The tech industry is closely watching for signs of how Donald Trump intends to approach immigration policy as Inauguration Day draws near. Trump's transition team has been making noise about changing the skilled worker program especially, adjusting how the H-1B visas, used overwhelmingly by tech companies, are distributed, according to a report today from Reuters.
Immigration reform has long been a dream for the tech industry. A vast array of trade groups and individual companies publicly rooted for the immigration reform bill put together and passed by the Senate in 2015. But, after House Republicans killed that bill last year, the subject only became more controversial, with Trump's campaign, in particular, taking a hard-line stance on immigration in general.
“Congress should fix the abuses in the H1-B visa program, lift artificial visa caps and ensure foreign STEM graduates of U.S. universities can stay in America and create jobs," Michael Hayes, senior manager for government affairs at the Consumer Technology Association told DC Inno in an email. "Immigrant entrepreneurs have founded 51 percent of U.S. startups, employing 5.9 million U.S. workers."
Trump's victory hasn't dissuaded the tech industry from hoping for reform. It was a topic discussed at Trump Tower last month by a group of major tech executives and the Trump team. Trump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller has publicly suggested one potential revision: turning the lottery system used for H-1B visas into one weighting salaries for who gets in. That would also change the way that current lottery system tends to be outsourcing companies that get many of the visas, which can make it harder for smaller companies to compete.
For a lot of companies, one aspect to solve the problem would simply be raising the 65,000 limit to visas handed out each year.
"When her application was first rejected, we seriously considered opening an office in Canada."
It's not just Silicon Valley watching this debate closely. Plenty of D.C. area companies have founders or employees who are only able to live and work here because of an H-1B visa.
"I am glad that immigration is at the top of the agenda of the new administration," Ximena Hartsock, founder of local digital communications for advocacy startup Phone2Action told DC Inno. "It is important to note that not all H-1B applicants are recruited from overseas; many are people already in the U.S.
"I experienced this firsthand with one of our first hires and an active member of the D.C. tech scene, Jill Nguyen. The visa process was long, expensive and tedious, but we eventually succeeded. When her application was first rejected, we seriously considered opening an office in Canada to avoid terminating her. Clearly, a big downfall of the current system is that there are not easy paths to permanent employment for bright students who have been educated here."
The H-1B visa debate is often framed around whether it takes jobs away from American citizens, but while there are some cases of that happening, Hartsock said that in the D.C. area it's often just impossible to find enough local talent. She argued that means more foreign-born applicants should be considered, while at the same time the educational pipeline for science and technology has to be improved to expand the local talent pool.
Currently, there's new legislation in Congress that would address at least some of the H-1B needs, sponsored in the House by a Republican and a Democrat. Any success though will need to get the Trump administration's backing, making it a long-shot, but one with the backing of the CTA, at least.
"Smart, bipartisan legislation can leverage common ground between Democrats and Republicans and make it easier for the world’s most talented technology engineers to create and maintain some of the latest cutting-edge innovations in America," Hayes wrote in an email to DC Inno. "We applaud Representatives Darrel Issa (R-CA) and Scott Peters (D-CA) for reintroducing the Protect and Grow American Jobs to tackle abuse of the H1-B system, and we look forward to working with Congress to improve the H1-B program."
Photographer: Albin Lohr-Jones/Pool via Bloomberg
