Sen Lee for their work.
It is critical that Indian EB backlogged community makes special effort to applaud Sen. Durbin.
I request IV to issue an apology to Sen. Durbin as well as to all EB-I backlogged folks.
Perfect is enemy of good. Before the year ends, and both S386 and HR1044 become permanent history, it is important to at least pass parts of S386 if not whole of it. It is important to push Sen. Lee in that direction and bring the bill to the table without waiting for his party's unanimous consent.
Please send emails to Rick Scott asking him to lift his demand.

[altek001]

Senator Tom Cotton has acknowledged the dire state of EB Immigrant visas pending during an MSNBC interview. It would a right on our part to send a note of thanks as he is a trusted advisor on Immigration policy along with Stephen Miller. He can be reached on his website for comments.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/0...hat-trump-said

[smuggymba]

Looks like Durbin has officially placed HOLD on S386. Damn. This guy is super racist towards indians.

[iatiam]

Looks like Durbin has officially placed HOLD on S386. Damn. This guy is super racist towards indians.

Yes, he is. If you have been involved in IV advocacy or gone to DC for meeting with lawmakers, you will know. Also, IV's current strategy to shame him and force him to remove the hold will backfire.

Iatiam

[jackbrown_890]

Yes, he is. If you have been involved in IV advocacy or gone to DC for meeting with lawmakers, you will know. Also, IV's current strategy to shame him and force him to remove the hold will backfire.

Iatiam

NO he is not. This is the reason I can't stand IV. Everyone on IV now saying that Durbin is Racist. You and I might not agree on his logic behind his hold on this bill. But just because of that you don't call a person racist. Also, everyone on IV telegram just got so sensitive all of a sudden. The guy laughed at a joke on paper GC and IV people/followers (like an angry mob) started calling him racist on all over social media. I think we need to start growing thick skin if we want to win this politically and sometimes take a joke as joke. If you can't take a joke, fight hard to convince the person that his logic is wrong. Not get distracted and start calling him/her racist OR start a fight with someone. Our focus should be to pass S386 not to fight a senator who is serving for 22+ years and call him/her racist publicly for something you disagree with. It appears to be more like a frustration move and not a well planned move.
The country CAP is definitely unfair to Indians right now. But it was introduced a long time ago and at that time there was no backlog. So the intent was not to discriminate against Indians. When you and I applied for this Green Card; the country cap was already in place long before that. So we either knew or were too naive to understand how the backlog is going to affect us Indian applicants. Now we do know it is unfair. So I agree it should be removed. But not because all the people who are opposing it are racists.
We need to convince Durbin that the system is unfair to Indians...the employment based GC should not be based on country of birth etc..make stronger argument... not call him racist. If we can't, that means the opposing team (ROW) is more persuasive than us.
This is just my opinion,,, you don't have to agree with it...

[iatiam]

NO he is not. This is the reason I can't stand IV. Everyone on IV now saying that Durbin is Racist. You and I might not agree on his logic behind his hold on this bill. But just because of that you don't call a person racist. Also, everyone on IV telegram just got so sensitive all of a sudden. The guy laughed at a joke on paper GC and IV people/followers (like an angry mob) started calling him racist on all over social media. I think we need to start growing thick skin if we want to win this politically and sometimes take a joke as joke. If you can't take a joke, fight hard to convince the person that his logic is wrong. Not get distracted and start calling him/her racist OR start a fight with someone. Our focus should be to pass S386 not to fight a senator who is serving for 22+ years and call him/her racist publicly for something you disagree with. It appears to be more like a frustration move and not a well planned move.
The country CAP is definitely unfair to Indians right now. But it was introduced a long time ago and at that time there was no backlog. So the intent was not to discriminate against Indians. When you and I applied for this Green Card; the country cap was already in place long before that. So we either knew or were too naive to understand how the backlog is going to affect us Indian applicants. Now we do know it is unfair. So I agree it should be removed. But not because all the people who are opposing it are racists.
We need to convince Durbin that the system is unfair to Indians...the employment based GC should not be based on country of birth etc..make stronger argument... not call him racist. If we can't, that means the opposing team (ROW) is more persuasive than us.
This is just my opinion,,, you don't have to agree with it...

