Answer:
persistent labor shortages in agricultural, service and other industries. If Congress continues to ignore this need, however, the inadequacies of the current employment visa system will continue to fuel the market for underground and undocumented labor.
Reform the visa system to allow foreign students educated at U.S. colleges and universities to stay. With its top-notch higher education system, the U.S. attracts and educates some of the best students in the world only to deny those students work visas after graduation and require them to leave. Simply put, the current immigration system puts up too many barriers for the world’s top talent to work for us, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The rules must be adjusted to make it easier for foreign students who attend U.S. colleges and universities to stay, work and contribute to our economic growth. Reform should ensure that foreign-born STEM graduates of American institutions of higher education are able to obtain visas to stay and work in the U.S. upon receiving a job offer.
Ensure the visa system honors family unity. The family is at the core of our immigration system, yet American families with loved ones abroad face a growing wait for the same number of annual family-related visas allotted a generation ago. Unreasonable bottlenecks and barriers to family reunification can keep families separated for years, if not decades. A functional system would promote family unity and reunification. Family members who have been waiting in line should have their admission expedited, and those admitted on work visas should be able to keep their families intact.
Additionally, Congress should reject proposals that would reduce family-based immigration in order to increase employment-based immigration. We need not choose between the economic needs of our country and our values that call for keeping families together. Both streams can and should continue to serve our nation’s economic needs and support our national values.