Election May Force Congress To Act On Tech Immigration

Computer World
November 7, 2012

President Barack Obama believes this election will usher in immigration reform, which will include action on tech visa issues.

There is enough support in the Senate and House to increase work visas, temporary and permanent. But supporters of comprehensive immigration reform have stopped piecemeal, special-interest driven immigration legislation to keep support for a broader bill from peeling away. H-1B opponents have piggybacked on this opposition.

Obama, in an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board in late October, outlined his immigration legislative strategy. The meeting was initially off-the-record, but it was later released. The key excerpt:

The second thing I’m confident we’ll get done next year is immigration reform. And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt. Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community. And this is a relatively new phenomenon. George Bush and Karl Rove were smart enough to understand the changing nature of America. And so I am fairly confident that they’re going to have a deep interest in getting that done. And I want to get it done because it’s the right thing to do and I’ve cared about this ever since I ran back in 2008.

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