The high-tech industry gets very little from Obama's executive order on immigration

Reuters reports:

"This holiday season, the undocumented advocacy community got the equivalent of a new car, and the business community got a wine and cheese basket," complained one lobbyist, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Instead of more temporary H-1B visas, which allow non-U.S. citizens with advanced skills and degrees in "specialty occupations" to work in the country for up to six years, the 200,000-member U.S. chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers was hoping for measures to reduce the backlog of H-1B holders awaiting green cards.

"If this is all there is, then the president has missed a real opportunity," said Russ Harrison, a senior legislative representative at the IEEE. "He could have taken steps to make it easier for skilled immigrants to become Americans through the green card system, protecting foreign workers and Americans in the process."

Thus, after supporting Obama so generously over the last several years, the high-tech industry got almost zero action from Mr Obama on modifications to immigration laws that high-tech firms wanted most desperately. If Mr Obama had done more to improve the pathways to work permits and citizenship for high-tech immigrants, the result would have been a large influx of highly-educated, highly-skilled, highly-paid Indian and Asian high-tech workers into the United States, the kind of workers who build and work in dynamic, high-tech businesses that generate profits for investors and tax revenues for the government.

Instead, Mr Obama's actions will create an incentive for millions of new low-skill, low-wage undocumented workers from Central America to flood into the US, workers who will likely consume far more social services (such as food stamps, Medicaid, and subsidized housing) than they will contribute in profits and tax revenues.

In sum, the Democrats have shown once again that they place the interests of other groups (in this case, the Hispanic lobby) ahead of the interests of high-tech, and at a significant cost to the American economy. When will high-tech executives realize that the Democrats, whom high-tech has been supporting so generously for so long, are doing absolutely nothing for them?

Reuters continues:

Major changes [to H-1B visas] would require Congressional action ... and tech industry executives are worried that partisan rancor over Obama's unilateral action could set back chances for legislation.

“I don’t view this as a long-term solution, and I hope it doesn’t get in the way of a long-term solution,” said Dave Goldberg, chief executive of SurveyMonkey, a Palo Alto based company.

Come January, the Republican majorities in the House and Senate should act immediately to send legislation to Mr Obama increasing the number of H-1B visas for high-tech workers. If Mr Obama vetoes this legislation, it will become even more evident that the interests of high-tech are better represented by Republicans.