Background: For decades, people have been waiting to reunite with their family members and loved ones due to the United States’ broken immigration system. There are currently over 4 million people in the family immigration backlogs waiting to reunite with their loved ones. The average wait time for a permanent resident to sponsor an unmarried son or daughter from Mexico is over 21 years; a U.S. citizen sponsoring a sibling from the Philippines would take an average of 20 years. This year marks another year where the government remains behind in processing visas.
It is critical to raise our voices and urge Congress to clear backlogs, recapture visas, and provide redress to people denied visas by discriminatory immigration bans. Urge your Members of Congress to support language in Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) appropriation bills to recapture unused green cards lost to COVID-related shutdowns, bureaucratic delays, and the former administration’s executive actions.
Click “Send Email” or “Call Me” on the right to Contact Your 2 Senators and 1 Representative
You will be able to send an email or receive a phone call that connects you to your Members of Congress. Please make sure to insert your city/town in the highlighted portion.
Sample Email/Script: “Hi, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY/TOWN, ZIP CODE]. As an [immigrant / child of immigrants / person of faith], I urge your boss to protect immigrant and refugee families, and uphold family unity by supporting the following provisions in Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations bills to recapture unused green cards lost to COVID-related shutdowns, bureaucratic delays, and the former administration’s executive actions:
- Recapture unused green cards lost to bureaucratic and COVID-related delays
- Make visas available for persons who were selected through the Diversity Visa program lottery but who were impacted by the former administration’s executive actions on immigration
- Require the government to end the practice of counting derivative visas towards the Immigration and Nationality Act’s numerical limits
- Appropriate robust funding to the U.S. Department of State to address this visa backlog.
Nearly 4 million people are currently waiting in the family-based immigration backlogs. These measures will help reunite families in our communities with their loved ones, prevent prolonged family separations, and provide redress to people who were denied visas based on discriminatory immigration bans. Without addressing these backlogs, families will remain needlessly separated.
My community welcomes immigrants and values family unity, and I urge you to do the same.”