This week the Senate “Gang of Eight” released their comprehensive immigration bill titled, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013.” This legislation is the result of months of negotiating between Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY), John McCain (R-AZ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ).
As the title of the legislation suggests, the bill addresses issues involving border security, legalization, legal immigration, employment verification, temporary visas for both high- and low-skilled workers and agricultural jobs. Legal immigration, i.e. green cards, and temporary visas are what most affects the tech industry. The temporary visas – you have probably heard of the popular H-1B – are what enables foreign workers to come to the U.S. on a temporary basis for a specific job and green cards are what allows those workers to stay permanently, regardless of where they are employed.
The bill that was introduced is a starting point. We expect that there will be a robust process on the Hill including committee hearings; mark-ups, which give committees of jurisdiction the opportunity to review the bill and make changes before releasing the bill to the Senate or House floor for a full vote; and a great deal of political outreach to interested parties.
As members of the IT community, this legislation has the potential to affect all of us. Right now, many companies struggle to find the workers they need domestically. There are approximately 250,000 open IT job in the U.S. at any given time. Of course, not all of these jobs need to be filled by foreign talent, but that is definitely one piece of this puzzle.
Reforming our immigration laws to allow for the best and the brightest to come to the U.S. and put down roots will be beneficial for the IT ecosystem. Not only will we fill open jobs with the right talent, but that talent will be able to remain in the U.S. to inspire and develop a domestic talent pipeline leading to a strong IT workforce.
You can find CompTIA’s statement on the introduction of the immigration reform bill here. Additionally, we thought it might be helpful for you to see what other high-tech- and economic-focused immigration groups have to say:
- Compete America, which is a leading advocate for reform of U.S. immigration policy for highly educated foreign professionals, put out this statement.
- Partnership For A New American Economy, which is made up of a bipartisan group of mayors and business leaders, said this.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, thoughts or concerns or would like to see a copy of the 884 page bill!
