Will immigration plan favor tech over families?
President Trump’s call for a more merit-based immigration system could lead to a greater focus on bringing in skilled workers and entrepreneurs who help Silicon Valley thrive — at the expense of uniting the families of immigrants.
In his first address to Congress, Trump praised countries like Australia and Canada, which give preference to immigrants who are likely to contribute to the economy over family members of naturalized citizens.
“Yet, in America, we do not enforce this rule, straining the very public resources that our poorest citizens rely upon,” he said, adding that a focus on high-skilled immigrants will save money, raise workers’ wages and help struggling families enter the middle class.
Such a plan could help Silicon Valley companies that have complained about the limited number of visas available for such high-skilled workers, said Vivek Wadhwa, an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Silicon Valley campus.
From October 2015 to Sept. 30, 678,988 people became permanent U.S. residents after using family-based visas, according to the most recent data made available by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency. In the same period, 144,047 people qualified for permanent residency through employment visas.
When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella brought up the dearth of work visas in a December meeting between Donald Trump and top technology executives, Trump responded positively, according to an account by the technology news site Recode. “Let’s fix that,” Trump reportedly said.
The U.S. already has multiple programs that award visas based on merit. Those with degrees from accredited U.S. universities, as well as entrepreneurs who plan on making a substantial investment into a company that will create or retain U.S. jobs, qualify for specific visas.
The H-1B visas, which allow highly skilled workers to spend three to six years at sponsoring companies in the U.S., are particularly important to Bay Area tech firms that rely on them to fill engineering positions.
There are a total of 85,000 H-1B visas available each year. Applications typically exceed that cap within the first week they become available.
Trump’s January immigration order that banned entry visas for people from seven predominantly Muslim countries, as well as his remarks during the campaign about preserving American jobs, provoked anxiety about the future of the H-1B visa program.
The move also put a chill on college students who come to America to study, often hoping to stay in the country to work.
Trump’s reference to “meritbased” immigration could be good news for students like Raya Bidshahri, an Iranian citizen who had plans to either launch a startup or land a work visa after graduation but was discouraged by the travel ban.
Wadhwa said Trump’s latest comments suggest that he will value high-skilled immigrants like Bidshahri, who is studying neuroscience, over, say, an older relative of a naturalized citizen who has no plans to work.
Amie Miller, a San Francisco immigration lawyer, said Trump’s intense focus on highskilled immigration is worrisome for immigrants trying to bring their relatives to the U.S.
“His comments could be a euphemism that would ultimately restrict family-based immigration and lower-skill labor, which is still an important part of our economy,” she said. “That is definitely a danger.”
Trump is expected to issue a new immigration order in the near future, but has given no indication of the exact date. He gave mixed messages on his stance on immigration Tuesday, telling news anchors in a private meeting that he’s open to immigration legislation that would give legal status to some people living in the U.S. illegally and provide a pathway to citizenship to those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Jason Finkelman, an Austinbased immigration attorney, said Trump’s comment regarding “merit-based” immigration runs counter to what the president has said in the past, and his suggestions that he would limit the H-1B program to instead focus on American jobs.
“Everything he said was vague,” Finkelman said.