Of course I don't agree with you because I have worked on the ground on advocacy events with IV at DC and I have first-hand info on him.

Iatiam

[jackbrown_890]

Of course I don't agree with you because I have worked on the ground on advocacy events with IV at DC and I have first-hand info on him.

Iatiam

I am not sure what First hand info IV is getting. As far as public sees, he has always been proponent of immigration. He still wants to increase total immigration. That would be great but not practical right now. He has worked across the aisle on comp. reform bills in the past. I don't see how he is racist from his opposition to this bill. again as i said, whoever briefed him might have presented wrong/half facts (knowingly or unknowingly) about this bill and we should focus on clarifying those. If we have 365 votes in the house from both parties, 34 senate co-sponsors; there has to be someone who can convince him to change his mind without going into discussion of comp. immigration reform.

[qesehmk]

Well said. Just because Dick Durbin doesn't agree with a bill does not make him racist. Just to keep things in perspective, Dick Durbin was the very first prominent politician to encourage Obama to run for President in 2008. He saw the talent and encouraged his junior senator from Illionois to run for President.

If you burn people like Dick Durbin then what chance you have to change opinions of real racist people who actually oppose browing of America? IV should careful not just with Durbin but with all leaders. In politics nothing is personal. They are only representing their constituents. That's why I say desi folks must win this fight in the hearts and minds of American people. Talk about the discrimination you face in GC process. If not today someday Americans will listen. And when they do ... the politicians will fall in line.

NO he is not. This is the reason I can't stand IV. Everyone on IV now saying that Durbin is Racist. You and I might not agree on his logic behind his hold on this bill. But just because of that you don't call a person racist. Also, everyone on IV telegram just got so sensitive all of a sudden. The guy laughed at a joke on paper GC and IV people/followers (like an angry mob) started calling him racist on all over social media. I think we need to start growing thick skin if we want to win this politically and sometimes take a joke as joke. If you can't take a joke, fight hard to convince the person that his logic is wrong. Not get distracted and start calling him/her racist OR start a fight with someone. Our focus should be to pass S386 not to fight a senator who is serving for 22+ years and call him/her racist publicly for something you disagree with. It appears to be more like a frustration move and not a well planned move.
The country CAP is definitely unfair to Indians right now. But it was introduced a long time ago and at that time there was no backlog. So the intent was not to discriminate against Indians. When you and I applied for this Green Card; the country cap was already in place long before that. So we either knew or were too naive to understand how the backlog is going to affect us Indian applicants. Now we do know it is unfair. So I agree it should be removed. But not because all the people who are opposing it are racists.
We need to convince Durbin that the system is unfair to Indians...the employment based GC should not be based on country of birth etc..make stronger argument... not call him racist. If we can't, that means the opposing team (ROW) is more persuasive than us.
This is just my opinion,,, you don't have to agree with it...

[iatiam]

I am not sure what First hand info IV is getting. As far as public sees, he has always been proponent of immigration. He still wants to increase total immigration. That would be great but not practical right now. He has worked across the aisle on comp. reform bills in the past. I don't see how he is racist from his opposition to this bill. again as i said, whoever briefed him might have presented wrong/half facts (knowingly or unknowingly) about this bill and we should focus on clarifying those. If we have 365 votes in the house from both parties, 34 senate co-sponsors; there has to be someone who can convince him to change his mind without going into discussion of comp. immigration reform.

Again, come over to a DC advocacy event and you will have first-hand info rather than making up your opinion from news.

Iatiam

[jackbrown_890]

Again, come over to a DC advocacy event and you will have first-hand info rather than making up your opinion from news.

Iatiam

I actually used too and stopped coming to the events based of my experience not because of the opinion of any news network.
Not saying, everything they are doing (or everyone involved) is wrong. But did enough to make me stop supporting. some intentions are good but don't agree on paths to get there.

[smuggymba]

Yes, he is. If you have been involved in IV advocacy or gone to DC for meeting with lawmakers, you will know. Also, IV's current strategy to shame him and force him to remove the hold will backfire.

Iatiam

That's what I'm worried about - he becoming more stubborn and shoving it up our arse.

