IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS -- FALL 2013

 

IMMIGRATION PROPOSALS – FALL 2013

 

We are coming to the end of the Congressional year, with multiple immigration proposals begging for action.  For years, the needs of business have been ignored by Congress, in favor of a singular focus on border and interior enforcement.   That strategy has raised deportation totals to historic levels, but it has done nothing to support the needs of business, or the workers on whom they depend.  

 

Every year for over a decade, H-1B visa numbers have run out within a week of the April 1 filing date.   In each of those years, business owners and representatives of the US Chamber have lobbied and testified before Congress, asking for increased H-1B numbers, or at least a market-based formula to determine how many H-1Bs should be issued.   They also have asked for more employment-based green card numbers to reduce lengthy, multi-year backlogs.   Congress consistently ignored those pleas.

 

This year, the Senate finally acted.  S. 744, passed June 27, 2013, in a comprehensive, one-bill format, contains many pro-business provisions as well as multiple border and interior enforcement points.   The House has addressed primarily enforcement issues, using a several-bill structure that so far has not progressed to full House consideration.  One of the House bills does address a minor slice of the visa system: improved green card provisions for extremely high skill workers.    

 

The contrast between the two approaches is clear:  the Senate supports business needs; the House by and large continues to ignore them.

 

Below is a summary of business–related sections of S. 744, the bill introduced in the House, and two very recent developments in the House.

 

A.           Senate Bill S. 744 – passed June 27, 2013; no action in House

 

1.            Employment Based Immigrant Visas (green cards) – Section 2307

a.            Exempts advanced STEM grads, plus all immigrants in the highest-level green card categories, from numerical limits, thus eliminating backlogs for these applicants.

b.            Allocates green cards for those with BA/BS degrees up to 40%  of world-wide level (up from 28.6% now)

c.            Removes labor certification (PERM) requirement from cases for all STEM positions

 

2.            Employment Based Temporary visas – Section 4101

a.            Increases H-1B visas to 110,000 per year (from 65,000), with market-based formula providing later increases up to 180,000

b.            Sets aside additional 25,000 (up from 20,000) for grads of US masters and PhD programs, but restricts this set-aside to STEM grads

 

3.            New Investor Visas created – Sections 4801/02

               a.            Adds temporary and green card investor categories; similar to the current E-2 temporary visa; less demanding than the current EB-5 green card category

 

4.            Registered Provisional Immigrant (RPI) status and W Visas created – Sections 2101 and 4702

               a.            Creates RPI status for undocumented who can prove entry before 2012 and presence since then, payment of all back taxes, payment of $500 fine and standard USCIS filing fee, plus clean record

               b.            RPI status good for 6 years, with possibility of one 6 year renewal

               c.            After ten years, RPIs apply for green card; after 5 more, RPIs apply for citizenship

               d.            Starting in 2015, workers in manual labor jobs can be sponsored for W visa if US employer can show lack of qualified US workers; good for 3 years with chance to renew; can be transferred to new employer sponsor.  Initial limit of 20,000, with formula-based maximum of 200,000 per year

 

B.           House bills introduced this session

 

1.            SKILLS VISA ACT – Employment Based Green Cards

a.            Creates new green card categories for STEM PhD and Masters grads, and for grads of medical, dental and vet programs.

b.            Creates green card category for venture-based entrepreneurs

 

2.            Hispanic Caucus bill

Led by Chairman Ruben Hinojosa of Texas, the Caucus has been working with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to combine the essence of S. 744 with a border security bill passed by the House Homeland Security Committee in May with bi-partisan support.   Still being finalized, but should be introduced soon.

 

3.            Goodlatte Proposal expected soon

As early as September 30, Rep.  Bob Goodlatte, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is expected to announce several reform bills.   No clear signals on what the bills will address, or if they will be different from the enforcement bills introduced earlier this year in the House.

Gerry Chapman

Keeping the momentum going! Now is the time to keep pushing Congress to have a full debate!

The Syrian conflict and the budget crisis have gotten most of the press and attention of late.  Many who support immigration reform have started to wonder if we should pause and wait for next spring to push again.

Will those recent events determine our course of action, or should we keep pushing?   The choice is easy – we must keep moving forward.   We have the momentum now, but if we take a step back, we will lose it completely in the face of upcoming 2014 elections. 

This summer saw an unprecedented number of rallies, Congressional visits and the like – all geared toward one goal (common-sense immigration reform) and one objective (getting substantive debate in the House started).   The reports are uniformly encouraging about the breadth of the effort, the level of energy involved, and the results to date.

We must continue to be proactive, despite the fact that other important issues are taking some attention away from immigration reform.  At least for the short term, the Syrian conflict will become less pressing; the latest proposal from Russia, if accepted by the US, will let the administration back down and still save face.  (I am not a supporter of Asaad, but just identifying the political realities.) 

I also believe that the budget “crisis” has a longer life span than it needs to, because among other things, both the Democrats and the Republicans see it as an easy way to make the other side look bad.   

Even though the budget is a critical issue, we cannot let that issue take all of the attention away from the need for reform; in fact, if we want to strengthen the income side of the budget, immigration reform is one of the few steps we as a nation can take that will increase federal revenue.

If we let Congress off the hook now so that these other issues can be “resolved” first, we’ve sealed our own fate.   If not these issues, then some others will be put on the Congressional slate and used as an excuse to avoid dealing with immigration. 

WE MUST NOT LET CONGRESS OFF THE HOOK!!!

If people had told MLK that he should not march on Washington because most people saw other things as more important than civil rights, he’d have thanked them for their opinion and gone right ahead.  No difference now; we need to keep pushing and not let up.

Tomorrow I will visit the office of our local Congressional member with the officers of three local companies that employ a lot of local workers, and whose jobs depend on the health of those companies.   That House member has been in office for 24+ years.   We have written him, discussed the issue with him and so far not gotten very far. 

However, I believe that tomorrow’s visit will be different.  Instead of having one or two immigration lawyers make the visit, we are taking people who have substantive stories as business owners and who will tell this Congressional office that the local labor force cannot supply the workers that they need, and that they have tried to find sufficient numbers of reliable and skilled workers over and over again, but it’s not happening.  We (being us immigration lawyers) have given this message to this office (and many others) repeatedly, but no one is hearing us.   We think the new voices will make a difference.

This the time to keep pushing and keep being heard,  and not let up until Congress has had a full debate and a final vote on a comprehensive immigration bill.  

Gerry Chapman