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New in the #1 Spot: The Reuniting Families Act

June 3, 2009 - by Donny Shaw

For months, the Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act held the number one most-viewed bill slot on OpenCongress. But all of a sudden two bills, both dealing with immigration issues, but from starkly different angles, have surpassed it.

The Reuniting Families Act is now the most viewed bill on OpenCongress.

It’s a bill focused on reforming the family-based and employment-based immigration systems with a goal of putting more focus on these areas in overall U.S. immigration policy. One of its main affects would be to speed up the process for family members of legal immigrants to secure visas. Specifically, it would reclassify spouses and children of legal immigrants as immediate relatives, raise the per-country family-sponsored immigration limits from 7 percent to 10 percent of total admissions, recapture visas that went unused in previous years due to bureaucratic errors, allow widows and spouses to remain eligible for visas after the death of a sponsoring family member, and more.

The bill now in the number two most-viewed slot on OpenCongress is the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009.

That bill would eliminate birthright citizenship status for children born to undocumented immigrants with U.S. borders. Current U.S. law automatically recognizes any person born on American soil as natural born citizen. Under the bill, only children with at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen, a legal permanent resident, or an undocumented immigrant serving in the military would be considered citizens.

Do either of these have any chance of passing? I would guess that they both have a better chance than the gun bill that was previously in the top slot, with the Reuniting Families Act having a much better chance than the Birthright Citizenship Act. The Reuniting Families Act, which was only recently introduced, already has some powerful Democrat co-sponsors, including Sen. Edward Kennedy [D, MA] and Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY]. Furthermore, there is some indication that congressional Democrats want to push certain aspects of immigration reform, and this certainly sounds and looks like a bill they would support. The Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, is holding the Uniting American Families Act of 2009.

Below are a few of the user comments from the Reuniting Families Act bill page that have been rated “most useful”:

This bill helps the U.S. economy by -
1. Relieving the emotional stress on families that are waiting to re-unite, and hence helping them be more productive. A happy family can make decisions about job, career and other matters that will make them a more productive contributor to the society and economy.
2. The bill DOES NOT invite more immigrants to the U.S. that would challenge the American workforce. It merely helps make life easier for immigrants that are already in the U.S. and are already legal, tax-paying contributors to the economy.
3. The bill DOES NOT require a major shift in immigration policy. It is merely asking to adjust for some bureaucratic delays that were not intended to happen as part of the immigration law. -ajaykataria
This bill is a move in the right direction in the jungle of immigration. Once passed this bill will provide the much needed resolution to the unending wait for thousands of people legally waiting to be permanent residents. It will also send the message to those watching this great nation that this is a land that values the law and the people who take great pains to abide by the law of this land. I humbly request the lawmakers to support this bill and provide solace to people like me waiting for years to be a PR. -gmathew
This is a bill long due now..
It will not only relieve lot of people who are paying their taxes and following the laws and of course helping the US economy from the anxiety of maintaining their legal status, stamping visas etc.
It will also allow most of them to start their own companies and help the US economy by creating more jobs.
Stability in terms of job and legal status means that most of us will also be able to buy houses instead of sending the US $ overseas to our home country..
I hope this bill is acted upon this year and its not sidelined as it happened last year with the recapture bill introduced by Zoe Lofgren. -ashishgour
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Comments

  • Anonymous 06/03/2009 8:42am
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    Don’t be fooled by the innoucous sounding language in the Reuniting Families Act.

    Once they get this passed, they’ll pass another bill that makes all illegal immigrants legal and the 20+ million illegals already in the USA will bring in 60 million relatives.

    We’ll be fighting over jobs at Wal Mart and McDonald’s.

  • aldenix 06/03/2009 10:55am
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    Anonymous, you don’t understand the bill clearly.

  • m_atique2009 06/03/2009 12:23pm
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    Dear Anonymous,
    You need to educate yourself about this bill before you could come up with any judgement. It seems that you are literate enough to read, think and ponder , so give yourself a little favor and go back and do your homework, maybe that will enlighten your view about this bill.

    I hope and pray for your bright future.

    Best regards,
    An LPR suffering from a long separation.

  • Anonymous 06/03/2009 2:08pm
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    This is very much needed for permanent residents. I am paying taxes like anyother citizen, contributing to economy, and my tax dollars are used to help citizens and communities… here I need help to reunite to my family, why not I am been helped?

  • a0z0ra 06/03/2009 2:15pm
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    Anonymous #1, this bill DOESN’T have anything to do with illegal immigration NOR amnesty. Far away from illegal, this bill will help LEGAL Permanent residence whose families have to wait 5+ long years to come to USA LEGALLY.

