President-Elect, Donald Trump, is being lobbied on the most unlikely of issues by the tech industry – immigration reform. The Internet Association, which represents many in the industry including Amazon, Facebook and Google, has sent an open letter to Trump congratulating him on his victory in last week’s election and laying out its priorities with regard to policies. The policies include patent reform, surveillance reform, protecting strong encryption, and immigration reform.
The letter states that the immigration system of the US needs to allow more high-skilled workers and graduates to remain in the country and contribute to the nation’s economy. This will require expansion and improvement of the green card system and also the creation of a new green card system for STEM workers.
In contrast to his less than ambiguous remarks on some aspects of immigration, Trump has made several contradictory comments about high-skilled immigration, slamming the H-1B US visa program for allowing the importation of cheap foreign workers as a substitute for hiring American workers. He has also acknowledged that the US needs to be able to bring in talented workers.
It remains uncertain what the election of Trump to the Presidency will mean for tech companies reliant on foreign talent. But, unlike some in the industry, the Internet Association has decided to take a conciliatory tone and reach out to the man who will be the new incumbent in the White House from January 2017.