With Sunday’sre-inauguration of President Obama, he begins the second and last of histwo terms. He has targeted Comprehensive Immigration Reform as one of his majorpolicy initiatives. Republicans appear to be willing to cede fromtheir traditional anti-immigration positions. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) hasmade immigration reform his pet cause.
The US Chamber of Commerce ispushing for high-skilledvisa liberalization. Professional nurses and Physical Therapists havebeen listed on the Department ofLabor’s Schedule A since 1980. ScheduleA is limited to those occupations that the Department has”determined there are not sufficient United States workers who are able,willing, qualified, and available for the occupations.”
In spite of this obvious shortage,it still takes fully qualified Registered Nurses between 7-10 years to obtainUS green cards. A fully qualified nurse has passed an Englishfluency examination and the relevant state’s licensing examination. This is aninsane policy decision for an occupation that according tothe Occupational Outlook Handbook, is expected togrow 26 percent to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations.
Politicians like Sen. Rubio arebeginning to turn their policy statements into textual law that should be votedon by Congress in the next few months. Advocacy organizations have begun to lobby politicians. Readers of this blog who are concerned about this issue should contact MusilloUnkenholt, so that we can put you in touch with people who havealready begun to educate Senate staffs. Change will only happen with aneffort.