I have previously laid out the case that the government has cheated legal immigrants for decades by erroneously counting the spouses and children of immigrants against the quotas for immigration, thereby reducing the total amount of immigration substantially. My argument relied primarily on the text of the law and not the legislative history. But I have recently come across evidence that proves that members of Congress believed that spouses and children wouldn’t count against the cap.
The Immigration Act of 1990 provided the basis for issuing green cards to spouses and children of legal immigrants in section 203 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Congress divided section 203 into subsections. Subsection (a) provides green cards for certain family-members of U.S. citizens and residents, subsection (b) for employment-based immigrants, and subsection (c) for diversity lottery winners. Each of these categories have a quota. Subsection (d) separately awards green cards to the spouses and minor children of the primary applicants under subsections (a) through (c).
This means that if an employee, for example, qualifies for a green card through employer sponsorship under subsection (b), their spouses and children qualify for green cards under subsection (d). Subsection (d) has no quota, while subsections (a) through (c) do have quotas, so the question is, do the spouses and children count under subsection (d) without a limit or under the other subsections with limits?
While no member of Congress directly addressed this question in 1990, they made comments that we can only interpret as indicating that they believed spouses and children would not count toward the quotas. In the same bill in 1990, Congress created the EB‑5 Investor Program in subsection (b) of section 203. Under the law, up to 10,000 immigrants can receive green cards if they invest in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least 10 jobs. Thus, a minimum of 100,000 jobs would be created if all the green cards went to investors. However, if their families count against the green card limit, then fewer than 10,000 investors would receive green cards and fewer than 100,000 jobs would be created.