ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — U.S. Sen. Rick Scott is pushing back against a bipartisan bill that would remove a per-country limit on the number of U.S. permanent resident cards, or green cards, issued each year.

What You Need To Know

  • Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act would end per-country cap

  • In newspaper op-ed, Sen. Rick Scott writes why he is against the bill

Each year, about 140,000 employment-based green cards are issued, with five categories and a 7 percent cap per country for each category.

A large backlog is being created for countries with large populations like India and China, but a bill called the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act would eliminate the per-country cap.

Scott is the only U.S. senator against the bill. In a Miami Herald guest editorial, he wrote that eliminating the per-country cap would provide an unfair advantage to workers from backlogged countries, India and China.

If the bill is amended, the Congressional Research Service found that in 10 years the employment-based green card backlog for immigrants from India would be more than 260,000 lower than if it were not to pass.

Also, the nonpartisan research group found that 20 to 30 other countries would end up with the same wait times those from India and China now face.

The Congressional Research Service found that regardless of the bill's passage, the total backlog for EB 1 through EB 3 green cards would increase from more than 900,000 to more than 2 million.

"The bill essentially shuts down all employment-based immigration from Latin America over at least the next two years,​ which will hurt the Florida economy," immigration lawyer Rusten Hurd said.

Dr. Pushpak Nayarana is one of more than 50 immigrants who are tired of waiting for their green cards.

“We have built our dream here,” he said.

Nayarana is here on a work visa. He came from the U.S. from India. Like many who protested over the weekend, he hoped to have had an employment-based green card by now.

“I have been waiting for eight years and these people have been waiting for 18 years,” he said.

For Nayarana, the wait times for an EB 2 green card can take up to 17 years, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“My green card is pending for eight years with no end in sight,” he said.