BILL: Should We Streamline the Visa Process For Skilled Migrant Workers? - EAGLE Act of 2023 - S.3291

The Bill

S.3291 - EAGLE Act of 2023

Bill Details

• Sponsored by Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) on Nov. 13, 2023
• Committee: Senate - Judiciary
• House: Not yet voted
• Senate: Not yet voted
• President: Not yet signed

Bill Overview

• The Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment Act of 2023, or the EAGLE Act, modifies requirements for employment-based visas. It allows employers to focus on hiring immigrants based on their merits rather than their birthplace.
• Eliminates the per-country cap for employment-based immigrant visas, and increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from 7% of the total number of visas available annually to 15%. Under the current 7% cap, certain countries like India and China, which account for over 40% of the world's population, receive the same number of visas as Denmark, a country that accounts for 0.001% of the world's population. 
• Imposes new requirements on an employer seeking an H-1B visa holder (a highly skilled foreign professional), such as prohibiting an employer from advertising that a position is only open to H-1B applicants or that H-1B applicants are preferred to protect American workers.
• Enables certain non-U.S. nationals to obtain lawful permanent resident status if the individual is in the country as a nonimmigrant, has an approved immigrant visa petition, and has waited at least two years for a visa.

What's in the Bill?

Eases the visa backlog 

• Unlike other visa categories, 95% of employment-based Green Card applicants already live and work in the U.S. on temporary visas, but must wait years (or decades) for permanent visas because of visa caps. 
• This legislation would ease the backlog for the individuals who have to wait the longest. 

Provides opportunities for immigrants

• The bill reserves a percentage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability) and EB-3 (skilled and other workers) visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest number of recipients of such visas.
• Employment-based visa holders who are impacted by the backlog cannot start new businesses, visit loved ones in other countries at risk of being denied entry into the U.S., or change employers at the risk of being pushed back in the green card queue.
• While immigrant workers are in the U.S., they are dependent on their employers to maintain legal status and cannot change jobs, creating space for bad employers to take advantage of them. The bill could prevent exploitation.

Protects American workers and economy

• Prevents attrition of highly skilled workers to countries where it is easier for them to secure visas and live a full life.
• The CATO Institute estimates that removing national origin discrimination on employment-based Green Cards could result in an average wage increase for the immigrant worker of $11,592.
• For the first time ever, employers who hire foreign workers will have to advertise the jobs to American workers on a searchable Department of Labor website for at least 30 calendar days before hiring immigrant workers.
• Employers with over 50% of non-American-born workers will not be allowed to hire any more foreign workers.
• Forces employers to justify the wages offered to immigrant employees so an employer cannot undercut American workers.

What Supporters Are Saying

• Sen. Cramer said:

"In rural states like North Dakota, highly skilled immigrant doctors and nurses play a critical role in our healthcare workforce, sometimes providing the only specialty care available in the area. Per-country caps are nonsensical, and it's past time our immigration policies reflected a skills-based approach."

• Aman Kapoor from Immigration Voice:

"The bill transitions the allocation of employment based green cards to a first-come, first served application while not unduly burdening foreign nationals from countries that were accustomed to special treatment and having no wait time at all to receive green cards due to discriminatory per country limits. The bill ensures that American workers are made the top-priority for hiring by all U.S. companies such that no foreign worker can undercut an American worker for a U.S. job."

What Opponents Are Saying

• The Federation for American Immigration Reform said:

"This EAGLE Act is just one more effort from a political class out of touch with the American people, seeking to import cheap foreign labor at the urging of business lobbyists and activist groups...To be clear, the EAGLE Act is fundamentally premised on a false narrative that it will not harm American workers."

• In an open letter, the American Hospital Association said about similar legislation, the EAGLE Act of 2022:

"The solution to addressing the backlog in employment-based visas is not to eliminate the per-country cap, but rather to acknowledge there are not enough immigrant visas overall to meet the demand for foreign-born, highly-skilled workers for all sectors in the United States."

Tell your reps to support or oppose this bill

-Emma Kansiz

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