Immigration: Anticipated Executive Order May Include High-Skilled Components

Immigration

With the prospect of immigration reform all but dead in Congress this year, the White House has spent the summer reaching out to the business community and others to build support for taking more limited executive action to slow deportations and potentially create more visas for high skilled workers.  Over the past few months, the White House's Office of Public Engagement, led by Valerie Jarrett, has conducted over 20 "listening sessions" with large employers and various business groups to gather input.  Potential actions regarding high-skilled immigrants include:

• No longer counting the dependents of employment-based visa holders towards the 140,000 visa cap (effectively doubling the number of visas available);
• Recapturing unused visas from previous years (potentially more than 200,000); and
• A range of other smaller technical fixes.

Some worry an executive order on immigration reform could poison the well for a broader Congressional package in the next Congress, but after years of efforts with no movement in the House, many have concluded that a limited fix may be better than nothing.  As Scott Corley, who runs the tech industry group Compete America, told Politico recently, "We know only Congress offers a long-term solution to our immigration problems.  They haven't acted, and that's costing our country hundreds of thousands of new American jobs each year… If the President offers meaningful short-term relief that ensures highly skilled job creators stay in America, of course we will support him 100 percent."  Though some Democrats are concerned about the potential impact on close Senate races, all indications are that the White House is planning to issue the order soon after Labor Day.