Thread: White House lectures tech on immigration

White House lectures tech on immigration

By KATE TUMMARELLO
12/16/14 2:44 PM EST


The tech sector has gotten an earful from the White House after leading industry groups gave a tepid response to President Barack Obama’s immigration moves.

According to people familiar with the conversations, the White House has been in touch with members of the tech community to express disappointment with the industry’s lackluster reaction to the executive actions Obama announced last month.

The tech groups called the president’s actions a first step but ultimately lacking. Obama mainly focused on deferring deportation for up to 5 million undocumented immigrants and didn’t address the tech sector’s longtime goal of increasing the number of H-1B, or high-skilled, visas for foreign workers.

Senior administration officials said they’ve been reaching out to the tech community to explain the limits of the president’s authority on this issue and encourage a continued push for comprehensive immigration reform in Congress.

(Also on POLITICO: New Hispanic Caucus head: Obama gets B+ on immigration)

“We wanted to explain to them that the president’s actions were positive but at the same to deliver the message, which they all understand, that what we need is comprehensive reform,” one White House official said.

The official described the conversations as routine, saying, “Whenever we have an announcement that impacts the business community or tech community, we outreach.”

Tech organizations — led by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s advocacy group, FWD.us — embraced the cause of comprehensive immigration reform this year and became a key White House ally urging lawmakers to address the issue in a broad-based way. But tired of delays, some industry groups are now considering whether to push for targeted high-skilled measures in the new GOP-controlled Congress, the idea being that piecemeal bills may have a better chance.

The tech sector has long urged Congress to raise the cap on H-1B visas, which allow companies to hire high-skilled foreign talent. The cap currently sits at 85,000 per year, which tech says is woefully inadequate to fill jobs at companies. Labor unions and others have pushed back, saying the current cap is sufficient and warning that increasing it would take jobs away from U.S. citizens.

Obama cannot unilaterally raise the H-1B cap, but there was widespread speculation the president would seek to recapture unused high-skilled visas from years past, increasing the total number available. That move was ultimately not part of his executive actions last month.

(Also on POLITICO: Brothers Castro: No immigration reform until 2016)

In the end, the president’s steps included making it easier for some high-skilled immigrants and their spouses to change jobs, increasing immigration opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs and creating more on-the-job training for foreign students studying STEM subjects at U.S. schools.

While acknowledging the legal limits faced by the White House, some in the tech industry say the administration oversold and under-delivered.

“Before the executive order was released, we were fairly optimistic,” one lobbyist said, “and then we weren’t optimistic when it was out.”

But the administration official rejected the idea that the White House is the target of the tech industry’s frustration.

While there is a “high level of impatience, high level of frustration” that immigration reform has stalled in Congress, Obama “included as much as he could in terms of the high tech community’s priorities,” the official said. “I think the industry understands that.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/1...on-113607.html