CNN: "Why we should expand the H-1B visa program"

Rosario Marin, the 41st US treasurer under President George W. Bush and current chair of the American Competitiveness Alliance, a coalition of organizations advocating for immigration reform, is calling for an expansion to the H-1B program. With an H-1B cap that is currently set at 65,000 per fiscal year with an additional 20,000 available to applicants who possess an advanced degree from a US educational institution, this year the government received over 236,000 H-1B petitions (about 3,000 more than last year), which means many presumably qualified applicants are forced to return to their home country or find other ways to remain in the US.

Describing herself as a proud and lifelong Republican, Marin says she is going against her party’s platform and calling for a “strong, sensible immigration reform” that includes expanding the number of H-1Bs issued per year. She says:

There is overwhelming demand from American companies—both large and small—for educated, skilled foreign workers to fill jobs in computer programming, coding, medicine and information technology. These are jobs that would be left largely unfilled if not for international workers, as our domestic workforce doesn't consist of graduates with these skills in the enormous numbers we require. This is why it will be critical for Congress and the next president to push for immigration reform that expands the H-1B program.

A naturalized US citizen herself, she argues that H-1Bs and immigrants are essential to the American economic system. “Without them, companies struggle to locate the specific people with the specific computer and science skills they need to grow, translating into an inability to expand, to create jobs, to scale up,” she writes. “The United States must work to address our shortage of students graduating with advanced science, math and technology skills, but until it does, American companies need high-skilled international workers, not only to compete, but to survive.”

Opponents of the H-1B claim American companies often use the H-1B program to replace higher paid American workers and “lease” out lower-paid foreign national H-1B workers through third-party companies. Another study reveals that the truth about STEM fields is more complicated. The Monthly Labor Review of the Bureau of Labor Statistics states there are both shortages and surpluses of STEM workers, depending on the particular job market segments and geographic location. The study shows that while there is no shortage in the academic job market, in the private sector, positions such as software developers, petroleum engineers, data scientists, and those in skilled trades are in high demand.  

In her opinion piece, Marin concludes: “Our power and influence is owed largely to having been the country that gave the world automobiles, personal computers, countless other inventions. And people—well-educated, highly skilled people, many of them immigrants—were behind each and every one.”

Top 4 Myths about Immigration

Although Paul Ryan, the newly-elected House of Representatives Speaker, ruled out working with President Obama on comprehensive immigration reform, the call for reform continues, this time from Robert Reich, political economist and former labor secretary. Reich along with MoveOn.org released a short video addressing four common myths about immigration.

Myth: Immigrants Take Away American Jobs

Not true, Reich says. “Immigrants add to economic demand, and thereby push firms to create more jobs,” he says. Although Reich doesn’t cite it in the video, a study using US census data backs this claim. The report, by the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows that each immigrant creates 1.2 local jobs for local workers, with most of these created jobs going to native workers. In addition, immigrants appear to raise “local non-tradeables sector wages” as well as attract native-born workers from elsewhere in the country.

Myth: We Don’t Need Any More Immigrants

To counter this claim, Reich ties the importance of immigration to funding for American retirees. Twenty-five years ago each retiree in America was matched by five workers. Now it’s three workers for each retiree. “Without more immigration,” Reich says, “in fifteen years the ratio will fall to two workers for every retiree, which is not nearly enough to sustain our retiring population.” More specifically, it’s estimated that undocumented immigrant workers in particular are paying an estimated $13 billion a year in social security taxes for a total of over $100 billion in the last decade.

Myth: Immigrants Are a Drain on Public Budgets

Not so, Reich says. Immigrants pay taxes. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that undocumented immigrants paid over eleven billion in state and local taxes in 2012. If comprehensive immigration reform were passed, their combined nationwide state and local tax contributions would increase by another 2.2 billion. Although a study by anti-immigration group, Center for Immigration Studies, concluded that fifty-one percent of households headed by immigrants—legal or undocumented—receive some kind of welfare, this report was criticized for its research methods, and other reports show that immigrants pay more into public benefits than they receive back.

Myth: Legal and Illegal Immigration Is Increasing

The number of undocumented immigrants living in the US has declined from 12.2 million in 2007 to 11.3 million now, according to the Pew Research Center. Other reports confirm this decrease in immigration as well.

Reich concludes: “Don’t listen to the demagogues who want to blame the economic problems of middle class and poor on new immigrants, whether here legally or illegally.” He concludes: “We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform giving those who are undocumented a path to citizenship. Scapegoating them and other immigrants is shameful. And it’s just plain wrong.”