The Honorable Mike Lee
The Honorable Kamala Harris
Dear Senators Lee and Harris:
On behalf of the CEO members of Business Roundtable who lead companies with more than 15 million employees, I write in support of S. 386, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019.
As employers, Business Roundtable CEOs know the extent to which high-skilled foreign workers contribute to our companies and the U.S. economy. Due to an outdated law that imposes a 7 percent ceiling on the number of green cards that the government may issue to nationals of any one country, many of our employees face a decades-long wait for their green cards. It is untenable to make any employee wait that long, and restrictions on their ability to change employers and roles limit their ability to contribute to our economy.
The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 would phase out the per-country ceiling and reduce green card wait times for workers caught in the green card backlog. The legislation includes a “do no harm” provision that ensures that no immigrant currently in the green card process will see longer wait times due to passage of this bill. The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 would bring near-term relief to many our high-skilled foreign workers and the Business Roundtable urges Congress to enact it without delay. However, the legislation does not obviate the need for Congress to address other important reforms to the immigration system and we stand ready to work with you to modernize our immigration system.
Sincerely,
Chuck Robbins
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Chair, Immigration Committee
Business Roundtable