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History is likely to repeat itself with President Joe Bidens immigration proposal.Yes, the plan is laudable for its twin goals of providing a path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants and reinstating visas for highly skilled workers. But as the idiom goes, this dog wont hunt. Thats because both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Congress will find aspects of the legislation objectionable. Even if the Democrats eliminate the filibuster so they can pass legislation with their ever-so-slim control of the Senate, Democratic lawmakers themselves are unlikely to reach a consensus, as experience shows.

This is a repeat of the political battles of the Obama years, when the Republicans staunchly supported skilled immigration while the Democrats held U.S. companies and their would-be workers hostage to demands to provide citizenship to the undocumented. The Democrats have also battled each other, as when Sen. Dick Durbin held up bipartisan legislation to remove discriminatory per-country limits on visas, which led immigration-advocacy groups to call him a racist. Sadly, the results of the Biden plan will be the same: warfare between and within the parties; no immigration reform; and a further demolition of U.S. competitiveness.

There is a simple solution: Separate skilled and unskilled immigration into separate billsand let each piece of legislation stand on its own merits.Easing opportunities for skilled immigrants to study, work, live, and build companies in the United States is the closest thing to an economic free lunch the country will ever find. There is bipartisan agreement on skilled immigration. That part of Bidens plan would be an easy, prompt, and significant achievement for the new administration.

The Obama and Trump administrations presided over a lost decade for immigration reform. When we wrote The Immigrant Exodus in 2012, Washington was at a similar juncture as today. Facing an uncertain future over their status, highly skilled immigrants were already beginning to flee the United States. Then it got worse: Since 2013, when Congress failed to enact reform and entered a toxic period of bipartisan political conflict and immigrant-bashing (the latter mostly by Republicans), many thousands of start-up companies that could have been launched or grown in the United States were started elsewhere or have moved abroad. For the longest time, the United States had the highest concentration of unicornsstart-ups with a stock market capitalization of a billion dollars or morein the world. The last decade, however, has seen them established elsewhere. Today, China is the fastest-growing region for unicorns; India now has dozens of them as well. A Shanghai-based financial research firm found that China now has more unicorns than the United States. India expects to birth more than 50,000 start-ups by 2025, including 100 unicorns.

We have already demonstrated in our research that immigrants and their children go on to found many of the most successful companies, including Apple, Google, Tesla, WhatsApp, Instacart, and Slack. A 2018 study by Crunchbase found that the majority of U.S.-based unicorns were founded or headed by immigrants. Though the concentration of wealth and market power at these technology giants is associated with income disparity and even job displacement, successful tech companies do create disproportionate employment and wealth. The state of California managed to run a $15 billion government budget surplus during 2020a pandemic yearlargely through the capital gains and secondary economic effects associated with start-ups.

More difficult to tally, but at least as important, are the hundreds of thousands of immigrants in science fields who have opted to take their talents elsewhere. Along with them have gone future inventions and skills vital to U.S. competitiveness. A 2017 analysis calculated that foreign nationals comprised 81 percent of full-time graduate students in electrical engineering and 79 percent in computer science. In past decades, many such students stayed on to obtain permanent residency and start companies. We used to worry that they would promptly return home with their skills and training. But the truth is even worse: They no longer even come here to study. A November 2020 survey of 700 U.S. universities found international student enrollments to have fallen by a staggering 43 percent. China, India, many European countries, and Canada have all trained their sights on bringing in more international students in the STEM fieldsscience, technology, engineering, and mathematicsby offering the prize of a path to residency and even citizenship. They are also enticing their own nationals at U.S. universities to come home, which has become an increasingly easy sell given the unfriendly and uncertain environment for immigrants in the United States.

The STEM problem is exacerbated by the fact that many U.S. companies use H1-B visas to lock in STEM degree holders, many of whom then have to wait for decades for the U.S. government to approve their green cards.These visas tie the foreign workers to their jobs and allow the employer to pay them less than they could be earningwhich drives down pay for American workers as well. According to recent research by Michael Roach and John Skrentny, professors at Cornell University and the University of California, the H1-B guest worker visas were the primary route that the majority of international STEM doctorate recipients took to stay and work in the United States.

