Visa Lawyer Blog

What a great speech tonight at the State of the Union Address. The president continued his push for Congress to act on politically volatile issues such as immigration reform.

He said:

Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants. And right now, leaders from the business, labor, law enforcement, faith communities, they all agree that the time has come to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Now’s the time to do it.

Many immigrants have different skills from the native-born population, and complement the skills of the U.S. labor force. Immigrants make the economy more efficient by reducing bottlenecks caused by labor shortages, both in the high-skill and low-skill area.

That’s because the educational backgrounds of immigrants and native-born Americans are different. Statistically, the average skills of native-born American workers are distributed in a bell-shaped curve. Many Americans have high school diplomas and some college education, but relatively few adults lack high school diplomas and even fewer have Ph.D.s in math and science.

In contrast, immigrants’ skills are distributed in a U-shaped curve, with disproportionate shares of adults without high school diplomas who seek manual work and others with Ph.D.s in math and science. Among native-born Americans, 91% have a high school diploma or higher, whereas only 62% of noncitizens do. Foreign-born workers are about 16% of the labor force, according to the Labor Department, yet represent 49% of the labor force without a high school diploma, 25% of all doctorates, and 35% of doctorates in science, math, computer science and engineering.

Since immigrants have a smaller share of high school diplomas and B.A.s, which is where native workers tend to be concentrated, they do not compete directly with most native-born workers. Now think about the arguments some politicians are making about how immigrants take away jobs from Americans during this economy. If the distribution of labor shows that immigrants are entering areas of the labor force that native-born Americans choose not to work in, then those immigrants are filling a vital role in the economy.

Immigrants choose different jobs from native-born Americans. Low-skilled immigrants are disproportionately represented in the service, construction, and agricultural sectors, with occupations such as janitors, landscapers, tailors, plasterers, stucco masons, and farmworkers.

They come to be fruit pickers, as well as janitors and housekeepers, jobs native-born Americans typically do not choose as careers. However, immigrants are not found as crossing guards and funeral service workers, low-skill jobs preferred by Americans. Government, education, health, and social services, are sectors that employ few immigrants. Just looking at the fields of work that immigrants enter into compared to native-Americans, the fields that native-Americans enter compared to immigrants vary quite substantially in terms of how many occupy a given field.

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After the November 2012 presidential election in the United States, lawmakers from both political parties have shown interest in making changes to U.S. immigration laws and started taking action.

Best Chance In Many Years for Immigration Overhaul

Democratic President Barack Obama campaigned on immigration reform. Democrats in the U.S. Congress have long favored immigration reform that would help the approximately 11 million undocumented persons already living in the U.S.

Pressing to move quickly to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws, Democratic leaders began setting a strategy to advance legislation as the White House worked to rally business support.

Returning to a tactic used in last year’s fiscal fight, administration officials held a conference call with executives of some of the nation’s largest companies to lay out President Barack Obama’s proposals and to enlist corporate backing.

At the Capitol, Senate Democratic leaders expressed confidence that Congress would pass immigration legislation now that a bipartisan group of House lawmakers plans to introduce a proposal as early as this month.

Great news today, very important. Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Marco Rubio of Florida and Chris Coons of Delaware have introduced the Immigration Innovation ( I Squared) Act of 2013 which aims to increase the H-1B quota, enhance the portability of existing H-1Bs, increase the number of employment-based green cards and allow U.S. students (especially STEM) to obtain green cards in a more efficient way.

if passes – would do a lot to fix our immigration system and help the economy. This legislation would:

1. Increase the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000;

Today, President Obama called for common sense, comprehensive immigration reform, saying unequivocally that now is the time for action. He noted that most Americans agree that it is time to “fix the system that has been broken for way too long” and that immigration reform will strengthen our economy and our nation’s future.

Speaking at a majority Hispanic high school in Las Vegas, Obama said “a broad consensus is emerging” behind the issue across the country, with signs of progress in Congress.

However, he acknowledged a fierce debate ahead on an issue he described as emotional and challenging, but vital to economic growth and ensuring equal opportunity for all.

Exciting news to many of our readers. Undocumented immigrants would be able to seek legal status without first going home under a compromise framework presented today by a bipartisan group of senators.

Here is the framework of a bipartisan group of senators’ immigration reform plan they say will secure the border, modernize the country’s current immigration system and create a “tough but fair” path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants already in the country.

We will keep analyzing this proposal and keep you posted.