As you probably know, Employment Based immigration is currently showing years of retrogression; more than 350,000 labor applications are stuck in the backlog centers and there is no information on when we can see even a ray of hope. Applicants have to wait for their green cards for as many as 4-7 years, depending on the country where they were born. With retrogression, applicants are unable to complete their final phase of green card even if they have cleared all the previous hurdles. We, a group of volunteers at www.immigrationvoice.org . We have set up a non profit organization to work towards resolution of these problems.
In the past we have seen that due to a lack of professional representation, employment based immigration issues have been ignored by the lawmakers. The latest example has been dropping of section 8001 & 8002 from the Budget Reconciliation Bill passed by the congress in December 2005. With comprehensive immigration reforms on the anvil in the early part of 2006, the time to act is now. However, with the current political scenario and the overpowering debate about illegal immigration, this is going to be an uphill battle. We have already initiated talks with professional strategists who have in the past been able to achieve goals similar to the ones we are working for. We feel that these are the following ways a professional strategist can help:
1. Identify feasible goals that can be achieved and are representative of the people in this forum. We should not have to piggy back on H1s or illegal immigration - we need an identity of our own
2. Identify the champions amongst the lawmakers, alliances, organizations who are willing to shoulder some or all of the responsibility in passing provisions to solve retrogression & address labor backlogs centers.
3. Identify opportunities to meet/interact with those mentioned in point no 2.
4. Help us in putting our points across cohesively and in a way relevant to the political situations
5. Keep a close monitor on the progress and the situation so as to identify the opportunities as they arrive.
Hiring professional strategists requires several thousands of dollars. If we hope to counter some of the anti immigration propaganda, we have to accumulate funds to the tune of atleast about $100k. Keeping this and the short deadline in mind, we would urge you to contribute at http://www.immigrationvoice.org . To lead by example, the volunteers have themselves come forward with contributions - in one night we had a collection of around $5000 from 20 contributors. This is a tiny fraction of what we as an organization need.
We also need your contribution in terms of your ideas and efforts by registering you as a Volunteer. Please be assured that funds and their utilization would be transparent in this process. All the volunteers will be provided a weekly update on the funds collected and their utilization. We look forward to you helping us and yourselves.
Please contact us for more info at info@immigrationvoice.org
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