But, that's what he's used to doing and it hasn't worked for us so far. So if we curse him, he will screw us. If we don't curse him, he has been screwing us. Not much we can do.

My only hope is that it goes to vote (not possible in current scenario), and we get 2/3rds and move on.

The fact that he asked for MORE number of green cards is basically code for - I want this bill dead since it helps the desis. Simple.

[rohanvus]

The fact that he asked for MORE number of green cards is basically code for - I want this bill dead since it helps the desis. Simple.

You got it . Thats what it is . He maybe non-racist but he certainly does not like desis -- lets not overthink or overcomplicate this .

[smuggymba]

You got it . Thats what it is . He maybe non-racist but he certainly does not like desis -- lets not overthink or overcomplicate this .

Being a senior senator and a Washington insider for 20+ years he knows one simple thing: MORE GC = DEAD Bill.

It is so dead that the 34 co-sponsors will backtrack their sponsorship if you ask for MORE GCs. And he's doing it on purpose so we have every reason to hate him.

[FarAwayfromGC]

There is not really anything I can say that can really help you and others with your hurt.

But I just wanted to say that America sure has a racist past as well as its fair share of racism even today. However America is not a racist country. I know today my words may not make much sense to you. But hopefully someday you will realize this.

Immigration policy used to be driven purely through economic and geopolitical objectives. The Trump folks have injected racism into it. But America will bounce back to sanity sooner or later.

With all due respect, I disagree with you. Racism is prevalent in different forms in different parts of the world and it's more open and prominent in America from past (way before the Civil War days). You say this just because you are nice person and you have to defend this country.

Check out all Dictator's of the world present and past supported by US - you will realize it's not true. As you said earlier , America is the best country to live and also a country with numerous opportunities. But, no way near to "Not a racist country" - - because of politicians may be .

[rohanvus]

On other hand i dont understand why current President is labeled as racist .
He made it very clear that he does not like illegals or legals - basically he treats all immigrants as one , he does not discriminate when it comes to immigrants .
Whereas his predecessor would make it the policy to appease illegals at the cost of legals , the 2015 fiasco of backtracking the dates ,etc .. Sure he seemed good for optics and on books, admired by a lot

Btw, I dont want to get into the debate of who is suffering more or less (illegals/legals) . One can disagree with me and i respect that !

Lets be honest , one cant spend a generation just to have a voice heard in this country . Well certainly at some point someone will hear but that will take another generation

Just my opinion - using so called freedom of speech

[iatiam]

On other hand i dont understand why current President is labeled as racist .
He made it very clear that he does not like illegals or legals - basically he treats all immigrants as one , he does not discriminate when it comes to immigrants .
Whereas his predecessor would make it the policy to appease illegals at the cost of legals , the 2015 fiasco of backtracking the dates ,etc .. Sure he seemed good for optics and on books, admired by a lot

Btw, I dont want to get into the debate of who is suffering more or less (illegals/legals) . One can disagree with me and i respect that !

Lets be honest , one cant spend a generation just to have a voice heard in this country . Well certainly at some point someone will hear but that will take another generation

Just my opinion - using so called freedom of speech

Well said.

Iaitiam

[abcx13]

NO he is not. This is the reason I can't stand IV. Everyone on IV now saying that Durbin is Racist. You and I might not agree on his logic behind his hold on this bill. But just because of that you don't call a person racist. Also, everyone on IV telegram just got so sensitive all of a sudden. The guy laughed at a joke on paper GC and IV people/followers (like an angry mob) started calling him racist on all over social media. I think we need to start growing thick skin if we want to win this politically and sometimes take a joke as joke. If you can't take a joke, fight hard to convince the person that his logic is wrong. Not get distracted and start calling him/her racist OR start a fight with someone. Our focus should be to pass S386 not to fight a senator who is serving for 22+ years and call him/her racist publicly for something you disagree with. It appears to be more like a frustration move and not a well planned move.
The country CAP is definitely unfair to Indians right now. But it was introduced a long time ago and at that time there was no backlog. So the intent was not to discriminate against Indians. When you and I applied for this Green Card; the country cap was already in place long before that. So we either knew or were too naive to understand how the backlog is going to affect us Indian applicants. Now we do know it is unfair. So I agree it should be removed. But not because all the people who are opposing it are racists.
We need to convince Durbin that the system is unfair to Indians...the employment based GC should not be based on country of birth etc..make stronger argument... not call him racist. If we can't, that means the opposing team (ROW) is more persuasive than us.
This is just my opinion,,, you don't have to agree with it...

