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Bold leadership is not a trait often associated with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which is largely why the establishment GOP leadership was marginalized in the last election. For years, they have known that the H-1B guest worker visa program was not merely passively broken, but was actively undermining American workers. Heck, they could have found that out just by watching 60 Minutes.

On Tuesday, President Trump used his executive authority to change the parts of the broken H-1B program that were within his constitutional power to fix. The Executive Order calls for ending the allocation of H-1B visas by lottery and suggests that those visas be allocated to the most-skilled or highest-paid foreign workers. In addition, it seeks to curtail foreign labor contractors from turning the H-1B program into a cash cow by snapping up the majority of visas available each year and then subcontracting workers to American businesses.

The presidents Buy American, Hire American Executive Order turned out to be a no-brainer. Normally, any action on anything related to immigration evokes howls of protest from some interest group. That was not the case with regard to Trumps H-1B changes. Groups that have fought for protections for American workers offered approval for the president. Those, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that have advocated for greater access to foreign labor avoided direct criticism of the H-1B provisions of the Executive Order and instead obliquely reaffirmed their stance that it would be a mistake to close the door on high-skilled workers from around the world.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has been a sharp critic of the H-1B program, called the presidents Executive Order a step in the right direction toward fulfilling the campaign promise of having an immigration system that serves the national interest.

FWD.us, a mass immigration lobby group funded by Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley titans, offered guarded approval for the presidents effort to shove foreign labor contracting firms off the H-1B gravy train (although they did renew their demand for increases in H-1B visas). The AFL-CIO, which has been largely AWOL when it comes to protecting American workers against immigration policies that undermine their interests, saw the presidents move as a boost for American minorities seeking a foothold in science and technology.

Even leading Democrats in Washington limited their criticism of Trumps ordered changes to the H-1B program by asserting that the president did not go far enough in protecting American workers. We already know H-1B visa abuse displaces American workers. President Trump already missed a chance to deliver on his promise of bold action to put American workers first, said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), ignoring the fact that President Obama, who was not shy about using executive policy directives to protect illegal aliens, did nothing to address the H-1B visa abuse Durbin laments.

Sen. Durbin is correct: President Trumps actions do fall short of what is needed to protect the interests of American workers. Thats Congresss job. The flawed, loophole-ridden H-1B program that allows for the displacement and wage depression of American workers was created by Congress and must be fixed by Congress. Based on the initial responses from business, labor, Democrats, and immigration reform advocacy groups like FAIR, there is very little reason why the risk-averse Republican leadership in Congress should not follow up the presidents executive order with legislative reforms that actually protect American workers while continuing to provide American companies access to guest workers who truly possess unique skills that will benefit our country.

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PsstPaul Ryan, Mitch McConnell: Jump In, the Water's Warm on H-1B Reform - ImmigrationReform.com (blog)

Washington Times

Chuck Schumer on Trump's H-1B visa reforms study: Revive 2013 immigration bill, instead Washington Times Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer on Tuesday dismissed as window dressing President Trump's pending executive order to study H-1B visa program reforms, urging him instead to take up the bipartisan 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill ... Schumer upbeat on funding deal, blasts Trump on tax returnsCNN Democrats divided on H-1B visa issueEconomic Times all 17 news articles »

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Chuck Schumer on Trump's H-1B visa reforms study: Revive 2013 immigration bill, instead - Washington Times

Apr 17, 2017 at 4:41 pm | Print View

A new coalition of business and religious leaders launched Monday to advocate for changes to the nations immigration policy.

Eighteen individuals from churches, colleges and businesses have formed the Iowa Coalition for Immigration Reform. The coalition is sponsored by the New American Economy, a group that says it is bringing together mayors and business leaders to support immigration reforms that will help create jobs in the United States.

Many of the initial coalition members are based in central Iowa, including officials from Des Moines Area Community College, the Ames Chamber of Commerce, the Waukee City Council and Simpson College.

