2.4 lakh Indians in line for US citizenship as immigration reform accelerated

Washington: The Obama Administration is planning to push the House of Representatives to accelerate the process of early passage of the comprehensive immigration reform which would provide path of citizenship to over 11 million undocumented people, including 2.4 lakh Indians. US President Barack Obama believes that passage of comprehensive immigration reform is still achievable this year, a promise he made when he was sworn in for the second term in January. [caption id=“attachment_1191953” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image of Visa issuance. Reuters[/caption] “We are talking with members and staff members in Congress about how to move forward,” the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news conference after the Speaker of the House of Representatives Jon Boehner said that he believes it is an important issue that can be and should be addressed. The leaders of the House have to decide how they want to proceed. “The Senate has passed a comprehensive bipartisan bill, a very significant achievement. And it doesn’t match word-for-word what the President necessarily would have written, but it meets the criteria that he set, and he would sign it if the House were to pass essentially the identical version,” he said. “The way that it, as I understand it, needs to work is the House still has to produce its own bill or bills, and that that would have to be conferenced,” Carney said in response to a question. “I still think immigration reform is an important subject that needs to be addressed. And I’m hopeful,” Boehner told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference. The White House says Obama will call on Congress to act when he speaks in the East Room of the White House. Meanwhile, US India Business Council (USIBC) announced that it would continue to work with lawmakers to address its concerns over certain provisions of the comprehensive immigration bill, that has been passed by the Senate, and ensure that such killer provisions are not included in the House version of the bill. “We will continue to sensitise the Senate as to these harmful provisions, while working with the House to ensure a clean bill, so that when legislation goes to conference we will have champions in both chambers to ensure a clean outcome,” USIBC president Ron Somers said. The House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer joined members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on the economic benefits of immigration reform and called on Republican leadership to allow a vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year. “Every analysis says that it will grow our economy, grow jobs, grow our gross domestic product, and will help do what Americans want done, and that is bring jobs to America, grow jobs in America, have jobs for our people,” Hoyer said. PTI