Bidens broad immigration-policy proposal would vastly improve on the status quo. His proposal would make it easier for H1-B holders to work at other companies and for their spouses to work legally in the United States. The law would extend the period for which STEM graduates can legally remain in the U.S. to find work or find companies. Their skills could go to work for the U.S. economy.

But there are a few things Biden could do better. Any reform should remove theper-country-of-origin limits on employment-based green cards and exempt dependents from the count toward such limits. The Biden plan doesnt include start-up visas with a path to citizenship. This is critical: Founders who either employ people in the United States or have raised funding for a start-up to that end should be able to remain and receive an expedited route to citizenship.

The problem with the all-or-nothing approach that the Democrats have repeatedly attempted is that it leaves no room for compromise or agreement on common pointswhich makes immigration reform a lose-lose proposition. The Republicans will likely be open to some form of legalization for undocumented residents and will surely support many parts of Bidens proposals on skilled immigration. For example, if Biden agreed to defer discussions on providing undocumented residents with citizenship in exchange for the ability to grant them 10-year visas, it could be palatable to the majority of Republicans. A start-up visa would also be a slam-dunk. Both parties might even agree on permanent residence for unauthorized immigrants who entered the United States as minors, sometimes referred to as Dreamersbased on the never-passed DREAM Act. But Congress will only reach agreement if these issues are unpacked instead of lumped together, like in past failed attempts at reform, in an all-or-nothing package.

As global demand for valuable talent intensifies, skilled immigrants are already turning away. The United States will never attract such talent back unless it entices them now. Britain recently made a blanket offer of citizenship to Hong Kong citizens, an ingenious move to attract the best of a skilled and highly educated workforce. China is aggressively courting both expatriates and ethnic Chinese who are foreign nationals to immigrate and start businesses. After four years of immigrant-bashing, the United States must send a strong signal to immigrant students, researchers, and founders that they are still welcome in this corner of the world. There is no better way to roll out the welcome mat than to make it easier for immigrants keen to study, work, and found companies to come where people have always come to pursue their dreams and make their mark: the United States.

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Biden's Immigration Plan Repeats the Battles of the Obama Years - Foreign Policy

Biden's most recent executive orders will focus on reforming the past administration's immigration policies

WASHINGTON (KLKN)- In his latest executive action, President Biden is tackling immigration reform for the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

On his first day in office, Biden took steps to end the Muslim and Africa ban, halt construction on the Mexican-U.S. border wall, and protect Liberians living and working in the states. He also sent the United States Citizenship Act to Congress; this act seeks to modernize our immigration system and smartly manage our borders, while addressing the root causes of migration.

SEE ALSO:President Biden to sign healthcare executive actions

President Bidens strategy is centered on the basic premise that our country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with a fair, safe and orderly immigration system that welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and allows peopleboth newly arrived immigrants and people who have lived here for generationsto more fully contribute to our country, Bidens fact sheet about the executive actions said.

Bidens executive actions outlined:

Creating a task force to reunite families

President Biden believes that families belong together. He has made clear that reversing the Trump Administrationsimmigration policies that separatedthousands of families at the border is a top priority.

The key part of this action is reuniting thousands of families who were separated at the border, there will be a task force created to ensure this. The task force will work with stakeholders and representatives of the families to find parents and children who were separated by the Trump Administration.

A new strategy addressing irregular migration and create a humane asylum system

The Trump Administrations policies at the border have caused chaos, cruelty and confusion. Those policies have undermined the safety of ourcommunities, penalized asylum seekers fleeing violence,and destabilized security across the Western hemisphere. Today, the Biden Harris Administration will begin to roll back the most damaging policiesadopted by the prior administration, while taking effectiveaction to manage migration across the region.

The Biden Harris Administration will begin by addressing the underlying causes of migration. Then, theyll be a collaboration between U.S. partners, foreign governments, international organizations, and nonprofits to shore up other countries capacity to provide protection and opportunities to asylum seekers and migrants closer to home. And finally, they plan on ensuring that refugees from Central America and asylum seekers will have access to legal entrance into the United States.

