Sep 10 2008

Leading Corporate Heads Call for House and Senate to Pass a New Immigration Reform Bill

This week, more than 80 CEOs and presidents of U.S. companies signed and submitted a letter (with the Compete America coalition) that calls for the House and Senate to pass a bill that would recapture employment-based immigrant visas that were lost due to administrative delays. The bill, H.R. 5882, would also prevent losses of family- and employment-based immigrant visas in the coming years.

The letter, which was signed by 84 heads of U.S. corporations, calls for the measure to be passed this year by both houses.

“Failure to enact at least H.R. 5882 … will further hamper U.S. employers in the global competition for the world’s best talent, as more and more extremely valuable professionals from around the world take their education and abilities to other nations that strategically pursue policies to attract these individuals,” wrote the signatories. “The U.S. system sends the opposite message: Permanent resident status is extremely difficult to obtain, and even visas already authorized by law are not available.”

Signatories of the letter include Dan Burton, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy, Salesforce.com; Safra Catz, President, Oracle; Jim Bidzos, Chairman & CEO, VeriSign; Thomas J. Donohue, President & CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Lisa M. Mascolo, US Country Managing Director, Accenture; Brian Schipper, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Cisco Systems, Inc.; and Richard K. Templeton, Chairman, President, and CEO; Texas Instruments.