While the Iowa coalition is pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, it is not prescriptive on what that reform should be, said Megan Peiffer, a representative for New American Economy, during a conference call Monday.

The intention with this particular coalition is to bring together all those different voices from different areas to create one united voice to get the attention of our Congressional delegation to talk about the issue of immigration reform, Peiffer said.

During the call, some coalition members said they would support a pathway to citizenship, securing the borders of the United States and argued that foreign-born members of the states workforce can help address a shortage of workers.

Its not about us, its about the jobs that we need to fill to keep Iowa strong economically, said Rob Denson, president of Des Moines Area Community College.

Reverend Richard Pates, bishop of the Des Moines Diocese, said he supports a controlled immigration system at the countrys borders, but also protections for immigrants who already reside in the country.

We need to speak to justice as we address those individuals and families that have been in our country and thats why we advocate very strongly for a pathway to citizenship, recognizing the economic contributions of these individuals and the values they have brought to our country, Pates said.

Rob Barron, a Des Moines School Board member, said his board is focused on supporting families and students already residing in the United States.

For us, what we want to see out of comprehensive immigration (reform) is some level of certainty for families that are already here, he said.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; matthew.patane@thegazette.com

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New Iowa coalition pushes for immigration reform - The Gazette: Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement removal authorities made 21,362 arrests from January 20 to March 13 of this year, including 5,441 non-criminals, according to statistics provided to CNN and first requested by The Washington Post.

While the arrests by ICE under President Donald Trump in the first seven weeks of his administration still lag behind the number arrested under former President Barack Obama in the same timeframe in 2014, the pace of arrests this year do mark an escalation compared to the last two years of the Obama administration, when the Democrat used greater discretion toward undocumented immigrants.

The increase in arrests -- including more than double the number of non-criminal indviduals -- stands as further evidence of the Trump administration's priority of enforcing immigration laws more aggressively than the previous administration and giving immigration officials greater authority to go after a wide range of undocumented immigrants.

The more than 21,000 arrested in the beginning of this year is a roughly 33% increase over the same period in 2016 and a roughly 18% increase over the same period in 2015.

But the 5,441 non-criminal undocumented immigrants arrested as part of that total more than doubled the number in either 2015 or 2016.

In the first part of 2014, the Obama administration made 29,238 such arrests, including 7,483 non-criminal undocumented immigrants, which is roughly the same percentage of non-criminal arrests as this year.

In the first six years of the Obama administration, the former president was accused by liberals of deporting undocumented immigrants too aggressively, but Obama sought to show he was enforcing immigration laws as he and lawmakers pursued a comprehensive immigration reform deal in Congress. When talks collapsed in the House in mid-2014 and it became clear immigration reform would not pass Congress, Obama began to take more executive action to focus his administration on undocumented immigrants that were the greatest threat to communities and show more leniency to those who were not.

The Department of Homeland Security in late 2014 published a new set of priorities for going after undocumented immigrants for deportation -- which placed greater emphasis on those convicted of serious crimes.

One of Trump's first actions as President was to replace those priorities with a new set that could include virtually every undocumented immigrant in the US. The message from DHS since has been that no one in the US illegally will be exempt from deportation.

While Kelly said on Sunday's "Meet the Press" that just being in the US "illegally doesn't necessarily get you targeted, it's got to be something else," ICE has said that individuals encountered in the course of targeted arrests of people prioritized for removal can also be arrested and subject to deportation.

Opponents of Trump's aggressive immigration push have argued that his policies have created harmful fear in immigrant communities, where many individuals have US citizen family members and have lived and worked peacefully in the US for years.

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Immigration arrests rise in first months of Trump administration - CNN

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If one thing was crucial to the election of President Trump, it was the support of anti-immigration hardliners. Indeed, the country has become more draconian on the issue of immigration, and one reason is certainly the cack-handed way the country has been going on about it. And I do mean "the country," and not just the United States government. While Washington has been unable to produce actual immigration policy, a significant and influential minority of the country are dedicated to the view that increasing the number of persons on American soil is a profound humanitarian endeavor that requires disrespect for American laws or the view of a majority of the people. The result has been the worst of both worlds.

