US plans more skilled migrant visas

January 30, 2013

Financial Times

Anna Fifield

President Barack Obama has urged Congress to pass “commonsense, comprehensive immigration reform” that would create a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants and allow more highly skilled workers into the US.

In his first major address on immigration reform, Mr Obama threw his weight behind a bipartisan plan unveiled this week – but warned that if Congress did not pass it, he would send it his own bill and “insist that they vote on it right away”.

“I’m here because most Americans agree that it’s time to fix a system that’s been broken for way too long,” Mr Obama told a crowd of supporters at a high school in Las Vegas, home to a booming Hispanic population.

He presented a four-point plan that was largely similar to that presented by a “gang of eight” senators from both parties on Monday – encompassing tougher border security, a pathway to citizenship for the 11m illegal immigrants already in the US and more visas for highly skilled workers.

“We define ourselves as a nation of immigrants,” Mr Obama said, presenting the plan as part of his strategy to right the beleaguered US economy. “It keeps our workforce young, it keeps our country on the cutting edge and it’s helped build the greatest economic engine the world has ever known.

Immigrants helped start businesses like Google and Yahoo, and one in four new small-business owners are immigrants, he added.

Overhauling the immigration system could be difficult but the prospects are the best in six years, since a bipartisan plan backed by then-President George W. Bush failed in the Senate.

As the Hispanic population now comprises the fastest growing electorate, politicians across the spectrum are becoming aware they must act on the issue of uppermost importance to the Latino community.

“Members of both parties in both chambers are actively working on a solution,” Mr Obama said. “So at this moment it looks like there’s a genuine desire to get this done soon. And that’s very encouraging.”

The group of eight senators – led by Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican John McCain – hopes to send its plan to the upper chamber for debate in April.

First a cross-party group of four senators on Tuesday introduced a bill to increase the number of US visas available for skilled immigrants such as engineers and computer programmers.

Under current law, the government can issue only 85,000 H-1B visas each year – 65,000 to highly skilled private sector workers and 20,000 to those with advanced graduate degrees from US universities.

But demand is much greater – the cap was reached in only 10 weeks last year, with a total of 350,000 applications being lodged throughout 2012.

The bill – promoted by Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Chris Coons and Republicans Orrin Hatch and Marco Rubio – would increase the cap for highly skilled private sector workers from 65,000 to 115,000. It would also entirely remove the cap on visas given to workers with graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

It would create a “market-based H-1B escalator” that would allow for extra visas to be issued if the cap was hit prematurely, although there would be a limit of 300,000 visas.

The senators expect their bill to be incorporated into a comprehensive immigration reform package.

Analysts said that lawmakers were using the relatively uncontroversial issue of visas for skilled workers to kick-start the debate.

“This is the first official bill and it is bipartisan, so it shows us that Congress is starting with the easiest bits first,” said Neil Ruiz, an expert on H-1B highly skilled visas at the Brookings Institution.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a version of this bill last year, raising hopes for the Senate bill, officially known as the Immigration Innovation Act.

The business community immediately welcomed the senators’ move.

“This legislation would transform the high-skilled immigration system in our country,” Bruce Josten of the US Chamber of Commerce wrote in a letter to the senators behind the bill,

It would “directly address the needs of the business community concerning vital, highly skilled jobs that remain unfilled without access to foreign talent,” Mr Josten said.

Business has long called for changes to allow graduates with advanced degrees to remain in the US, with tech companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Intel among the leading advocates for change.

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