I understand where you are coming from, but I'll just say if he did this about immigrants from Africa, everyone would all be over him and calling him racist and they wouldn't be wrong. Not just that, he wouldn't dare do it with black people (or Jewish or Irish or whatever).

[iatiam]

Being a senior senator and a Washington insider for 20+ years he knows one simple thing: MORE GC = DEAD Bill.

It is so dead that the 34 co-sponsors will backtrack their sponsorship if you ask for MORE GCs. And he's doing it on purpose so we have every reason to hate him.

More GC is the ultimate poison bill. In a political environment where nothing gets done, asking more GCs is suicide. Another good one is mixing legal and illegal immigration. I remember dealing with Nanci Pelosi's staffers and they basically said she is only interested in CIR and that too with citizenship for DACA folks. In other words, I don't care about legal immigration because well, it doesn't win me elections.

Iatiam

[qesehmk]

On other hand i dont understand why current President is labeled as racist .
He made it very clear that he does not like illegals or legals - basically he treats all immigrants as one , he does not discriminate when it comes to immigrants .

This is factually wrong. He did say that he wants less immigration from "Shithole" countries and more from countries like "Norway".

[qesehmk]

With all due respect, I disagree with you. Racism is prevalent in different forms in different parts of the world and it's more open and prominent in America from past (way before the Civil War days). You say this just because you are nice person and you have to defend this country.

Check out all Dictator's of the world present and past supported by US - you will realize it's not true. As you said earlier , America is the best country to live and also a country with numerous opportunities. But, no way near to "Not a racist country" - - because of politicians may be .

Thank you for your kind words for me. Your observations about dictators and US foreign policy are generally agreeable but they are a separate topic from racism. Empires never are built on racism and religion. I will rest is there because honestly that's a huge and separate discussion.
As per racism in US ... of course it exists and we experience it and yet I do think relatively US has more people that are not racist (even among white people). Otherwise Obama wouldn't be president twice! Anyway ... but this too is my personal opinion. I respect yours. My last on this topic.

[qesehmk]

My final post on Durbin controversy.

Unless you understand the logic behind his opposition, it is hard to convert him or anybody into a supporter. His laughter was in bad taste but turning that into a useless racism narrative is incredibly stupid and does disservice all Indians backlogged or otherwise.

The so called "poison-pill" amendment is actually something that is worth considering because with that he is trying to protect interests of the ROW candidates. You may not agree with him. But that's exactly what he is doing.

Instead of understanding other person's motives if you try to push yours you are going to get nothing. Once you understand his perspective, the question is how to work with him to arrive at something meaningful.

Calling him racist is one of the stupidest strategies and you should support it at your own peril.

[smuggymba]

More GC is the ultimate poison bill. In a political environment where nothing gets done, asking more GCs is suicide. Another good one is mixing legal and illegal immigration. I remember dealing with Nanci Pelosi's staffers and they basically said she is only interested in CIR and that too with citizenship for DACA folks. In other words, I don't care about legal immigration because well, it doesn't win me elections.

Iatiam

ROW (who can't vote) claims the bill is unfair and it doesn't add more GC's so Durbin is stepping up to save them.

Imagine how much US citizens (who can vote) will be pissed if a bill adds more GCs.

So Durbin is playing a dirty game against the Indians specifically. I bet he doesn't like Iranians as well but he definitely has something against us.

[rohanvus]

Supporting or not supporting does not matter anymore . Its like damn if you do it and double damned if you dont . This demands more than a life to change anything for desis in this country , so there is nothing perilous beyond what it is already.