Restore faith in the legal immigration system and promote the integration of new Americans

This executive order will give the White House more power to strategize immigration integration and inclusion.

The order requires agencies to conduct atop-to-bottom review of recent regulations, policies, and guidance that have set up barriersto our legal immigration system. It alsorescinds President Trumps memorandum requiring family sponsors to repay the government if relatives receive public benefits, instructsthe agenciesto reviewthe public charge rule and related policies, and streamline the naturalization process.

MORE: Bidens new executive actions to bring economic relief to Americans

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Biden to sign on immigration reform - KLKN

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement was issued by Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American ImmigrationReform (FAIR), in response to yet another flurry of executive actions, triggering a review of how to increase legal and illegal immigration in the middle of a crisis with no end in sight.

Increasing Welfare State Through Potential Elimination of Public Charge:

"Protecting the interests of the American people by barring the admission of immigrants who are likely to become public charges those who are likely to become dependent on government welfare has been a cornerstone of U.S. immigration policy since 1882. As part of his 'America Last' immigration agenda, President Biden is gearing up to reverse existing policies that protect American taxpayers and doing so at a time when a raging pandemic is forcing many Americans to rely on social safety nets that can barely keep up with the demands being placed on them," charged Stein.

Family Reunification Task Force:

"Virtually all of the children who were separated from accompanying adults during the 2019 border surge have been reunited with their parents or legal guardians. The small number who remain separated are because the adults accompanying them were not their parents or guardians, or because their parents chose to leave them in the United States as unaccompanied minors rather than return to their home countries as a family unit. The situation of these children is tragic, but the fault lies with the adults who exploited or abandoned them, not with the policies of the United States," Stein said

"The administration's actions are an endorsement of the unbalanced and failed policy of mass family chain migration that dominates our legal immigration system and applies it to our policy of dealing with illegal immigration and human trafficking. Not only will people who immigrate here legally be entitled to reunite with family members they left behind, now illegal aliens will be able to do the same. We all support keeping families united, but there is nothing that says that reunification can only occur in this country," said Stein.

Supposedly Addressing the Root Causes of Migration:

"Today's declaration by the Biden administration that the answer to massive surges of people crossing our borders illegally is to 'address root causes of migration from Central America,' sets new standards for the high art of bureaucratic obfuscation and eloquently stated gibberish," declared Stein. "Hubris would be an inadequate description of the assertion that this country, which cannot address many of its own problems, is going to take on the task of solving Central America's, and perhaps the rest of the world's problems.

"In essence, Mr. Biden is saying that he has no intention of ever securing America's borders or preventing mass incursions of migrants, and that American taxpayers will continue to subsidize failing foreign economies and substandard living conditions through magnetic U.S. immigration policies.

"Additionally, while futilely attempting to address the root causes of migration in dozens of countries around the world, the Biden administration is ignoring, or exacerbating, the 'pull factors' over which it has full control. In the first weeks of his administration, President Biden has clearly signaled that sanctuary policies will be strengthened, access to public benefits will be increased, asylum fraud will be rewarded, and detentions and removals will all but cease."

More Asylum Seekers During a Global Pandemic:

"This executive order displays the same level of tone deafness seen in the previous immigration-related actions taken last week. Simply put, putting Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) on the chopping block in the middle of a pandemic is not in the national interest. American families have been put into lockdown for nearly a year now, hoping for a return to normalcy. It's also important to note that both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are discouraging traveling during the pandemic. Those seeking admission as asylum seekers into the U.S. should be asked to remain in place until this health crisis, soon to claim 500,000 American lives, passes."

Contact: Matthew Tragesser, 202-328-7004 or [emailprotected]

ABOUT FAIR

Founded in 1979, FAIR is the country's largest immigration reform group. With over 3 million members and supporters nationwide, FAIR fights for immigration policies that serve national interests, not special interests. FAIR believes that immigration reform must enhance national security, improve the economy, protect jobs, preserve our environment, and establish a rule of law that is recognized and enforced.

