Visas
Cato Institute Analyzes the Benefits of Immigration for the United States
The Winter 2012 issue of the Cato Journal is devoted to answering a single question: “Is Immigration Good for America?” In 13 articles, 16 scholars answer with a resounding “Yes!” The consensus is that immigrants provide a net benefit to the U.S. economy and to U.S. workers. There is also a consensus among the authors that the current immigration system, with its patchwork of arbitrary numerical caps, needlessly squanders the full economic potential of immigration. The authors call for a thorough revamping of the immigration system to make it more responsive to labor demand, to attract highly skilled professionals and entrepreneurs, and to offer a pathway to legal status for the unauthorized population. Read More
USCIS Seeks to Unify Families Facing Separation through Revised Waiver Process
Today, the administration took another important step toward fixing one of the most notorious problems with our broken immigration system—the 3 and 10 year bars. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it was filing a notice of intent to change a rule which would streamline the application process for many relatives of U.S. citizens currently eligible for permanent resident status, thereby minimizing the amount of time that applicants would have to be away from their families before being admitted into the United States. Read More
New Report Finds that Immigration Creates U.S. Jobs
Immigration creates jobs for native-born Americans. That is the fundamental finding of a new study from the American Enterprise Institute and the Partnership For A New American Economy, entitled Immigration and American Jobs. The study—authored by Madeline Zavodny, a professor of economics at Agnes Scott College—reinforces the findings of numerous other studies which have demonstrated that there is no correlation between immigration and unemployment. Specifically, Zavodny analyzes Census data with the aim of answering one pivotal question: “In states with more immigrants, are US natives more or less likely to have a job?” Zavodny focuses on two groups in particular: immigrants with advanced degrees, and immigrants of any skill level who are in the country on temporary visas. Read More
American Innovation Takes on Broken U.S. Immigration System
In the past several days news reports have depicted good old American ingenuity taking on our broken and outdated immigration system. CNN ran a story last week from Georgia about a handful of educators who have taken matters into their own hands after the state’s Board of Regents passed an extreme law in 2010 banning undocumented immigrant children from attending Georgia’s top public colleges and universities—banned despite the fact that these kids pay three times the rate of other in-state students due to their immigration status. Read More
Even Facebook Feels Brunt of Broken U.S. Immigration Policy
You know things are bad when a company as popular as Facebook has problems finding qualified talent. In a recent interview, Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, remarked that our outdated immigration policy is a big reason Silicon Valley tech companies are fighting each other for highly skilled workers. Current immigration policy limits high-skilled worker visas (H-1B) to only 65,000 per year—a number that hardly meets demand. Even technology giant Microsoft recently testified before Congress that current immigration policies make finding talent a serious challenge. Until lawmakers revamp our outdated immigration system, technology companies like Facebook and Microsoft will continue to lose out on the foreign talent they need to stay ahead of the curve. Read More
Thousands of Children Stuck in Foster Care after Parents Deported, Report Finds
A report released this week reveals yet another devastating consequence of the enforcement-only approach to immigration—a startling number of children whose parents have been detained and deported are placed in foster care and face enormous barriers reuniting with their families. According to the Applied Research Center, 1 in 4 people deported in FY 2011 (nearly 100,000 people) left behind a U.S. citizen child. The report found that the odds of reuniting the families are so low that the parents “basically fall off the face of the earth when it comes to the child welfare system.” Sadly, because of the regular increase in the number of annual deportations, this number is expected to triple in the next five years. Read More
A Small Step Toward Reform: Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Raise Per Country Immigration Caps
An immigration bill introduced by Congressmen Lamar Smith and Jason Chaffetz and supported by Democrats may actually have a chance at passing in Congress. Scheduled for a mark up this week, the bill (H.R. 3012) would make small but significant changes to the way green cards are distributed by eliminating per country numerical limits on employment-based green cards and raising the limits on family-based green cards which go to immigrants from each country. Read More
DHS Acknowledges that U.S. Immigration Policy Needs to Spark Economy and Attract Entrepreneurs
By PAUL ZULKIE, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION COUNCIL Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas announced a series of policy initiatives designed to “fuel the nation's economy and stimulate investment” by attracting foreign entrepreneurs who can invest in fields of high unemployment, create jobs, and form startup companies. It is encouraging that USCIS recognizes that immigrant entrepreneurs and innovators are a key to continued growth and to maintaining America’s competitive edge into the 21st century. It’s important that the agency keep this recognition in mind as it adjudicates visa petitions and applications. Read More
Administration Uses Executive Authority to Keep Educated Grads in U.S. Longer
By H. BOB SAKANIWA, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAWYER'S ASSOCIATION As President Obama indicated in an immigration speech in El Paso, Texas, earlier this month, in a global marketplace, the United States needs the best and brightest to stay in our country to work, innovate and help create jobs for the benefit of all Americans. Well-educated, foreign-born professionals have made enormous contributions to our country, and we should do all we can to retain the next generation of these types of contributors. Just two days after President Obama put the topic of immigration reform back into the national debate, the administration exercised its executive authority to expand the number of science, technology, engineering, and math degree (STEM) programs that can be used to qualify foreign graduates to extend their post-graduate training. Read More
SCOTUS E-Verify Ruling No Bellwether for Fate of SB1070
By Mary Giovagnoli and Melissa Crow Today’s Supreme Court decision upholding Arizona’s law requiring employers to use E-verify or risk losing their business licenses will, like all Supreme Court decisions, take some time to digest. What’s surprising, however, is how quickly some are already jumping to the conclusion that today’s decision signals how the Supreme Court might rule on SB 1070 when, and if, it finally makes its way to the Supreme Court. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
