IN the wake of Mitt Romney’s devastating loss in the Presidential election, House Republicans will introduce a Bill to expand visa availability to foreign science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) graduates, as well as ease the process through which spouses and children of Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) may immigrate to the US. Although viewed as an acknowledgement by House Republicans of the GOP’s weak support from Latino voters, the “STEM Jobs Act” represents a possible fundamental shift among the Republican leadership in its attitude toward the immigration debate that could signal broad immigration reform ahead.
In September 2011, Republicans doomed a STEM Bill that would have increased the visa availability for STEM graduates, by insisting that the bill also eliminate the existing Diversity Visa program, which allows for individuals with only a high school degree or higher from certain under-represented countries to gain resident status in the US. House Democrats roundly rejected the Bill, guaranteeing its defeat. In an abrupt about-face, the Republican-sponsored STEM Jobs Act includes a provision to allow for spouses and children of LPRs to stay with or join their petitioning relatives much quicker.
Under current law, the spouse or child of a lawful permanent resident must wait 3-5 years before a visa becomes available under the Family-based Second Preference (F-2A) category. Under the STEM Jobs Act, Beneficiaries of these petitions could come to the US one year after the petition is filed to be reunited with their petitioning relative, while waiting for their immigrant visa to become available. Most commentators view the inclusion of this provision into the STEM Jobs Act as an indication that the Republicans are now more willing than ever to fairly consider comprehensive immigration reform.
The STEM Jobs Act would allow for an additional 55,000 Immigrant Visas for US graduates of Master’s level or higher graduates form US institutions annually. The idea behind such legislation, which has been introduced multiple times in the past, is to avoid “Brain Drain,” where graduates of America’s finest Universities take their skills to work for overseas companies instead of applying them here in the US The STEM Jobs Act thus takes a balanced approach, unlike most immigration reform proposals since 9-11 which have been loaded with “poison pills,” or grossly unfavorable provisions designed to either prevent the passage of the acts into law.
The STEM Jobs Act is not an “amnesty” and we probably will not see a Comprehensive Immigration Bill until Mid-2013. The Bill, however, is the most moderate piece of ameliorative immigration legislation sponsored by Republicans since the McCain-Kennedy Bill of 2004. With a groundswell of bipartisan support, the STEM Jobs Act could mark the beginning of the end for anti-immigrant law-making relying on the fears of voters at the expense of the economic and social benefits well-conceived immigration policy brings to us all.
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Daniel P. Hanlon is a California State Bar Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law and a principal of Hanlon Law Group, PC, located at 225 S. Lake Ave., 11th Floor in Pasadena, California; Tel. No. (626) 585-8005. Hanlon Law Group, PC is a “full-service Immigration Law firm.” E-mail: [email protected] and www.hanlonlawgroup.com.
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