Today, TechVoice hosted a WebEx webinar with two of Washington, D.C.’s experts on immigration reform. Alix Burns, founder of Bay Bridge Strategies, and Dan Turrentine, co-chair of Compete America, discussed comprehensive immigration reform legislation titled, “The Border, Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.” Burns and Turrentine provided analysis of the legislation, fixes they propose and the bill’s future.
Discussion began about the impact this bill has on the technology community. The bill addresses legal immigration – i.e., green cards – and temporary visas that are widely used by our industry to hire the best and the brightest from around the world. The Senate Judiciary committee has already held hearings reviewing the legislation and will begin the process of making changes to the bill this week.
Turrentine gave some history about the bill and said that the biggest challenge has not been the path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already here, but, rather, the H-1B visa system. He said as the bill stands today, there are several improvements from the current law. This includes moves to reduce green card backlog through a number of exemptions including exempting PhDs from annual cap (not just STEM); exempting all advanced degree STEM holders from U.S. universities; recapturing green cards from prior years (approximately 210,000); not counting family members of foreign workers; eliminating the per-country limits; and exempting existing EB-1 immigrants from the annual cap.
Turrentine said he has some concerns about the current legislation, including 50/50 numerical limitations. As it stands now, if a company employs more than 50 workers in fiscal year 2014, no more than 75 percent of the U.S. workforce may be in H-1B or L1 status; in fiscal year 2016, no more than 65 percent of the U.S. workforce may be in H-1B or L1 status; and in fiscal year 2017, no more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce may be in H-1B or L1 status.
Turrentine also has concerns about the recruiting, displacement and outplacement of STEM advanced degree holders that the current provisions of the bill outline. Turrentine and Burns said the tech industry is at a critical juncture with immigration reform. As the mark-ups of the bill take place this week, they are both cautiously optimistic.
To hear the TechVoice webinar presentation in full, please visit TechVoice.org tomorrow.
