Immigration Reform
If they really want to protect US jobs from employment based immigration, which is afraction of Family based immigration...
Labor Certification For Family Immigrants
Recent reports from Capitol Hill indicate that Congress is poised
to take action on H1s, Ls, and even something called the DREAM
Act. Immigration advocates on both sides (pro and anti) are busy
lobbying Congress on these issues. In the meanwhile, not much
movement appears to be happening on either Sen. Cornyn's bill or
Rep. Kolbe's bill. Both these measures have the merit of at least
attempting to tackle the unpleasant fact that we have millions of
undocumented aliens in the country. The problem is plain for all
to see. The facts are that millions of people across the world
wish to work in the US, and there is work aplenty for them here.
In fact, without massive, large-scale immigration, our economy
would face a serious crisis. Unfortunately, our immigration laws
do not facilitate such immigration, in fact, they actively hinder
it. This is because our immigration system admits many TIMES more
family immigrants than employment immigrants. And that creates a
not-so-obvious problem. In order to re-structure our immigration
system around employment-based immigration, something is going to
have to give, particulary in the give-and-take that would be
essential to get such a fundamental restructuring through
Congress. That something is clearly family immigration. In order
for employment based immigration to take its rightful place in
our immigration scheme, family immigration will have to take its
rightful place, which is a very small one indeed (nuclear
families excepted). Most of the hinderances heaped on immigration
in the name of protection for American workers are on the
employment-based side - the current H1 and L battles in Congress
are examples of this. However, family-based immigrants are the
largest part of the immigrant labor-force. And it makes no
difference to an American worker whether the competition is a
family immigrant or an employment immigrant. If Congress really
wants to protect American workers, why not impose a labor
certification requirement on all family immigrants (nuclear
families excepted)? DOL would not long be able to maintain its
fairy-tale system of labor certification once it gets hit by the
tsunami of public outcry that would follow such a requirement.
The end result would be twofold: true protection for American
workers, and a much more rational labor certification system for
employers. Instead of the wild goose chase after the L and H1
visas, Congress would better serve American workers and employers
by loosening up on employment visas and requiring labor
certification from family immigrants (nuclear families excepted).
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