Washington: The US Senate voted on Tuesday to begin debate and amendments on a historic immigration bill, burying a procedural roadblock that opponents regularly use to delay or even kill legislation.
With November's election results indicating broad support for updating the country's immigration laws, even some senators who have expressed opposition to the Senate bill voted to allow the debate to go ahead.
By a vote of 82-15, the Senate cleared the way for the long-anticipated debate that could extend through June.
Opponents of the bill quickly offered amendments to significantly change or possibly kill the measure if adopted....
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06:43 AM, Jun 12, 2013
Washington: Indian Parliamentarians met top American lawmakers to raise India's concerns over the immigration bill, in particular those related to the H-1B visa issues. A delegation of seven MPs under the banner of India-US Forums of Parliamentarians of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), included Biju Janata Dal leader, Baijayant "Jay" Panda, Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party), Bhakta Charan Das (Indian National Congress), Uday Singh (BJP),...
07:55 AM, Jun 05, 2013
Stockholm: Hundreds of youths have set fire to cars and attacked police and rescue services in poor immigrant suburbs in three nights of rioting in Stockholm, Sweden's worst disorder in years. On Tuesday night, a police station in the Jakobsberg area in the northwest of the city was attacked, two schools were damaged and an arts and crafts center was set ablaze, despite a call for calm from Prime Minister...
04:44 PM, May 22, 2013
Washington: The landmark immigration bill, which offers a path to citizenship for more than 11 million - including over 260,000 Indians - undocumented immigrants and increasing H-1B visas today passed its first legislative test. The Senate Judiciary Committee on the fifth day of its deliberations that included 300 amendments to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill - Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act - passed it by 13-5 votes....
12:16 PM, May 22, 2013
Washington: The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would bring about the biggest changes in US immigration policy in a generation, setting up a spirited debate in the full Senate in June 2013. By a vote of 13-5, the panel approved the nearly 900-page bill that would put 11 million illegal residents on a 13-year path to citizenship while further strengthening security along the southwestern border with Mexico,...
06:51 AM, May 22, 2013
Washington: In a "major breakthrough", two influential American Senators on Tuesday reached an agreement on the contentious H-1B visa expansion plan, which Congressional aides said is a compromise between the demand of the tech-industry and the concerns of the labour unions. The deal reached between Democratic Senator Charles Schumer and Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, covers eight amendments sponsored by the latter to make the process for granting H-1B visas more...
11:40 PM, May 21, 2013
Washington: A professional US body of engineers has asked the Senators to reject any move to increase the number of H-1B visas, popular among Indian professionals, arguing that it has a damaging effect on American economy. In a statement issued on Monday, IEEE-USA - the largest American body of professional engineers asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject amendments to the comprehensive immigration bill that would increase H-1B temporary visa...
02:54 PM, May 14, 2013
Washington: US immigration authorities would give preference to better-educated and trained visa-seekers who can contribute to the American economy under a less-noticed provision of the immigration bill in the US Congress. The bi-partisan bill in the US Senate would rewrite the half-century-old standards that control legal immigration to favor skills over family ties. The winners of this proposed "merit-based" system, experts say, would be primarily from Asia, particularly from India,...
01:07 PM, May 05, 2013
Washington: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said that the country's immigration reform, currently underway, should be able to attract "the best and the brightest" people from across the world "in a legal fashion". "We should make sure that we are cracking down on employers that are gaming the system", Obama said at a White House news conference. "We should make the legal immigration system work more effectively so that...
11:05 PM, Apr 30, 2013
Washington: Amidst Congressional debate on the comprehensive immigration reform, a top US Senator has accused big Indian IT companies - TCS, Infosys and Wipro - of abusing the H-1B visa system. "There are some specific abuses of H-1B," Senator Richard Durbin, said during a Congressional hearing on immigration reform by the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, during which the lawmakers discussed threadbare the H-1B visa issues. In fact, Senator...
01:32 PM, Apr 23, 2013
Washington: As the US moves forward to reform its immigration system, India has said that a generous American visa policy for the country's high-skilled workers would help everyone and both nations will emerge as winners. "We respectfully urge that they consider the impact of their decisions on the ability of both US and foreign-based companies to expand now and in the future," Indian Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao wrote...
05:53 PM, Apr 15, 2013
Washington: With most major issues ironed out, a bipartisan group of senators is expected to announce on Tuesday a plan to legalise America's 11 million illegal immigrants, including 260,000 Indians, according to various media reports. The deal being crafted by the so-called "Gang of Eight" senators would exclude any immigrants who arrived in the country after December 31, 2011, the New York Times said, citing three people with knowledge of...
10:24 AM, Apr 13, 2013
Washington: Bipartisan immigration legislation emerging in the Senate could prevent hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the US illegally from ever becoming citizens, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the proposals. The bill expected to be unveiled next week would bar anyone who arrived in the US after December 31, 2011, from applying for legal status and ultimately citizenship, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of...
09:12 AM, Apr 13, 2013
Washington: Observing that nearly 30 per cent of all companies started in the US in 2011 had immigrant founders, Indian IT professionals have appealed to Congressmen to not only consider increasing the H-1B quota but also quick and smooth green card for them. They told the Congressmen that the immigrant-based businesses have generated more than $775 billion in revenue for the American economy. Over the past few days, a large...
10:55 AM, Apr 12, 2013
Washington: An influential professional body of Indian-American doctors on Friday appealed to US lawmakers "not to ignore" physicians from the comprehensive immigration reforms, arguing that America faces shortage of doctors. During its day-long activities at the Capitol Hill, members of the powerful American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) - which is a national representative's body of thousands of Indian-American doctors - met Congressmen to press for their points....
10:06 AM, Apr 12, 2013
Washington: Thousands of immigrants and activists held a rally at the US Capitol to urge Congress to overhaul the immigration system for over 11 million illegal immigrants, including some 260,000 Indians, living in the shadows. The show of support for comprehensive immigration reforms came on Wednesday even as the so-called Gang of Eight senators, four Democrats and four Republicans, announced they were close to a deal after weeks of negotiations....
11:59 AM, Apr 11, 2013
Washington: For the first time after 2008, a computerised draw of lots is going to decide on successful H-1B applicants, as a federal US agency has announced that it has received more petitions than the Congressional mandated quota on the most sought after work visas for IT professionals. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Friday announced that it would no longer accept applications for the H-1B visas for...
12:00 PM, Apr 06, 2013
Washington: A bipartisan group of senators is closer to a deal on immigration reform to resolve the problem of 11 million illegal immigrants, including some 260,000 Indians, according to a media report. The "Gang of Eight", as the group of four Democratic and four Republican senators negotiating the deal is called, had moved closer to an agreement on a visa programme for future low-skilled workers, Politico, an influential news site...
11:40 AM, Mar 30, 2013
Washington: Claiming that H-1B visas lead to outsourcing of US jobs, an American professional body of engineers has opposed the move of expanding the most popular working visa among IT professionals. "The H-1B programme shouldn't be used to facilitate the transfer of high-paying jobs to other countries. If Congress wants a full US economic recovery, it shouldn't even think about expanding it," IEEE-USA President Marc Apter said. Beginning Monday, the...
08:32 AM, Mar 30, 2013
London: In a bid to cut down on immigration, British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday announced a string of tough measures to over-turn the country's "soft touch" image, restricting new immigrants' rights to unemployment, health benefits and a "home on arrival". "Under the last government, immigration in this country was too high and out of control. Put simply, Britain was a soft touch," he said during his long-awaited speech...
05:09 PM, Mar 26, 2013
