IAM Government Relations work

Over the years, the government relations committee (GRC) of IAM has been actively involved in building relationships with the elected officials from the state of Minnesota at all levels, from federal, state and local level. GRC is responsible for maintaining the relationship between IAM and these officials by extending them invites to the IAM events like Connect India and IndiaFest every year, where the community leaders and members get to interact with these officials.

Additionally, GRC is also the arm of IAM that collaborates and coordinates with other Asian organizations in the Twin Cities like CAAL, CAPM, and CAPI, to advocate for Asian Indian causes and the supporting the larger Asian American base in the state.

Over the last two years, IAM has been actively involved in the advocacy work for the legal immigrants from India who are visa holding workforce in the United States, and are stuck in the Green Card backlog owing to an immigration policy architectured back in 1952, that caps the GC petitions to a flat 7% limit per country, instead of evaluating/adjusting it based on the applicant pool.  For Indian nationals especially, this can mean several decades if not their entire lifetimes waiting to obtain a Green Card, leading to issues not just to themselves, but to their children who come to the US as infants and grow up in the education system and community circles here. It is currently estimated that about 400,000 Indian nationals will die before receiving a Green Card. GRC is working with senators and legislators to urge the Congress to pass the America’s Children Act (HR. 3442/S. 1667) to help out the children of these visa holders to continue to stay in the country with minimal immigration issues being faced. Alternately look at expanding the DACA program to included documented, legal immigrant children.

This year, the GRC has additionally taken up the role of educating the community to ease their anxiety with the changes in the immigration policies at various levels and spread the awareness about their fundamental rights under the constitution of USA.

The board approved charter for our GRC team can be accessed here.