Biden seeks more foreign workers while skirting H-1B visa uproar
Joe Biden’s immigration overhaul seeks to allow more skilled foreign workers into the U.S. without stirring widespread protest from labor groups, whose opposition would all but ruin prospects for what is already one of the president’s most precarious priorities.
The sweeping proposal Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office drew quick Republican opposition over its centerpiece: a faster path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Another provision would allow more foreign students and workers to enter the U.S. by increasing the number of employment-based green cards.
Business groups view the proposal as a way to increase the supply of coders and other skilled tech workers for U.S. companies without raising caps on programs such as the H-1B visa for high-skilled workers.
Companies like Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. have for years pressed to increase the number of tech workers allowed into the U.S., saying they need engineers from countries like India because there aren’t enough skilled Americans. But efforts to expand the workforce through H-1B visas have drawn a backlash from unions and immigration opponents, who argue that the companies overlook U.S. talent to hire foreigners at lower salaries.
The Biden proposal seeks to sidestep a conflict with organized labor by leaving the annual H-1B quota untouched. The measure instead clears a path for more foreign workers to eventually enter the country by eliminating a decades-long backlog of people waiting for employment-based green cards, which grant permanent legal residence and are capped at 140,000 per year under current law.
“This bill, signed into law, would be a tremendous improvement for legal immigration in this country,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigration advocacy group founded by tech industry leaders.
