President Barack Obama's government presented new laws proposed to promote highly-qualified immigrants in the United States, launching a clause that would provide work visas for spouses and facilitate the staying of highly qualified workers in science, technology and engineering.
Through a press release emitted on Tuesday, May 6 through the United States Department of Commerce, led by Penny Pritzker, the American federal government pointed out that highly qualified immigrants cannot be considered to be just individuals, but rather potential families which are forced to leave the country due to long beaurocratic processes they have to undergo to obtain green cards, which is why the government is choosing to ease their residency in the country and avoid brilliant minds returning to their countries or other nations and end up working for the competition.
"Many are tired of waiting for green cards and leave to work for our competition. The fact is we have to do more to retain and attract top level talent to the United States and these regulations put us on the path to do it," said Pritzker.
Among the changes to legislation proposed by Obama are allowing the spouses of those benefited with H-1B visas, given to workers in science, technology and engineering, allowing them to work in American soil while they obtain their green cards.
Along with Pritzker, Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, said that the approval of said measures might affect around 97,000 people in the first year it's applied and over 30,000 yearly in the next years.
The figures indicated that 28% of new businesses in the United States are started by immigrants and that 40% of the companies listed in Forbes were started by immigrants or the children of immigrants, according to Reuters.
The proposal launched by the government of Barack Obama comes at a time in which an immigration reform is discussed in the House of Representatives, after the Senate voted in favor of a bipartisan project in June 2013, which provides a path to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Business groups in the areas of technology, restaurants and agriculture have expressed their need for Congress to reach an agreement in immigration reform, saying that many of the jobs offered are of no interest to American citizens.
In late March, the Congressional Budget Office presented a study in which shows that approving immigration reform would reduce the deficit of the American economy by $900 billion dollars. In its figures, the CBO highlighted that the HR15 law project presented by democrats in the House would reduce the deficit of the American economy in billions of dollars in a 20 year period, estimating that the new law, which is very similar to project S744 approved by the Senate in 2013, would save the country around $200 billion dollars in the first ten years, and $700 billion dollars in the second decade.