Remember H-1B workers in debate
In the mornings, 12-year-old Jasmine packs up her backpack and heads off to school. Her favorite subject is computer science, and she earns good grades. She’s only in the seventh grade, but she imagines becoming an artist — or maybe a teacher. She loves volleyball, hamburgers and singing along to Demi Lovato on the radio.
“In her heart, she’s an American,” says her mother. “This is the only country she’s ever known.”
Except Jasmine (not her real name) was born in India.
She was brought to the United States — legally — when she was 3 by her parents, who both work at Salesforce under temporary H-1B visas for highskilled foreign workers.
Jasmine’s parents are dedicated to their jobs and love America. They both applied for green cards to become legal permanent residents, and they hope to become citizens. But they’ve been waiting for their green cards for nearly eight years.
The problem is, under current law, there’s an arbitrary cap of about 9,800 immigrants who can receive a green card each year from any one county. Which means people from countries with high populations — for example, India — can end up waiting decades.
If Jasmine turns 21 before her parents’ green cards are approved, she’ll lose her status as a dependent and her legal right to be in this country. “Our family has never been apart,” says her mother. “If Jasmine were forced to leave the United States, we’d all go back to India together.”
“We haven’t talked to Jasmine about it yet,” she adds. “We don’t want her to be worried.” But as parents, they are. As Congress works to update our immigration laws, attention is rightly focused on protecting 690,000 young “Dreamers” who were brought to this country as children and who were temporarily shielded from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Unless Congress acts, they are at risk of being removed from the United States, starting next month. These Dreamers are Americans in every way — except on paper — and they deserve a path to citizenship.
In the debate, however, children such as Jasmine risk being forgotten.
There’s a clear solution. The Fairness for Highly-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2017 would end the absurd per-country cap on green cards and cut the enormous backlog for H-1B visa holders. This legislation is a rare example of a truly bipartisan bill; it’s supported by more than 300 members of the House of Representatives — a majority of both Republicans and Democrats — and it should be included in any larger deal on immigration.
H-1B workers help fill an unfortunate shortage of American workers for science and engineering jobs. In 2016, U.S. colleges and universities produced only 568,00 graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The same year, there were about 3 million more science, technology, engineering and math jobs open than workers with the skills to fill them, according to a study by the New American Economy, an organization of business and government leaders.
Just as we need to invest more in STEM education and training here at home, the United States needs to attract highskilled talent from around the world if we’re going to stay competitive in the global economy. Jasmine’s mother earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science and her master’s in software systems. At Salesforce, she excels as a data warehouse engineer and leads a 20-person team.
H-1B workers help generate innovation and growth that benefits us all. By 2022, Salesforce is expected to create 3.3 million jobs in the United States and around the world. None of this dynamism would be possible without our 30,000 dedicated Salesforce employees — including about 1,000 highskilled foreign workers here on H-1B visas.
Jasmine’s parents came here legally. They work hard and pay their taxes. They bought a house, planted trees in the yard and hope to be here to watch them grow. Their wish is that Jasmine — and her 4-year-old sister — “grow up to be good human beings who live their lives with compassion and give back to their community.”
What a loss for our country it would be if striving immigrant families like this who are waiting patiently for their green cards were forced to leave the only country their daughters have ever called home.
“Immigrants have helped to make this country a great country,” says Jasmine’s mother, increasingly anxious about whether America will continue to welcome families like hers.
As politicians in Washington make decisions that will define our immigration policies for years to come, hers is a voice we need to hear — and remember.