* U.S. tech companies point to shortage of home-grown talent
* Democrats seen to favor comprehensive immigration reform
* Support for measure among fellow Republicans uncertain
WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) – A leading Republican in the
U.S. Senate on Tuesday unveiled legislation to raise the number
of temporary visas for skilled technical workers from foreign
countries, but prospects of passage this year could be clouded
by election-year politics.
Senator John Cornyn, the senior Republican on a panel that
oversees immigration, introduced a bill that would make an
additional 55,000 visas available each year for graduates with
master’s and doctoral degrees who have studied at U.S. research
institutions.
This is one of several immigration-related bills that could
be kicked around this year in Congress and in the presidential
campaign. But there is scant evidence so far of enough consensus
to get anything enacted into law.
Other measures could focus on trying to help children of
illegal immigrants who want to attend U.S. colleges or serve in
the U.S. military.
Cornyn’s proposal to add visas for foreign-born engineers,
mathematicians, scientists and other with high-tech skills are
important to U.S. technology companies that want to improve
access to an international pool of workers and stem the shortage
of such talent in this country.
A Cornyn aide said the measure would not add to the overall
number of U.S. visas available, because it would eliminate
55,000 “diversity visas” for individuals from countries with low
rates of immigration to the United States.
Broad immigration reform is likely to be a hot topic in this
year’s presidential campaign, especially after Mitt Romney, the
presumptive Republican challenger to President Barack Obama,
staked out a tough anti-immigration stance during the primary
campaign earlier this year.
Democrats generally have pushed for comprehensive
immigration reforms, rather than focusing just on specific
problem areas like highly skilled foreign-born workers.
But in recent years, after comprehensive reform efforts
sputtered, they have pushed for helping “dreamers” go to college
or serve in the U.S. military. They are the 1 million to 2
million people who slipped into the United States as children of
illegal immigrant parents and face uncertain prospects after
graduation from U.S. high schools.
Cornyn’s narrowly drawn initiative would add to the
approximately 85,000 “H-1B” temporary visa slots for foreigners
with high-tech training and be aimed at graduates who have job
offers in the United States in fields related to their studies.
Cornyn said his bill would “bolster American competitiveness
and provide a stronger foundation for long-term economic growth
and job creation” in the United States.
But it was unclear whether other conservative Republicans in
the Senate would back his initiative. Democrats hold a majority
in the Senate and are unlikely to allow Cornyn’s legislation to
advance in its current form.
A Senate Democratic aide said Democrats prefer to address
the high-tech visa question in the larger context of immigration
reform “rather than cherry-pick certain workers.”
The aide noted that the U.S. agriculture community wants
improved access to seasonal farm hands from abroad, and
Hispanics have long clamored for reforming an outdated
immigration code that has left approximately 11 million illegals
living in the United States.
(Reporting By Richard Cowan; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and
Todd Eastham)
