As a Republican-led effort to bring more high-skilled foreigners into the country is gaining momentum on Capitol Hill, a GOP rift threatens the proposal as much or more than White House opposition.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced legislation this month that would tweak the nation’s immigration laws, making it easier for high-tech firms in the United States to hire more foreign specialists in so-called “STEM” fields — science, technology, engineering and math.
The bill, which has several Democratic as well as Republican sponsors, would increase the number of high-tech visas to 115,000 a year from 65,000. That cap could go as high as 195,000 in any one year if there were enough demand for the workers.
Hatch called it a “common-sense approach” to ensuring that immigrants who come to the U.S. to be educated in high-tech fields have the ability to stay and “contribute to the economy and our society.”
High-tech firms for years also have been pushing for an increase in the quotas, saying that a lack of talented high-tech workers in the U.S. has stifled innovation and production that ultimately hurts the nation’s economy.
But Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., called such talk a “false claim” and a “hoax” and has been actively pressing his Senate GOP colleagues to oppose the proposal.
“Not only is there no shortage of qualified Americans ready, able and eager to fill these jobs, there is a huge surplus of Americans trained in these fields who are unable to find employment,” the Alabama Republican said in his 2015 “immigration handbook,” a 23-page memo he’s been circulating among Republican senators.
Sessions has accused high-tech firms of manufacturing the “myth” of an American high-tech worker shortage to flood the market with workers to keep wages down. He cites recent Census data showing that three in four Americans with STEM degrees don’t hold a job in one of those fields.
“What is not understandable is, why they have gotten away with it for so long?” Sessions said. “Even as IT firms clamor for more guest workers, they are laying off their existing workers in massive quantities.”
But supporters of allowing more high-tech foreign workers into the U.S. say Sessions’ numbers are skewed because many Americans who earn STEM degrees take jobs — either immediately after college or later on — in other areas, such as sales or management.
Hatch first introduced his Immigration Innovation (or “I-Squared”) Act last Congress, when it was attached to a comprehensive immigration package and used as sweater to win over reluctant Republicans. The measure passed the then-Democratic-run Senate in 2013 with significant bipartisan support but stalled and eventually died in the GOP-controlled House.
Hatch, who heads the Senate’s High Tech Task Force, sees his bill as a first step toward more immigration reform.
“I’m calling on everyone — from the president and both sides of the aisle in Congress to the tech and business industries — to get behind this bill and use it as a launching [pad] for more progress on immigration reform,” he said.
And Hatch’s bill has some key GOP supporters, including Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a 2016 presidential hopeful, and Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, where immigration issues are at the forefront.
“An immigration system for the 21st century will be judged by whether it provides the conditions for both security and economic growth,” Rubio said. “The reforms in this legislation lead the way to such a system.”
Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Chris Coons of Delaware and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut also have sponsored the measure.
But it’s not clear whether President Obama would sign the bill if it reached his desk, as he has advocated for a comprehensive — not piecemeal — approach to immigration reform.
The scenario also would present the president with an awkward situation: sign an immigration bill spearheaded by a conservative Republican, or veto a message endorsed by several members of his party.
Coons said that while he still hopes the new GOP-run Senate eventually will pass a comprehensive immigration reform package, “it’s important that we make progress in the areas that Democrats and Republicans do agree on, like steps to ensure that the world’s best and brightest do their work here in the United States.
“Inspiration is a precious resource, and if we want those ideas to be turned into job-creating innovations here in the U.S., we need to ensure those individuals can earn status here,” he said.
