Immigration Reform?

Here we go. Again. This is not the first dance for immigration and certainly won’t be the last, but maybe, just maybe, we will actually finish a song this time. It was clear after the 2012 election cycle that immigration was going to be a hot issue and our elected officials have come running out of the gate to tackle it. Here is a recap of the last week:

On Monday, January 28, a bipartisan group of eight senators introduced an outline for comprehensive immigration reform. The key is that it is bipartisan. From the Democrat side of the aisle, the team, led by the chair of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship, Senator Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), consisted of Senators Michael Bennet (Colo.), Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.). The Republican participants, led by Senator John McCain (Ariz.), a known advocate for immigration reform and enhanced border security, consisted of Senators Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsay Graham (S.C.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.).

The outline consisted of four pillars:

1. A tough but fair path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants that is contingent on border security.
2. Reform of the legal immigration system.
3. Effective employment verification.
4. An improved process for admitting future workers.

The second and fourth pillars, if executed properly, could be beneficial for the high-tech sector.

On Tuesday, January 29, we had a double header. First, a different group of bipartisan senators* introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013, also known as “I-Squared.” This bill, which would likely be rolled into a comprehensive immigration package, addresses high-skilled immigration and domestic pipeline challenges. Among other things, the bill increases the H-1B cap and establishes a market escalator so that the cap can be adjusted up or down in response to the demands of the economy; enables the recapture of green card numbers that were approved by Congress in previous years but were not used while exempting certain categories of persons with extraordinary skills from the green card cap; and reforms fees on H-1B visas and green cards to fund a grant program to promote STEM education and worker retraining at the state level.

The grant program is aimed at addressing the skills gap issue we are currently facing. There are approximately 250,000 open IT jobs in the country. We need to invest at home while allowing the best and the brightest to stay in this country after receiving their STEM degrees in order to have any chance at tackling the pipeline problem.

Second, President Obama gave a speech in Las Vegas on immigration reform, urging Congress to take action. President Obama also has remarked that should Congress fail to act, he will send his proposal to the Capitol for an up or down vote.

CompTIA released a statement applauding the introduction of both the outline for comprehensive immigration reform and the I-Squared bill. But a long road remains ahead. Within the Republican and Democratic parties, there is disagreement as to how immigration reform should be handled. There is strong bipartisan support for high-skilled immigration reform, but its fate hangs in the balance of comprehensive immigration reform. CompTIA will continue to actively engage in this debate and advocate for changes to our high-skilled immigration system for the benefit of the entire IT sector.

* The Immigration Innovation (I2) Act of 2013 was proposed by Senators Christopher Coons (D-Del.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).