  • abaratar 06/03/2009 2:22pm
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    The reason this bill has the most views is someone is AstroTurfing opencongress, you will see that all the comments related to this bill are from someone with multiple screen names that has set up numerus accounts in the last 7 days, come on mods you guys need to allow only one login and one vote per IP address you are being played. look at the votes 1700 to 15, get real.

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    abaratar 06/03/2009 2:29pm
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    and note the votes on the birthright citizenship bill are 91 to 110, how can the reuniting families act be 1700 to 15 if opencongress is not being AstroTurfed by some very motivated individual.

    Good job Mr. AstroTurf you have done such a good job you are unbelievable

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    abaratar 06/03/2009 2:43pm
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    example , notice how all three of the user names posting against anonymous’s opinion have user names that were established 2 days ago, what are the odds that 3 people signed up on the same day that have the same opinion and all three showed up in here (having the same oppinion) to comment within an hour or so of each other, come on opencongress please keep this place honest.

  • donnyshaw 06/03/2009 3:16pm
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    OpenCongress Staff

    I don’t think it’s the same user with different names, but people coming from the same site where they are discussing the bill and encouraging each other to go to the OpenCongress page and vote “yes.”

  • a0z0ra 06/03/2009 3:19pm
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    For more information on the issues please go to:
    https://americanfamiliesunited.org/
    http://www.unitefamilies.org/

    @abaratar: from what I’ve seen those looks like original comments to me. Perhaps all the legal immigrants that have been waiting a loooong time recognize that this is the only chance they got this year to end their sufferings. Thus they voted.

    I myself never been involved in any political situation until I joined unitefamilies mailing list & someone posted this link to opencongress 2 days ago.

  • Comm_reply
    abaratar 06/04/2009 1:05pm
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    EXAMPLE

    McLovin Jun 02, 2009 (2 days ago) Link Reply

    I second the relief this bill will hopefully bring to LEGAL employment based (EB) immigration system. There are numerous educated skilled workers living legally in the US for many years. We live by the laws of the country and want to live our dreams and invest our hard earned money in the US. Unfortunately every aspect of their lives are left in a LIMBO due to lack of visa numbers and country based quotas in the Employment based green card process. (Employment Based skilled professionals waiting for their green cards should not be impacted by their country of origin). Provided an oppurtunity, every individual will work towards the upliftment of this country. God bless America.

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    abaratar 06/04/2009 1:07pm
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    EXAMPLE CONTINUED

    and

    gcretro May 31, 2009 (4 days ago) Link Reply

    I second the benefits & relief this bill will hopefully bring to LEGAL employment based (EB) immigration system. There are several thousands of educated LEGAL skilled workers living legally in the US for several years (many who came as students for higher degrees). We pay taxes, live by the laws and want to become permanent residents and invest their hard earned money in the US. Unfortunately every aspect of their lives (personal & professional) is left is LIMBO due to lack of visa numbers and country based quotas in the Employment based green card process. (Employment Based skilled professionals waiting for their green cards should not be impacted by their country of origin).

    looks like the same person to me. bet he voted more then once also you, see the same things repeated over and over on that thread but coming from different user names .

  • Comm_reply
    abaratar 06/04/2009 3:06pm
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    ASTROTURFING?
    pgoel May 29, 2009 (5 days ago) Link Reply
    This bill will relieve the anxiety of honest hardworking tax-paying legal immigrants and unite them with their family. My wife’s been staying away from me for the last 2 years as I cannot add her to my pending green card application till the visa bulletin dates become current. It has been retrogressed to 1 Jan 2000 now.

    siva9000 May 29, 2009 (5 days ago) Link Reply
    This bill will relieve the anxiety of honest hardworking tax-paying legal immigrants and unite them with their family. My wife’s been staying away from me for the last 2 years as I cannot add her to my pending green card application till the visa bulletin dates become current. It has been retrogressed to 1 Jan 2000 now.

  • Comm_reply
    abaratar 06/04/2009 3:28pm
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    MORE ASTROTURF
    gamad Jun 01, 2009 (3 days ago) Link Reply

    Yes this bill will go a long way in addressing the severe backlogs faced by professionals and scientists who have been waiting LEGALLY in the long never ending queues. Once they get GCs they will buy homes, cars and invest freely
    which will strengthen the economy and get us out of recession.

    karmayogi May 27, 2009 (8 days ago) Link Reply

    Yes this bill will go a long way in addressing the severe backlogs faced by talented professionals and scientists who have been waiting LEGALLY in the queue for ages without compromising the rights and opportunities of citizens of this country. Justice for all.
    _____________
    How can these look like original comments when they are almost verbatim from one user to the next?

  • blog01blog 01/01/2012 12:34pm
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    Carry on….

    Dental Plan
    , Discount Dental Plan


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