With the Obama administration feeling the pressure from both camps in the argument over immigration reform, statements have been released recently outlining its intention to improve the quality of life for people seeking American citizenship and for undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
The administration has come under fire of late for apparently wavering on the issue of deportations, but it is now taking a clearly progressive stance on reform. On May 6th Penny Pritzker, the secretary of the US Department of Commerce, released a statement revealing that the Obama administration is working on creating new laws that would encourage the acquisition of highly-skilled immigrants. The administration is proposing a new clause to give US visas to the spouses of people working in the science, technology and engineering fields to encourage them to come to the United States.
Due to the fact that America has a very drawn-out bureaucratic process for people trying to obtain a green card, a lot of immigrants who could be contributing to these various science disciplines choose instead to gain citizenship in other countries. It is this migration of talent that the proposed legislation is trying to end.
Pritzker says that frustration is growing among immigrants, the federal government and business leaders. “Many are tired of waiting for green cards and leave to work for our competition,” she points out. “The fact is we have to do more to retain and attract top-level talent to the United States and these regulations put us on the path to do it.”