{"id":17990,"date":"2018-12-18T15:31:14","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T20:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17990"},"modified":"2018-12-28T09:23:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T14:23:53","slug":"congress-continues-to-jumble-immigration-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/12\/18\/congress-continues-to-jumble-immigration-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress Continues to Jumble Immigration Priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"
It has been more than two years since President Trump won the White House by promising sweeping changes to border security and immigration law. Yet here we are\u2014years later\u2014 and Congress has not passed any substantial reforms.\u00a0 In fact, we are already three months into the fiscal year, and Congress still has not even funded<\/a> the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n The current spending authority expires this Friday after having been extended multiple times over the past few months. Republicans, who will no longer have control of the House come January, should be utilizing this spending package to secure funding for the border wall. After all, this is the last opportunity to pass the president\u2019s immigration agenda for at least the next two years.\u00a0 But the only immigration-related legislation Congress appears to be considering<\/a> before Christmas is expanding the E-3 guest worker program.<\/p>\n Under the current E-3 visa program<\/a>, up to 11,500 guest worker visas are awarded to Australian college graduates every year. However, in 2017, U.S. companies only hired 5,657 Australian graduates. Under the proposed legislation, Irish college graduates would become eligible to take advantage of the large chunk of unused E-3 visas. An E-3 visa permits a foreign graduate to work for two years in the United States; and although the visas can be renewed endlessly, graduates cannot switch jobs or become immigrants. As such, the visa remains a steadfast source of cheap, young graduate labor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Because the program does not have a multi-year cap, as many as 50,000 American positions could be filled by foreign nationals by 2025. This could become especially harmful to young, American college graduates, who as a result, can lose job opportunities, wages, and bargaining power to their foreign counterparts that may be more willing to accept lower wages simply to remain in the country. If American companies are not utilizing the full number of available visas under the E-3 program, Congress should be looking to lower the cap\u2014 not expand the eligibility categories.<\/p>\n