10/27/2020
Washington, D.C.:
USINPAC is hosting a series of virtual panels during this election season. AMERICA VOTES 2020 is an informative and interactive discussion regarding the impacts of the upcoming elections. On October 24th, 2020, USINPAC presented the “Immigration Information Hour” Trump vs. Biden – race to decide fate of US immigration. Legal experts and immigration scholars gave their thoughts on the possible future of this most relevant topic. Panelists included:
Dr. Nazita Lajevardi, who is an attorney and political scientist at Michigan State University. Moustafa Bayoumi is a writer and professor of English at Brooklyn College, City of New York. Ira Kurzban is an American civil rights and immigration attorney from Miami, Florida. Navneet Chugh is partner of Chugh, LLP., an attorney and CPA from California. Mr. Rajiv Dabhadkar is the founder of Nostops from Mumbai, India.
Navneet Chugh brought up “It is very interesting that only about 85,000 H1 Visas are issued each year. Corporate America is of course advocating for more, it is a matter of which company gets them. There is a lottery system with about 250,000 applications go in and in the last three years. The lottery takes 1 out of 3, the number cap has to go up. One of the reasons these companies can’t do much, they are all competing for the same 85,000 lottery tickets. What else can they do besides compete with reach other? We need reform.”
Dr. Nazita Lajevardi said, “I think this is something that we need to think about, universities are facing a difficult set of constraints at the moment. Current immigration policies harm these universities. These policies violate the norms of diversity, equity and inclusion. A great deal of them invested lots of resources to try and have these values as a part of their ethos. These universities thrive based on the diversity of their students. It enriches the experience of everybody.”
Ira Kurzban mentioned ”Like foreign policy, immigration has traditionally been bipartisan, which has not been typically helpful to immigrants. If there is a Biden presidency, I think we will go back to, as Moustafa said, the status quo we had before. Which is getting rid of bans on people. Trump has weaponized Covid 19 at the southern border, basically shutting down the entire border, in order to easily throw people back. In violation of domestic and international law. Still, it is going to be an uphill fight, regardless of who wins the election.”
The Immigration Information Hour was broadcasted live on USINPAC’s Facebook Page. The entire panel is available on www.facebook.com/usinpac.
About USINPAC:
The US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) is a bipartisan nonprofit organization that leverages the over 3.2 million Indian Americans to bring about outcomes that matter. USINPAC provides support to candidates for federal, state, and local offices, and serves as a resource for federal agencies, lawmakers, and Congressional staff. For more information, please visit www.usinpac.com.