Comment by rayiner
14 hours ago
When the reality doesn’t match what the law says, that’s a bad thing!
> The so-called "non-immigrant" visas are really not that. "Non-immigrant" has a specific legal meaning
The legal meaning here is the same as the common usage. For example, H1B is defined as someone “who is coming temporarily to the United States to perform services.” The words here are being used in their ordinary way.
> And even if they were truly non-immigrant, who cares?
You should care that the actual operation of the immigration system reflects the laws Congress actually passed through the democratic process. Congress didn’t have the votes to pass a permanent immigration pathway back then, and it doesn’t have the votes today.
If you want to make your case to change the law, be my guest. There’s zero appetite for it in the GOP, and very little willingness to use political capital on the issue by Democrats. Think about the fuss Democrats have made over deporting illegal immigrants. But they’ve said almost nothing about Trump’s attempts to restrict legal immigration.
Are you talking about Hart-Celler or 1990?
1990. The 1990 law was a compromise that kept H visas as a nonimmigrant temporary worker visa. The 1990 law created EB-1 visas, which are explicitly immigrant visas. So there was a clear intent to reserve the guaranteed permanent residency pathway only for people meeting very high standards.