Visas for Foreign Workers

To the Editor:

Re “Workers Betrayed by Visa Loopholes” (editorial, June 15):

For years, we, along with a broad coalition of advocates, have pushed for comprehensive immigration reform that would spur economic growth and benefit American workers.

What we are seeing today is what happens when Congress defers action on a critical issue and leaves a broken system in place. The real culprits are the immigration reform opponents who have blocked efforts to fix our visa system at every turn.

There are many companies that use H-1B visas to innovate, grow and create more American jobs. Buried in your newspaper’s original article on this very topic, you reported that one of our members, Disney, actually added 70 tech jobs in the United States in its recent restructuring criticized by your editorial, on top of 30,000 American jobs it created in the last decade.

Growing jobs and our economy are the reasons, as a coalition, we supported three bills in Congress in the last few years alone that would ensure that the H-1B visa system works as it’s supposed to work — enabling companies to fill skills gaps and grow, while also adding numerous layers of protection for American workers. However, these bills were defeated by immigration reform opponents.

JOHN FEINBLATT

Chairman, Partnership for a New American Economy

New York

View the article here.