LOS ANGELES, July 4: The chairman of the house immigration, border security and claims subcommittee, Congressman George Gekas (R-LA), has introduced a new bill in the house, seeking reduction by about 20 per cent in legal immigrations.

Currently, the legal immigration to the United States stood at about one million a year. The bill, according to immigration lawyers, was introduced last month and will be subject to a bitter opposition, specially by the lobbyists of American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

The legal immigrants include those who claim their green cards through job, business, professional and asylum visas as well as those who come through family sponsorship.

The bill will also seek that all green card holders (permanent residents) should also be fingerprinted and to periodically register their address with the INS, it further requires schools to report to the INS on the subject matter of each course taken by foreign students and make it a federal crime to overstay a visa by more than six months.

The bill, H.R. 5013, the “Securing America’s Future through Enforcement Reform (SAFER) Act,” has 11 cosponsors.