SOURCE Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)

http://www.fairus.org

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Seemingly Oblivious to Global Pandemic and Over Ten Million Unemployed Americans, Biden Forges Ahead with an "America Last" Agenda on...

The Week

The politics of COVID-19 spending legislation is complicated. President Biden and former President Donald Trump, who don't agree on much, both pushed to get $2,000 direct payments to most Americans this winter, and the Republican governor of West Virginia is backing Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package while his state's Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, favors a smaller package. The White House is privately meeting with a group of Senate Republicans who proposed a $618 billion alternative package, The Associated Press reports, even as Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reject that amount as insufficient and urge Democrats to go big and go quickly. Biden and his advisers "publicly tout the virtues of bipartisan collaboration," but "they aren't pollyannaish about it," Sam Stein reports at Politico. "They know there is no recent history to suggest any such collaboration is coming.," but "inside the White House there is still some surprise that Republicans currently aren't more interested in working with them on COVID relief. Not because they believe Republicans philosophically support the bill, but because there are clear political incentives for them to do so." Biden and his aides have noted repeatedly that just because the budget reconciliation process would allow Democrats to pass much of the $1.9 trillion package without Republican support, Republicans can still vote for the package. If Democrats go the budget reconciliation route, the 10 Senate Republicans can either "oppose the measure without being able to stop it or work to shape it, pledge to vote for it, and get credit for the goodies inside it," Stein reports. "Put another way: Republicans could vote for a bill that includes billions of dollars of help for states, massive amounts of cash for vaccine distribution, and $1,400 stimulus check for most Americans. Or they could oppose it on grounds that the price tag is too steep, or the minimum wage hike is too high, or the process too rushed." And if they do that, a senior administration official told Stein, "they'll get no credit" for those $1,400 checks. Democrats only have the party-line option because they unexpectedly won both Senate seats in a Georgia runoff election, Stein notes, and one political "lesson from that episode is, quite bluntly: It's better to be on the side of giving people money." Trump understood that. Time will tell what Senate Republicans will decide. More stories from theweek.comMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wantsDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateStephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New York

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Biden faces tough road to immigration reform - Yahoo News

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Witnessing Arizona turn its congressional representation to Democrat was electrifying to see. However, this was no accident: Latinos and other underrepresented groups in Arizona broke turnout records that favorably supported Democrats. As a Latino immigrant who has lived in Arizona since 4th grade, this feels like progress, considering we are not that far removed from the days when Joe Arpaios deputies raided our neighborhoods and armed citizens showed up at the border regularly.

While Mark Kellys victory in November does not equate to Democratic control over Arizona, it appears as if the Arizona Democratic Party finally understands that if it wants more victories, it must support the policies and changes of their most effective supporters the community organizations that push for progressive changes. That Democrats elected state Rep. Raquel Teran to be the partys next chairwoman signals that we have found a formula for success.

It is also time to seize victories at the national level. Immigration has always been a divisive topic in Arizona, from xenophobic laws targeting some of the most vulnerable folks in our state to producing advocates rise to national prominence. For that reason, Democrats in Congress must advocate for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals by supporting a legislative bill.

President Joe Biden has indicated he is not going to make the same mistake Obama did when his party had complete control in D.C. and is proposing immigration reform now rather than waiting. However, we are facing one last barrier within the Democratic party: the filibuster.

Getting rid of the Senate filibuster is not an attack to the value of compromise, as some assert. Instead, it is paying respect for the communities that have been tormented for the last four years and are in urgent need of policy changes that will allow these people to continue to live their lives. I know this because, as a DACA recipient, I am familiar with these struggles and am still hindered by them.

I welcome Kelly to his new role and will continue to cheer for the work of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. But immigration reform for undocumented individuals is a must, and for that reason Democrats need to remove the Senate filibuster. This is not a time for Democrats to be wasting trying to be proper in a country that, for the last four years (and many other times before that), never prioritized being proper. Instead, lets be proper by providing answers to the people that propel the Democratic Party and who want to solve problems.

Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news outlets supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.

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Immigration reform is important enough for the Senate to scrap the filibuster - Arizona Mirror