Immigration Update: August 2024

Welcome to Emerson Collective’s Immigration Update, a monthly newsletter that seeks to make sense of important immigration-related developments by situating them in broader policy, political, and human contexts.

This month we look at the Biden Administration’s crucial Parole in Place program and the current legal attempts to block its implementation. We also discuss the flaws of the H-1B Visa program and share Caitlin Dickerson’s brave first-hand storytelling of the harrowing realities of the migrant journey across the north and south in the Western hemisphere.

As always, thank you for reading. Now, let’s dive in.

Marshall Fitz

• THE POLITICS OF THE PAROLE IN PLACE PROGRAM

• DEBATE SURROUNDS THE H-1B VISA PROGRAM

• THE HUMAN STORIES BEHIND THE HEADLINES

THE POLITICS OF THE PAROLE IN PLACE PROGRAM

In mid-August, the Biden-Harris Administration launched the Parole in Place program, a crucial initiative that will allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to become legal permanent residents without having to leave the country. This new policy addresses a significant barrier that has kept countless families in limbo for years. This common sense step prevents the threat of long-term family separation by enabling spouses who have been in the U.S. for at least 10 years to obtain work authorization. And it has been vigorously supported by employers who see the opportunity to address labor shortages by providing legal status to these long-term residents. 

Despite the positive economic and social impacts of this program, Texas and 15 other states are suing to block it, arguing that Biden’s move was an abuse of executive authority seeking to rewrite U.S. immigration laws. Last week, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker sided with Texas preliminarily, issuing a 14-day administrative pause on approving applications, with the possibility of an extension, and scheduled additional hearings over the coming weeks. In the interim, the agency may continue to receive applications.

This counterproductive lawsuit and the resultant pause further underscore how deeply politicized immigration has become in the U.S. With Congress paralyzed by partisan gridlock, targeted executive actions like this one are increasingly the only way to redress components of the broader systemic dysfunction. But as this lawsuit portends, even these narrow solutions remain legally fragile.

Impacted beneficiaries who advocated for adoption of this new policy are not standing by. Last week, a group of undocumented immigrants and their families requested to intervene in federal court to help defend the Parole in Place program against the lawsuit. With so much at stake for so many people – not to mention our economic prosperity and our national commitment to family unity – we must demand more from our elected leaders at every level of government.

↗ Click here to read Marshall's LinkedIn post about this news

DEBATE SURROUNDS THE H-1B VISA PROGRAM

A Bloomberg editorial this month brought much-needed attention to some of the flaws in the H-1B visa program, particularly the inefficiencies of the lottery system for allocating the limited number of visas available each year. As the primary visa category for U.S. employers seeking high-skilled foreign talent, the current approach is unpredictable, prone to manipulation, and fails to ensure that the U.S. reaps the full economic benefits of the program.

While the editorial board correctly suggests that shifting to a merit-based system could help address some of these concerns with the lottery, their proposal doesn’t tackle the broader problems with the program. Creation of the lottery in the first place was a stopgap measure to address the fact that the demand for these visas each year vastly outstrips the supply. But even beyond the numeric levels, like the other temporary worker visa categories, the H-1B program is rigid, outdated, and unresponsive to the U.S. economy’s labor demands. And the program’s blunt design also fails to provide adequate protection against wage depression for some U.S. workers.

Like most of our temporary worker categories, the H-1B program suffers from profound legislative neglect. It was first established in 1990, before the internet was even public. The U.S. economy has, of course, undergone radical transformations since then that have created new and evolving demands for workers with specialized skills that can’t be sourced exclusively by workers born here. U.S. businesses have been sounding the alarm for years that our systemic dysfunction has undermined their ability to hire and retain the talent they need to compete in a global economy. And now the National Academy of Sciences warns that without changes to our immigration system we will lose out in the “fierce” competition for high-skilled talent.

The inescapable reality is that when visa levels and program modifications require an act of Congress, the system will inevitably lag behind the demands of the modern workforce. The politicization of immigration policy has led to decades of paralysis. To move forward, Congress must either develop a system that adapts to changing socio-economic conditions or delegate authority to a commission of non-partisan, technical experts who can ensure our immigration policy remains responsive and effective. 

↗ Click here to read Marshall's LinkedIn post about this news

THE HUMAN STORIES BEHIND THE HEADLINES

In a searing cover story, The Atlantic’s Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Caitlin Dickerson brings to light the harrowing reality of the migrant journey across the vast wilderness that once separated the north and south in the Western hemisphere. Through brave, first-hand storytelling, Caitlin exposes the complex dynamics at play when state efforts aim to prevent people from seeking stability and opportunity.

Caitlin also sheds light on the painful choices people make when faced with perilous journeys, driven by the absence of legal pathways. As historic migration levels continue to rise, Caitlin’s reporting powerfully demonstrates that national policies designed to deter migration often fail to change the underlying incentives. Instead, these policies have only served to enrich and empower exploitative criminal enterprises.

For decades, deterrence through enforcement has been the short term political answer to surges of migration. But those efforts have never resulted in a sustained reduction in irregular migration and they have frequently resulted in lethal outcomes for migrants forced into more dangerous routes. Whether seeking to stem the tide of migrants through the Darien Gap or through Mexico to the U.S. border, enforcement alone will not achieve those goals over the long haul. 

Real change will require a paradigm shift in how we think about, order, and manage migration. That must include: sustained investing in the stability and economic prosperity of our neighbors to the south; supporting and expanding innovative integration programs for countries hosting large populations of migrants; building more robust and flexible legal pathways within the region and to the U.S.; and collaborating in a real and meaningful way to address common challenges driving migration like climate change.

↗ Click here to read Marshall's LinkedIn post about this news