CEO DATELINE - Proposed immigration cuts worry associations
CEO DATELINE - Proposed immigration cuts worry associations
- August 3, 2017 |
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Walt Williams
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President Donald Trump is proposing cutting the number of legal immigrants entering the U.S. by half, but a handful of associations representing different industry sectors said that would be a bad idea.
"This is not the right proposal to fix our immigration system because it does not address the challenges tech companies face, injects more bureaucratic dysfunction, and removes employers as the best judge of the employee merits they need to succeed and grow the U.S. economy," said Dean Garfield, CEO of the Information Industry Technology Council.
Trump on Wednesday endorsed legislation that would slash the number of permanent residency green cards from 1 million to 500,000 annually, the Washington Post reported. The bill would also further restrict the number of refugees admitted into the country. http://wapo.st/2fbQvyX
Many industries favor broad immigration policies as a way of attracting new talent to the country. Craig Lindwarm, the director of congressional and governmental affairs at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, told news site Inside Higher Ed the new bill "completely misses the target."
"While we need a focus on employment-based immigration, particularly one that looks at how we can do better at retaining the talent that graduates from our universities, this bill actually doesn't expand the number of employment-based green cards available, so it doesn't address that fundamental issue that there aren't enough green cards to retain the talent that we need," Lindwarm said. http://bit.ly/2u7id6G
The American Immigration Lawyers Association issued a statement saying the bill "does nothing to reform our outdated immigration system, yet seeks to curtail legal immigration levels over the next decade."
"Contrary to President Trump's claims on the campaign trail and the motives of this bill, immigrants are a boon to our local and national economies and communities," AILA President Annaluisa Padilla said. "This (bill) would force close family members, including parents, brothers, and sisters to live apart, perhaps for their entire lives and is truly an attack on family unification."
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