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01.12
Immigration Reform Poised to Move in 2012
By Russ Harrison
After a busy 2011, Congress may
be ready to move a significant immigration
reform bill early this year. A number of pieces
have fallen into place over the last few months
which, if bundled together, could easily result
in bipartisan legislation becoming law.
The specific package that seems
to be gaining acceptance on Capitol Hill would
include some or all of these elements:
·
45,000 to 55,000 new green cards
for international graduate students in STEM
fields from American universities. IEEE-USA has
publically asked Congress for the full 55,000.
·
An end to country-cap restrictions
within the EB visa program for skilled workers.
·
A provision to help family-visa
immigrants move through the process more easily
·
A new entrepreneurs visa program
for immigrants who plan to start businesses in
the United States
Other provisions may also be
added. If passed, a bill with these provisions
would eliminate the backlog for EB-2 immigrants
and drastically reduce the wait for EB-3
petitioners. It would allow around 50,000
international students and their dependents to
move directly from student visas to green cards
each year, skipping the problematic H-1B visa.
Several bills containing some of
these provisions were introduced in Congress
last year. The likeliest outcome at this point
is Congressional leaders will graft several of
these bills together, to create one high-skill
immigration bill that could be signed into law
this year. These existing bills include:
The IDEA ACT (H.R. 2161)
This is a broad immigration
reform bill that includes a number of provisions
that go beyond high-skill immigration. The IDEA
Act is supported by an impressive collection of
House Democrats. Unfortunately, the Democrats
don’t control the House, so the bill has been
stalled since introduction.
The American Innovation and
Education Act (H.R. 3146)
Introduced by Rep. Raul
Labrador, a freshman Republican from Idaho, this
is a mini-IDEA Act. Almost all of its language
comes directly from the Democrat’s bill,
although large parts of the earlier bill have
been omitted. The remaining parts include new
green cards for international students who earn
masters or PhDs in STEM fields from American
universities, a lifting of the per-country caps
and expedited visa processing for trusted
employers. While IEEE-USA was among the first
to endorse this bill, we knew it had little
chance of passing, because it allows an
unlimited number of new green cards. That’s
just not politically viable at this time.
The Fairness for High Skill
Immigrants Act (H.R. 3012)
This bill is even narrower than
H.R. 3146. The House version, which passed out
of the Chamber easily last year, is limited to
just removing the country-caps. The Senate
version, however, has bogged down. Sen. Schumer
(D-NY) allowed a few additional provisions to be
added to the House version of H.R. 3012,
including a provision to give Irish immigrants
and entrepreneurs additional visas. These
provisions attracted support from additional
supporters in the Senate, but will also force
the bill back to the House for an additional
vote.
Moreover Sen. Grassley (R-IA),
the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, has placed a hold on the bill.
Unlike the House, a single Senator can stop a
bill from advancing simply by stating that he
wants to, which Sen. Grassley has done. Sen.
Grassley has also asked for amendments reforming
the H-1B and L visa programs to be added to the
bill.
Senate and House leaders are
working to craft a compromise bill that
incorporates the most popular provisions from
each of these bills. Republican and Democratic
leaders, as well as the Obama administration,
have expressed support for a STEM immigration
bill, and agree in principle on many of its
provisions. While the details still need to be
worked out (and this will not be easy) there
appears to be a route to passage for a carefully
crafted STEM immigration bill in 2012.
IEEE-USA is committed to
fighting for high-skill visa reform and plans to
support whichever bill emerges from the current
negotiations that contains the STEM and
country-cap provisions.
Questions or
comments on IEEE-USA's efforts to reform the
high-skill immigration system may be directed to
Russ Harrison at
r.t.harrison@ieee.org.
Russell T. Harrison is
IEEE-USA’s Senior Legislative Representative for
Grassroots Affairs.
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