Corporate leaders in the United States have a tendency to throw their support behind immigration measures that increase the number of available US visas available to highly-skilled overseas workers. The JPMorgan chief executive, though, says that comprehensive immigration reform should be made a priority by the next President.
During an interview with CNBC, Jamie Dimon said that the comprehensive immigration reform plan passed by the Senate back in 2013, only to stall in the House of Representatives, offered the best way of dealing with the need to secure the border between the United States and Mexico while offering a path to legal status for many of the nation’s millions of undocumented immigrants.
Dimon says that many undocumented immigrants are already contributing to the US economy and that the kind of pathway to legal status offered by the 2013 bill would have been a long one, ultimately taking about 13 years to complete. Advocates of a pathway to legal status have used the same point to answer those who argue that giving undocumented immigrants the opportunity to gain US citizenship amounts to amnesty or even rewarding those who break the law.
Dillon argues that most undocumented immigrants are doing just fine and already working. He also wants to see greater opportunities for overseas students who complete their education in the United States and receive advanced degrees to be able to remain in the country rather than be immediately sent home.