US immigration targets family reunification

June 05 2009 by Liam Clifford

Democrat Congressman Neil Abercrombie

Lawmakers in the US are proposing legislation that will prioritise the reunification of families when considering US visa applications.

The legislation would help to bring the families of people on US visas from other countries to join them. Representative Mike Honda says that US workers are much happier and healthier if they have their families around them. The importance of this “cannot be overstated”, he added.

The rules would allow Americans to apply to have their families move to the US and would see the number of available US visas increase. This would be possible as unused US visa quotas will be passed on to the following year for use in the reunification scheme.

The proposed legislation is, however, proving controversial in some areas of the US population, such as the Catholic Church, as it allows US workers to bring their foreign same-sex partners to live with them and work in the US.

Democrat Congressman Neil Abercrombie says the legislation will not discriminate against gay people and stated, "this is something we're not backing down on."

Abercrombie adds that the lawmakers wish to learn from American history and avoid discrimination of the kind seen in the past. He explains, “there has always been somebody...after they got here, then they wanted to close the door."

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