Immigration Reforms Should Consider Immigrant Entrepreneurs
TLDR: As the Biden administration prepares to unveil an immigration reform bill this week that would provide millions of undocumented immigrants with a pathway to citizenship, policymakers need to remain mindful of the valuable skills and talents that foreign-born workers bring to the United States. In order to support entrepreneurs—particularly those economically disadvantaged by the pandemic—policymakers must improve access to high-skilled talent in any immigration reform efforts in order to bolster U.S. innovation.
What’s Happening This Week: The Biden administration and congressional Democrats are preparing to release an immigration reform bill as soon as tomorrow that would provide a pathway to citizenship for the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the United States. The bill will reportedly include many of the policy objectives that President Biden outlined on his first day in office, which—at the time—included a commitment to clear employment-based visa backlogs and provide the dependents of H-1B visa holders with work authorization.
The White House has also voiced support for breaking the legislative push into multiple pieces of legislation, including a bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers—undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. The previous administration attempted to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, the 2012 program that provided protections from deportation for 800,000 Dreamers, before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the rollback last year. Despite the Supreme Court’s action, however, the situation for DACA recipients still remains uncertain and in need of legislative clarity.
President Biden has already reversed a number of harmful Trump-era efforts to curtail legal immigration through executive orders and proclamations, including pausing a final rule from the Department of Homeland Security that would have effectively replaced the H-1B visa program with a system that prioritized positions with the highest salary levels.
Why it Matters to Startups: As the Biden administration prepares to unveil its immigration reform bill, the White House and policymakers should also take into account the ways in which the U.S. startup ecosystem is bolstered by immigrant talent. Access to high-skilled workers and qualified talent remains a top concern for the entrepreneurial community, particularly with so many companies continuing to struggle as a result of the pandemic. Immigrants, and the children of immigrants, all make significant and valuable contributions to the U.S. economy, and policymakers should work to ensure that legislative proposals fully consider this reality.
Creating a welcoming environment for immigrants of all backgrounds is essential when it comes strengthening the U.S. economy and creating new workforce opportunities. The entrepreneurial community has long expressed concern that many of the last administration’s draconian immigration policies would decrease innovation and harm global competitiveness by turning away high-skilled workers. By making the U.S. a less welcoming place for foreign workers, these types of burdensome policies would only push talented workers to move to other countries in search of opportunities. As Engine and more than 180 organizations and individuals highlighted in a National Immigration Forum statement last month calling on policymakers to reform the nation’s immigration system, it’s important to create an environment “where people can come from around the world to work, contribute, and build a better life for themselves, their families, and our society as a whole.”
While President Biden’s early moves to roll back the previous administration’s harmful immigration policies are a positive first step, additional efforts need to be taken to ensure that startups and tech companies do not face talent shortages during this difficult economic time. A study from the National Foundation for American Policy found that more than half of the nation’s $1 billion startups were founded at least in part by immigrants, while foreign-born entrepreneurs who emigrate to the U.S. also launch companies at significantly higher rates than native-born Americans. These are critical economic indicators of future job growth and wealth creation, and should factor into any discussions regarding immigration reform legislation.
The Biden administration and Congress should emphasize efforts to bolster and enhance the H-1B visa program. Technology companies in particular rely upon talented H-1B visa recipients to grow their businesses, and expanding the visa program further could, according to one estimate, lead to 1.3 million new American jobs by 2045. This type of job growth is essential for new entrepreneurial endeavors, startup development, and wealth generation—all critical factors as the nation charts its long-term economic recovery from the pandemic.
The Biden administration and Congress can also take additional steps to expand the nation’s visa programs, such as by instituting a startup visa program to bring job-creating talent to America. And the White House can also roll back other corrosive Trump-era immigration policies in order to boost U.S. entrepreneurship, including the previous administration’s proposed removal of the International Entrepreneur Rule. Engine and a coalition of entrepreneurial organizations sent a letter earlier this month to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in support of the Obama-era rule, which allowed foreign entrepreneurs to launch high-growth companies in America.
As the Biden administration and Congress turn their attention to reforming the nation’s immigration policies, lawmakers must be sure to pursue a holistic legislative approach that supports the U.S. tech sector and immigrant entrepreneurship. Access to talent sits at the forefront of the startup community’s needs, and policymakers must pursue legislation that shows the world that the U.S. remains a hospitable destination for skilled immigrants.
On the Horizon.
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