Build Accessible Roadmaps to Citizenship

Problem

Paths to citizenship in the U.S. are inefficient, over-complicated, and frequently inhumane. Immigration Green card applicants and asylum seekers face harsh realities including financial duress, unnecessarily high language and interview requirements, and a lack of support throughout the naturalization process. Of the approximately 860,000 green card holders who apply for citizenship through naturalization each year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approve only 23%, leaving ~70% pending.

Our Plan

• Repeal the three and ten year bar, which would enable individuals who are legally eligible for a green card under current law to travel to a consulate without fear of triggering a bar, attend a visa interview, and enter the United States with a green card.

• Reinstate the Legal Immigration Family Equity (LIFE) act which allowed immigrants to apply to adjust their status despite factors that would have normally blocked them from doing such as the manner they entered the states, whether they worked in the United States without authorization or even if the failed to continuously maintain lawful status since entry.

  • If all the qualifications are met, they would be able to obtain a green card as a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR).

  • The LIFE Act would also expand and create K-3 and K-4 categories for spouses and unmarried minor children of U.S. citizens.

• Expand Schedule A and skip the H1B lottery in fields where there is a shortage such as engineering. 

• Make marriage-based naturalization more efficient by providing temporary status for people married less than two years, and removing one of the two interviews required. 

• Prohibit deportation or immigration status changes for immigrants involved in protesting or political activism.

• Abolish ICE.

This Matters

We need to undo the damage caused by the Trump administration’s harmful Public Charge rule and make the naturalization process welcoming, efficient, and accessible.