One of the very few issues that Congress and the Obama administration appear to agree upon is that our current immigration system is meeting neither the needs of the country generally, nor of businesses specifically. Congress has been largely missing-in-action in terms of immigration legislation since the tragedy of 9/11, and, accordingly, legislative revisions to our immigration system have not kept pace with an increased demand for foreign workers in our economy. The country is feeling the strain of the difficulty of obtaining quality employees to keep business interests vibrant. These shortages are playing out both at the blue-collar and white-collar levels with some of the greatest shortages being in the medical field, engineering and computer technology.
By way of example, all of the specialty worker visas for white-collar workers through September 30 were issued in less than three months by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on February 1 because of the overwhelming demand for foreign workers. Many engineers and computer specialists from India and China must now wait periods ranging from five to eight years before they can obtain permanent legal residency in the United States because of a backlog created by an inadequate number of visas and green cards. To address these constraints upon the health of our economy, as well as to address the illegal immigrant problem that has been passed from administration to administration over the past decade, the White House and Congress intend to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
