Removing ‘Documented Dreamers’ Harms Economy, Senators to Hear

Laurens van Beek grew up in Iowa City, attended the University of Iowa, and landed a job at a DNA technology firm after graduation. But a year ago he was forced to leave the US for the Netherlands, a country he hadn’t visited since he was seven years old.

About a quarter million “documented dreamers” in the US on dependent visas, like van Beek, are at risk of aging out of legal status when they turn 21 because their immigrant parents are stuck in the green card backlog or otherwise have no pathway to permanent status. Lawmakers on the Senate Budget Committee will hear Wednesday that problems like this age-out issue are harming the economy by draining it of international talent raised and educated at US schools.

Most young people at risk of aging out are from populous countries like India and China and face particularly long waits because annual caps limit the share of green cards that can go to applicants from any one country.

But young people who were born in a range of countries and grew up in the US, including the Netherlands in van Beek’s case, face removal if they can’t secure another form of legal status. A software developer, van Beek entered the lottery for an H-1B specialty occupation visa three times while working for Integrated DNA Technologies on a student visa work program, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

“My story isn’t unique to me, every year another 10,000 individuals like me, who grow up in this country with lawful status are forced to leave. We are America’s children,” he plans to tell senators in prepared testimony. “On top of this, thousands of other talented individuals are forced to take their talents and potential to other countries,who are happily welcoming them to grow their economy,”

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year heard about how protracted green card wait times were threatening the legal status of the children of immigrants stuck on temporary visas. Although Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told GOP colleagues he wanted quick action on legislation to address the issue, there’s been little progress in Congress since then.

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) has introduced a bipartisan bill (S. 1667) to provide lawful permanent resident status to graduates of US colleges who entered the country as children. But the bill hasn’t moved out of committee, and efforts to include a fix for “documented dreamers” in larger legislative packages—like an omnibus spending bill last December—have been stymied.

In February, US Citizenship and Immigration Services updated a policy for calculating dependent visa holders’ age under the Child Status Protection Act, adding age-out protections for some young immigrants who are otherwise facing loss of legal status. Congress passed the law more than 20 years ago allowing children with dependent visas to “freeze” their age when a parent’s green card application is pending.

The policy change will base age calculations on the date when applicants are allowed to submit green card applications. Previously, USCIS calculated a young person’s age under the law based on when a green card was deemed actually available for a specific country and visa category. Even with that law in place, however, many remain vulnerable to losing legal status because of extreme wait times just to become eligible to file for permanent residency.