The tech industry is unhappy with the merit-based immigration plan President Donald Trump endorsed this week. The Independent reported industry leaders do not think the legislation does enough to improve the number of skilled foreign workers who come to the United States.
“Arbitrarily and drastically cutting legal immigration is not the answer to fixing our immigration system, and neither is a government-dictated immigration approach to determining what kind of high-skilled worker U.S. companies need,” tech lobbying firm TechNet said.
Industry Technology Council president Dean Garfield said the bill “does not address the challenges tech companies face, injects more bureaucratic dysfunction, and removes employers as the best judge of the employee merits they need to succeed and grow the U.S. economy.”
The legislation does not change the number of H1-B or H2-B visas issued, on which the tech industry often relies as it recruits skilled workers from foreign countries. It does, however, increase the number of green cards that can be issued to high-skilled workers twofold.
Facebook has not publicly commented on the piece of immigration legislation, but it touted the diversity of its workforce in a news update posted to its corporate website Wednesday – the same day Trump announced his support of the bill.
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