The Biden administration and Congress are facing pressure to increase the flow of legal immigration to the U.S. as a means of remedying perceived labor shortages.
Critics, citing high unemployment rates, say these shortages don’t exist, and warn that the specialty visa programs at the heart of the debate need to be made less unfair and exploitative before the federal government increases their capacities.
The debate is likely to continue as the bite the pandemic took out of legal immigration persists, regardless of what’s in Friday’s jobs report.
“We expect that the collapse in visa issuance during the pandemic will ...