(Politico) The White House can’t get its broad immigration proposal moving, so officials are pursuing a narrow deal that would please the business community but might go against the president’s campaign promise to reduce overall immigration.
In recent months, the administration has been in talks with senators about legislation that would create new categories of temporary worker visas or lengthen the allotted stays for those workers, among other possible changes…
A broadening of temporary worker visas is a policy change the business community has long sought, arguing companies in industries like construction and agriculture can’t hire enough workers to meet demand. But immigration activists seeking to reduce migration worry such changes would raise the number of foreigners coming to the U.S.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to curb immigration.
“Our country is full,” Trump warned in April, standing at the southern border in California.
“I can’t wrap my head around why some Republican senators and administration officials are urging President Trump to embrace a guest worker expansion in an election year, or even worse — an agriculture amnesty bill drafted by an impeachment manager,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which wants to reduce the number of immigrants in the country.
Talks about the guest worker proposal have, at times, touched on whether to also offer permanent legal status to the 800,000 Dreamers — immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children — according to two of the people familiar with the negotiations.
