[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             SIBLING VISAS

  (Ms. CHU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. CHU. Twenty-four years, a quarter century. Imagine not being able 
to see your brother or sister for 24 years. That's how long our sibling 
visa backlogs can be right now in our broken immigration system.
  The Senate immigration bill does many good things to fix this broken 
system and reduces the backlog of family visas. This means that all 
those families who have been waiting for so many years can finally be 
reunited. But for the future it gets rid of the sibling category 
entirely.
  What this means is that if someone immigrates here and becomes a 
citizen, she can petition for her parents to come in short order; but 
because this bill gets rid of the sibling category, the 22-year-old 
brother with Down syndrome would have to be left behind to be all by 
himself. That's not right.
  Fixing our broken immigration system is so important. But let's make 
sure that immediate family members can be reunited.

                          ____________________