Am not calling anyone racist but then i would not be so naive to think Mr. durbin is better in any manner compared to Repubs ,etc. You are entitled to your opinion as you have your own experience . Likewise having spent more than a decade in this country i have my own experience and looking from my own perspective ( you can call me selfish ) Mr. Durbin is no better . It could very well be that beyond him there are others waiting in line to put hold , but currently he is the main obstacle for desis who have waited patiently so far .There is no way in my life time anything will pass . Its time to move on

[Politicalpawn]

First time poster here. Lots of good points of views and so many questions, emotions. A few of my thoughts on this, apologize for the length.

1) Is India such a bad place? No its not. However, once you spend a decade or two in the US, especially your adult life (e.g. coming to school etc.), you get used to a few things in life. On average, quality of life is better, work is more challenging, less politics, better work life balance etc. Gets harder when you have kids who are used to this country and asking them to adjust to a new way of life is a bit unfair to them.
2) On savings, how to live, those are generally true whether you live here, or India or Canada. Don't spend more than you can manage....
3) Is US a racist place? Not on average. Yes, there is Far Right who dont want anyone colored. There is also a misconception that all H1Bs are fraud, all Indians are stealing American jobs. There are a very few cases where this is real and that has gotten a lot of media attention (Disney, Sun Edison etc.). However, 95+% of H1B workers from India deserve their job. Again, I am don't have expertise in all the industries, but from what I have seen. Some of it is borne from racism, but a lot of it is borne from fear. Fear of what will happen to me, my kids in the future. Media should have done a better job of assuaging these, US Govt should have done a better job of minimizing fraud. Both parties are to blame here.
4) Durbin - If this were a new Senator who does not understand this situation, and one needs to explain this to that person, its a different story. He has been handling immigration for decades now, and I find it hard to believe (even if I want to give him the benefit of doubt), that he doesn't know what is real vs. what is made up. His amendment was added to the bill. He had months, actually decades to bring the fixes. But, he chose to derail it in the 11th hour.
Maybe he wants to curb fraud, maybe he wants to use us as leverage for daca, maybe he feels we have a very high tolerance for pain and humiliation and doesnt care. Could be anything. Lets say he had some legitimate concern that came up, the video, the blog has left a very bad taste in my mouth - about US politics, Senators, specifically Democrats, especially when you see a super conservative Republican senator fighting for this. All the effort that Rep Lofgren put to pass the bill has become a distant memory, which is very sad. People are asking are Democrats just posturing and only care about DACA because of the vote bloc, or do they even understand our issue. Holding us hostage for DACA is no different than Trump holding DACA for Border Wall. Both are wrong, and as leaders they both need to change their behavior.
Having said that, it is sad that a lot of folks prefer Trump over Durbin, which I find laughable, but TBH Sen Durbin has not done anything to think otherwise.
5) Next steps for us (Indian Americans) - Continue advocacy, beg, cry, negotiate do whatever. But, don't fight. Even if one really feels he is a racist, dont be so stupid to shame him in public. You dont anything, literally anything by fighting with a person in power. I have seen IV shout at desis, but did not expect them to do this...Well, maybe they know its not going anywhere and there is nothing to lose.
6) Next steps for U.S. - If many Indians start to leave, America will suffer. US doesn't realize how good it has it, from attracting smart people, and some of the smartest people I have interacted with are from our own country. They would have done the stupidest thing by not passing the bill because all of these actions have a reaction. If Indians start leaving in droves (highly unlikely given our tolerance for pain ), US will follow a similar trajectory of Europe.
7) Next steps for us (me and my family) - I have 15 years of experience, MS, Ivy league MBA. However, with a PD in 2010 and the uncertainty that looms, we are making a call to move back to India by summer. Yes, will be hard for a year or so, but as I told before, India is a great place. I mean, I grew up there and have done well. My kids are US citizens, so we may come back at a different point in life, but I don't find this worthwhile anymore.

At this point, we are "Frankly dear, I don't give a damn".

[rohanvus]

This is factually wrong. He did say that he wants less immigration from "Shithole" countries and more from countries like "Norway".

Atleast he is honest - he clearly spoke his intention .There is no double speak on his part on this aspect ,whereas likes of Mr. Durbin fake about being fair on immigration but are opposite . Again , this is purely from my lens .No one has to agree with me or need to convince me otherwise