The Forum Daily | Thursday June 22, 2023
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THE FORUM DAILY

India has long been concerned about the difficulties its citizens face
in receiving visas to live and work in the U.S., especially for
technology industry workers. Now, a small number of Indian workers on
H-1B visas could be part of a pilot program to allow them to remain in
the U.S. and renew their visas without having to travel abroad, report
Trevor Hunnicutt and Ted Hesson for Reuters
<[link removed]>. 

The Biden administration's official announcement is expected this
week during a visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The
program could then expand in coming years to more Indian and other
foreign skilled workers on H-1B visas, Hunnicutt and Hesson note.  

The U.S. government makes 65,000 H-1B visas available each year to
companies seeking skilled foreign workers. The visa lasts for three
years and can be renewed for another three. Among the most active users
of the program are Indian citizens, making up "73% of the nearly 442,000
H-1B workers in fiscal year 2022."  

Separately, although some sources say the U.S. is showing signs of
progress in tackling visa application backlogs among Indians, the wait
time remains long. The administration's effort comes amid
congressional inaction on visa policies, despite advocacy as labor
shortages affect many sectors. 

Welcome to Thursday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Dan Gordon,
the Forum's strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily
team also includes Clara Villatoro, Karime Puga, Ashling Lee, Christian
Blair and Katie Lutz. If you have a story to share from your own
community, please send it to me at [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>. 

GUARD UP - El Paso, Texas, has kept an emergency ordinance in place
despite a significant drop in migrant encounters since Title 42 ended,
writes Julian Resendiz of Border Report
<[link removed]>.
Many other border cities have remained on alert as well. Encounters
data released Tuesday
<[link removed]>
show a decrease in apprehensions. Meanwhile, also at Border Report
<[link removed]>,
Sandra Sanchez reports that local law enforcement agencies are receiving
fewer ICE detainers
<[link removed]>
under the Biden administration than under the Trump administration. 

CONCERNS IN FLORIDA - Concerns are increasing among undocumented
immigrants, advocates and business owners in Florida as the July 1
implementation of a new, hardline immigration law approaches, report Ana
Goñi-Lessan and John Kennedy of the USA Today Network
<[link removed]>.
"Even if, say 25% of undocumented workers were to leave [because of the
new law], that's 200,000 people," explained Samuel Vilchez, Florida
director of the American Business Immigration Coalition. Among a dozen
immigrant workers in the Florida Panhandle, "all said their community is
worried [and m]any plan to leave ... if they haven't already left,"
Goñi-Lessan and Kennedy report. 

**OBSTACLES** - Many Afghans who fled and traveled through Latin
America to make it to the U.S. are trying to build a life in San Antonio
despite immigration obstacles, reports Paul Flahive of Texas Public
Radio
<[link removed]>.
Flahive notes that about 70,000 Afghans were eligible for humanitarian
parole [see our explainer here
<[link removed]>]
after the 2021 evacuation, "[b]ut there was no plan for tens of
thousands of others who were also threatened by the Taliban." 

'CITIZENSHIP DISCRIMINATION' - In recent years advocates and state
lawmakers have focused on "citizenship discrimination" - jobs
unavailable to legal immigrant workers - in state employment law, law
professor Allison Brownell Tirres analyzes for The Washington Post
<[link removed]>.
Initiatives we noted yesterday to allow DACA recipients with federal
work authorization to serve as police officers are examples of efforts
to change state laws, many of which have century-old roots. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan 

 

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