Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law known as the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act. This law would end the per-country caps on green cards. In other words, a foreign national from a large country no longer would face greater barriers to immigrating to the U.S. than a similarly situated foreign national from a small country. While the law has reached the Senate Judiciary Committee, it has not yet been scheduled for a vote. The Senate must pass the law, and President Donald Trump must approve it, before it goes into effect.
Apple CEO Tim Cook enthusiastically endorsed the law last week on Twitter. Cook has consistently favored loosening immigration restrictions, believing that Apple benefits from gaining access to a broader pool of employees. In his tweet, Cook asserted that contributions by foreign national workers would boost the U.S. economy. This is not the first occasion on which he has challenged the policies of the Trump administration or voiced liberal views on immigration. For example, he supported a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to prevent Trump from ending the DACA program. (Started by former President Barack Obama, this program allows some undocumented foreign nationals to remain in the U.S. under certain conditions.)
Many of the foreign nationals who have been affected by the per-country caps come from China and India. Under the system proposed by the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, skilled foreign national workers would be able to immigrate to the U.S. on a first-come, first-served basis. Proponents of the bill have argued that the per-country caps undermine the goal of the immigration system to evaluate green card applicants based on their merit.
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