The actual immigration policy of the United States has been one of negligence and neglect. Millions of illegal immigrants have been allowed to live here in various stages of limbo, leaving many law-abiding citizens, whatever their views on an ideal immigration policy, with the impression that their leaders either can't or won't enforce one of the basic duties of any functioning government, which is border control and legal policing of who comes and who goes.

The whole debate is fundamentally broken. I support vastly increased immigration levels to the United States. But I certainly don't support doing it through a policy of semi-official neglect that lets millions of people in just because they happen to have been born in countries located in geographical proximity to the United States. America is an experiment, a grand national project to build a functioning liberal republic of the special kind envisioned by its Founders it is a kind of team effort. You recruit people who will do well on that team and bring something special to it.

In this spirit, I'd like to introduce an idea for an immigration reform plan that would increase immigration levels while being economically and culturally productive and, probably, politically sustainable.

The idea revolves around "charter cities," promoted by the development economist Paul Romer. Romer wants to make the poor world richer by creating, essentially, mini-Hong Kongs in the developing world. These would be small enclaves whose governments would be run with first-class institutions by a first-world country say, Norway or New Zealand. The idea here is that corrupt governments are what is holding back the world's poorest countries, and just as Hong Kong's success while under British rule prompted China to modernize and liberalize to imitate it, creating small Hong Kongs in Africa, South Asia, or Latin America would have a similar effect on those regions.

As a firm believer in the virtue of city states and political experimentation more generally, I've long supported the charter cities concept. I don't know if they would have the ripple effect Romer believes they would, but it's worth trying, and even if they don't, they would certainly be valuable experiments in their own right.

What does that have to do with the U.S. immigration debate, you ask?

The U.S. should seek to create U.S.-administered, low-tax, low-regulation charter cities on every continent surely the world's lone superpower can wield any combination of carrots and sticks to get that done and then make it a law that anyone who moves to these sorts of charter cities gets a green card if, after three years, they speak English and have "made good" in some specific way that is both broad and demanding. Perhaps they've earned a selective degree, started a business, founded a church, or written a book.

Here's why the idea is great. There is a debate about what makes a "good" immigrant: perhaps it is IQ, or a degree, or a Judeo-Christian background. But what the previous great waves of immigrants had in common wasn't a particularly high degree of intelligence or culture or skills, or any common culture. It was, for lack of a better term, a "can-do" spirit. Voluntary immigrants are by definition a self-selective group of people who dare and try things, and certainly that "can-do" spirit is the thread running throughout the diverse and strange thing that we call American history and culture. It's certainly obvious to a foreigner like me. Immigration sophisticates call for bringing in foreign math PhDs, and while I'm not opposed to that in principle, it seems to me that what makes America special is not its IQ level but rather a certain kind of spirit. Most of the people who built California through the Gold Rush were not Harvard graduates, but they certainly were the kind of people who would try anything and do anything to accomplish their dream. That's America.

If you can make it there, you can make it into America. This is how to select the people who have the greatest drive to join and contribute to America. You wouldn't take this bargain move to a foreign, strange city for three years for just a green card if you didn't have a strong belief in the American experiment, and you wouldn't succeed in it if you didn't have something to contribute.

This would also be politically sustainable, since by definition anyone who would come to the country would be someone who had demonstrated the qualities for what makes a successful immigrant: belief in American ideals and a capacity to contribute economically and/or culturally to the life of the country.

It's a strange idea, I freely admit. But if there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that the ideas that have been batting around Washington haven't succeeded. I think it's time to consider something far-out . Something that could break us out of our immigration stalemate.

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The radical idea that could actually fix America's broken immigration system - The Week Magazine