A Makeover for Immigration Policy?

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A new bill will likely include a path to citizenship for these workers, meaning the debates of 2007 will resurface. Some lawmakers predicted a tough fight. "There is indeed a dark side in this country," said Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) "It prefers to distort the issue and caters to a fear in people that if we repair the system…it is harmful to this nation. But harm is being caused to this nation by not moving" on reform.

Another sticking point in the debate over a new bill will be whether to expand guest worker programs for both highly skilled and less-skilled immigrants under the H-1B and H-2B visa programs. The labor union groups AFL-CIO and Change to Win announced a unified stance earlier this month on a plan that would reform but not augment guest worker programs. President Obama has also indicated he does not want additional guest workers in a new bill.

Strong Demand for Guest Workers

"The current broken system has given rise to a three-tier caste worker system in America: citizens, guest workers, and undocumented workers," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice-president of the Service Employees International Union. "This onerous system depresses wages for all workers because too many employers seek out the cheapest, most vulnerable workers in order to gain a competitive advantage." The union groups say that instead of increasing the number of work visas, a government commission should regulate immigration flows according to the economy's needs. That isn't likely to please employers in industries from nursing to food processing to farming, who want to expand guest worker programs. They say they desperately need additional employees.

The hearing also touched on the issue of skilled workers in the controversial H-1B visa program for skilled workers. While demand for H-1B visas is down this year due to the weak economy, high-tech companies still favor raising the 85,000 annual cap on these visas. Companies like Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL), which have long advocated increasing the number of skilled H-1B visas available in the U.S., say they still confront employee shortages.

Greenspan favors expanding the number of H-1B visas. "The quantity of temporary H-1B visas issued each year is far too small to meet the need, especially in the near future as the economy copes with the forthcoming retirement wave of skilled baby boomers," he says.

Herbst is a reporter for BusinessWeek in New York.