An April 2018 report, The Case for Protecting Legal Immigration Against Recent Attacks, was just released by FWD.us, an organization whose mission is “to mobilize the tech community to support policies that keep the American Dream achievable in the 21st century.”
The relatively succinct report outlines some, though by no means all, of the current Administration’s immigration actions that not only fly in the face of the U.S.’s long immigration tradition and values, but also harm our economy and our competitiveness in the short and long-term. As the report’s introduction states:
Recent efforts to further stymie immigration reflect a growing attack on legal immigration that undermines the U.S.’ global standing, threatens our economic leadership, and fundamentally contradicts our nation’s heritage as a country that welcomes immigrants from every corner of the globe. Moreover, eliminating avenues for people to immigrate to the United States would devastate economic growth in the United States causing as much as a two percent drop in GDP by 2040, with 4.6 million fewer jobs.1 This report will outline the overall benefits of immigrants and immigration, as well as the policies and regulations that have been pursued over the last year, and the impact on our families, communities, and economy.
Echoing the above report’s findings, a recent piece in Forbes by Stuart Anderson, a former Executive Associate Commissioner for Policy and Planning at the then-INS under the Bush Administration and former Republican staffer of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, delineates the concerted effort of the current Administration to effectively gut the U.S.’s ability to attract and retain top global talent. Prior MeBIC posts give more detail about the specific proposals to take away work permission for spouses of H-1B holders, and to roll back the Immigrant Entrepreneur Rule described in the Forbes op-ed.
See this earlier MeBIC post for a detailed report outlining even more measures taken by the current Administration that have eroded our nation’s ability to attract and retain the immigrants we need to keep our communities and our economy vibrant.