Politico
By Jessica Myers
May 24, 2013
Rep. Darrell Issa has framed his new high-skilled immigration bill as a building block for American opportunity and a tool for taking on the Senate.
First, he may have to take on House Democrats.
The tech industry adores the bill, which boosts H-1B visas and creates more green cards for certain foreign graduates from U.S. universities. But it also guts a diversity visa program beloved by Democrats.
This is not a new fight. Similar language appeared in last session’s STEM Jobs Act, which Democrats rallied against and the White House refused to back. Democrats already oppose a bite-size approach to immigration. And the bill has yet to add a Democratic co-sponsor, hinting at the potential for more messaging than movement.
“To eliminate something … which would bring in people of talent as well, as a carrot or basis for high-skilled [workers] is something I would challenge,” House Judiciary Committee member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told POLITICO.
The diversity visa program, which takes place by lottery, targets people in countries with low immigration rates. Winners range from Ukraine to Fiji, although many of the recent slots have gone to nations in Africa. The Senate bill, now headed to the floor, repeals the program but permits exceptions for certain countries.
The Congressional Black Caucus has long championed diversity visas. But House Republicans, who point to fraud in the lottery system, have made numerous attempts to chop them.
“The visa lottery we think is the best example that there is of how to issue a green card on a basis that has absolutely no correlation to what are investitures to growing the American economy,” said House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who introduced the bill Thursday with Issa (R-Calif).
The Oversight chairman — connecting the program with a long ago desire by former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to bring over more Irish – said it had outgrown its usefulness.
“Anyone can pass a bill that would please everyone, if in fact you simply ignore the question of limited resources,” Issa said. He called it a “huge risk to bring in people that have a propensity not to be the brightest.”
The House Judiciary Committee has introduced two other immigration bills focused on the agricultural guest worker program and an electronic verification system known as E-Verify. Lawmakers have labeled their third bill the Supply Knowledge-Based Immigrants and Lifting Levels of STEM Visas Act, or SKILLS Visa Act.
Even if the bill finds bipartisan support, it’s unclear how it would fit in with House negotiators’ broader immigration reforms. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a key voice for the tech industry and one of eight members involved in the talks, refused to vote for a similar bill last session.
Lofgren, at the time, expressed concern that some visas would get zapped to allow for others. The bill, she said, was “premised on a dangerous thought, which is that immigration is a zero-sum game.”
The two chairmen did emphasize space for negotiations. Goodlatte made it clear that “decisions about how the process will move forward are premature.” And Issa called the bill a “pilot of directional change.”
But even in a comprehensive bill, the diversity visas could bubble into a flash point.
“I want to keep the doors open to everyone,” House Judiciary Committee member Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said in an interview. “There is no way I would support anything that did not provide for diversity.”
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