Congress should not weaken the diversity among workforce immigrants | Opinion
In July 2019, U.S. House Bill 1044, lifting per-country immigrant visa quotas, passed with only two Florida lawmakers voting against it.
Many of our congressional representatives who voted for the legislation had no clue what they were voting for. Every country in the world is limited to an annual allotment of 7 percent of U.S. workforce immigrant visas.
Because of the high demand for technology workers from India, the demand for workforce immigrant visas for Indian nationals far exceeds the 7 percent allocation. H1044 lifts the 7 percent per country quota, without adding any additional visas. Once the quota is lifted, there are a sufficient number of Indian nationals in line before every other nationality. That means that for the next decade or more, workforce immigrant visas will be monopolized by Indian nationals to the exclusion of 194 other countries.
This creates a serious imbalance. Since there are few black, Jewish or Hispanic Indian nationals, these individuals will be largely barred from workforce immigration, to Florida’s detriment.
The companion bill, S386, is now under consideration in the Senate. This bill also lifts the 7 percent per-country quota with the same result as H1044. For the next decade or more, workforce immigrant visas will go almost exclusively to Indian nationals. Additionally, S386 offers no protection to non-Indian nationals who have already started the workforce-residence process.
Both of these bills are injurious to TPS and DACA beneficiaries, who are often sponsored for lawful permanent residence through workforce immigration. Additionally, both of these bills are extremely harmful to Florida as foreign direct investment is almost exclusively European and Canadian.
It’s concerning that, knowing the harmful consequences of S386 to Florida, neither Sens. Marco Rubio nor Rick Scott has voiced opposition to S386. Without their opposition, these bills likely will become law.
Clearly, the workforce immigrant visa line of Indian nationals is untenable, but there is a fix that will not irreparably harm all other nationalities. On Dec. 5, 2019, U.S. Reps. Donna Shalala and Debbie Wasserman Schultz introduced the Relief Act in the House. This is an excellent bill, with a companion Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin.
This legislation will preserve workforce immigration for all nationalities while eliminating the per-country quotas that have caused so much hardship to Indian nationals. Wasserman Schultz and Shalala understand that lifting per-country quotas, without adding more visa numbers, would largely bar all nationalities, except Indian nationals, from workforce immigration for a decade.
Florida relies on a diverse workforce. Any bill restricting workforce immigration to only Indian nationals for the next decade will damage Florida’s economy. Certainly, there needs to be a fix for the Indian workforce quota, but this fix cannot be a bar to workforce immigration for all other nationalities. The solution must include additional visa numbers to preserve a diverse workforce.
The Relief Act will continue to preserve the integrity of our immigration system, while recognizing the importance of foreign investment to Florida’s economy. H1044 and S386 are bad bills that will serve to destroy Florida’s economy and deprive it of the diverse workforce it needs.
We need to demand that Rubio and Scott object to S386 and support the Relief Act, as it provides a much-needed solution to the Indian quota backlogs, while preserving diversity in workforce immigration.
Tammy Fox-Isicoff is an immigration-law attorney in Miami.
