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Left and right politics in DC. Left wants low-skilled immigration reform. Right wants high-skilled immigration reform. Result is gridlock. We're trying to thre

Left and right politics in DC. Left wants low-skilled immigration reform. Right wants high-skilled immigration reform. Result is gridlock. We're trying to thread a thin needle.

dotBen 15y ago
I'd have to respectfully disagree, or at least suggest the situation is a lot more nuanced than that. Dems (well, Obama) 'clarified' (read: changed the law slightly in a way that didn't need new legislation) the USCIS guidelines for self-sponsored H1Bs for startup founders and also the requirements for EB2 visas for entrepreneurs. They've also been very attentive to the Startup Visa movement. The GOP continue to pursue a blocking stance across the board on all legislation in Congress (essentially as a punitive measure for electing Barack Obama) and they don't seem willing to support any real immigration reform - high or low skilled - that I can see.
- HistoryInAction 15y ago
  Hell, I'll respectfully disagree with me that there's nuance :) But from a first-order analysis perspective, that's it. I didn't think this was the audience to go much farther beyond that. However, if you want more... The Obama administration was the same administration that advanced the Neufeld memo in 2010 strictly restricting H1-B to founders by making the 'employer work certification' a hard requirement. With the H1-B/EB-2 and EB-5 liberalization this past August, the Neufeld memo is all but overturned, but it could come back at any time, which is why we need Startup Visa legislation. All the same, the big positive in that the Obama administration is willing to consider it a jobs bill and not an immigration bill, which we've got from Valerie Jarrett after sending a briefing off to the White House. The administration been pretty attentive to Startup Visa (Facebook and Twitter town hall mentions and vague reference in the El Paso immigration reform speech in May), but the lack of mention in the LinkedIn speech last month pissed off Conway and has made it much harder to pull in VC attention since. Conway's now focusing his time and effort on the Ed Lee campaign for SF Mayor, such as with the 2Legit 2Quit video. However, Senate Dems, specifically Sen. Menendez of NJ, are much more hard line on the "nothing but comprehensive immigration reform" than the President. While we have the support of 6 Senate Dems—lead sponsors being John Kerry and moderate Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana—we haven't yet come up with any strategy to overcome the comprehensive roadblock. The Chamber of Commerce and Bloomberg administration has 'nudged' the Republican position sufficiently that rumbles are coming out that horribly anti-immigration Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith is said to be putting together an extremely watered down STEM green cards bill: http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-by-edwin-s-rubenstein-why-more-immigrant-science-technology-engineering-math- http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-by-edwin-s-ruben... Interestingly, Utah is also a big driver of high-skilled immigration reform, according to friends in the Bloomberg administration. Rep. Chaffetz's bill rebalancing H1-B visas to change the flat per-country % changing the status quo of China and Luxembourg having the same number of H1-Bs available is advancing with Smith's support. It has just passed Smith's Judiciary Committee and awaits action on the House floor: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03012:@@@C http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03012:@@@C Finally, also note the Obama administration's recent effort to set up a 'Tiger Team' or Skunkworks to cut through red tape in USCIS to make more administrative changes to make the immigration process easier: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=bd537158910e2310VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f...

Left and right politics in DC. Left wants low-skilled immigration reform. Right wants high-skilled immigration reform. Result is gridlock. We're trying to thread a thin needle.

dotBen 15y ago

I'd have to respectfully disagree, or at least suggest the situation is a lot more nuanced than that. Dems (well, Obama) 'clarified' (read: changed the law slightly in a way that didn't need new legislation) the USCIS guidelines for self-sponsored H1Bs for startup founders and also the requirements for EB2 visas for entrepreneurs. They've also been very attentive to the Startup Visa movement. The GOP continue to pursue a blocking stance across the board on all legislation in Congress (essentially as a punitive measure for electing Barack Obama) and they don't seem willing to support any real immigration reform - high or low skilled - that I can see.

HistoryInAction 15y ago
Hell, I'll respectfully disagree with me that there's nuance :) But from a first-order analysis perspective, that's it. I didn't think this was the audience to go much farther beyond that. However, if you want more... The Obama administration was the same administration that advanced the Neufeld memo in 2010 strictly restricting H1-B to founders by making the 'employer work certification' a hard requirement. With the H1-B/EB-2 and EB-5 liberalization this past August, the Neufeld memo is all but overturned, but it could come back at any time, which is why we need Startup Visa legislation. All the same, the big positive in that the Obama administration is willing to consider it a jobs bill and not an immigration bill, which we've got from Valerie Jarrett after sending a briefing off to the White House. The administration been pretty attentive to Startup Visa (Facebook and Twitter town hall mentions and vague reference in the El Paso immigration reform speech in May), but the lack of mention in the LinkedIn speech last month pissed off Conway and has made it much harder to pull in VC attention since. Conway's now focusing his time and effort on the Ed Lee campaign for SF Mayor, such as with the 2Legit 2Quit video. However, Senate Dems, specifically Sen. Menendez of NJ, are much more hard line on the "nothing but comprehensive immigration reform" than the President. While we have the support of 6 Senate Dems—lead sponsors being John Kerry and moderate Republican Richard Lugar of Indiana—we haven't yet come up with any strategy to overcome the comprehensive roadblock. The Chamber of Commerce and Bloomberg administration has 'nudged' the Republican position sufficiently that rumbles are coming out that horribly anti-immigration Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith is said to be putting together an extremely watered down STEM green cards bill: http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-by-edwin-s-rubenstein-why-more-immigrant-science-technology-engineering-math- http://www.vdare.com/articles/national-data-by-edwin-s-ruben... Interestingly, Utah is also a big driver of high-skilled immigration reform, according to friends in the Bloomberg administration. Rep. Chaffetz's bill rebalancing H1-B visas to change the flat per-country % changing the status quo of China and Luxembourg having the same number of H1-Bs available is advancing with Smith's support. It has just passed Smith's Judiciary Committee and awaits action on the House floor: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03012:@@@C http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03012:@@@C Finally, also note the Obama administration's recent effort to set up a 'Tiger Team' or Skunkworks to cut through red tape in USCIS to make more administrative changes to make the immigration process easier: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=bd537158910e2310VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=68439c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f...