Immigration Amendment Gives Critical Support to U.S. STEM Workers, Students

CWA commended a bipartisan group of Senators for their work on an amendment to comprehensive immigration reform that will safeguard jobs and opportunity for U.S. workers and students in STEM fields – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Amendment 1311 was introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

It requires employers to hire "equally or better qualified" U.S. STEM workers before looking to hire H-1B visa holders.

This amendment is an important fix to S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. Today, recent U.S. graduates in STEM fields face unemployment rates of 7.4 percent (engineers) and nearly 6 percent (in mathematics). U.S. students studying for occupations within the STEM sectors need to know that jobs and opportunity will be available to them as they continue their studies.

It would be ironic if the increase in STEM funds to help students pay for education, created as part of a compromise over H-1B visa levels, leads to a greater number of U.S. students who can't find work in their STEM profession, CWA said.

High skill U.S. workers also need assurances that they will not be dumped by employers looking to abuse the H-1B program and offshore their work.

CWA urges the U.S. Senate to debate, vote on and adopt this amendment to comprehensive immigration reform.