The immigration bill currently being debated in congress would do away with E-B1, which has traditionally let extraordinary people become citizens faster due to the current point system being considered which places higher value on skills easily measured, such as holding a college degree or being fluent in English. Link />


"For years, foreign-born Nobel Prize winners, corporate officers, and top talents in sports, arts and sciences have had a fast track to permanent residency, and eventually citizenship, in theUnited States. In the name of attracting the world's greatest and brightest, authorities have granted these luminaries priority access to green cards under a little-known provision offered to "aliens of extraordinary abilities."
The current bill understandably wants to give preference especially to those with high mathematical and scientific abilities, but almost ignores "low-skilled" immigrants who contribute significantly to our economy. Working within their devised point system, some senators decided to give higher points to those who could work in high demand areas, but it was still lower than what those with high degrees would receive. The next proposal? To just add more points if the low skilled workers have technical degress of some kind. 
While all these measures are meant to attract immigrants who will be beneficial to the country and make America more competitive in the world, I can manage it having the reverse effect. The bill as it is thus far seems more concerned with trivial details than the actual value of an individual who wishes to come to this country. A lot of people who wish to obtain green cards, who have valuable skills, or even extraordinary talents, could be turned away for such meaningless reasons as not speaking english well enough, or not having a degree (as if that's the ultimate measure of one's contribution to society or even a fair measure of their actual skills in any given profession). As the Washington Post notes, Albert Einstein may have not been able to pass through this point system.
Add in the fact that family ties will lose significance in obtaining a green card and it appears that the purpose of this bill is to just give the appearance of solving the "illegal immigration issue" while in reality making the legalization process needlessy more difficult for many and potentially even harming our own interests in the long run.