Groups Urge Obama to Expand Visas for Immigrant Workers

Groups Urge Obama to Expand Visas for Immigrant Workers

In addition to calls for executive actions to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants, the White House is also considering requests to expand legal immigration paths, according to a report in The Washington Post.

President Obama is expected to announce new executive actions on immigration at the end of the summer, and reports have indicated that his actions could result in the legalization of millions of undocumented immigrants. The Post reports that additionally, the White House is considering ways to expand visas for high-tech workers and the relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. 

“The outside proposals delivered to the White House would more than double the number of people allowed into the country on employment and family-based green cards from the annual global cap of 366,000, according to estimates from some of the advocacy groups,” David Nakumura reported for The Post.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that the White House will “probably have some news to make on immigration” at the end of the summer.

The White House stressed to The Post, however, that no final decisions have been made. 

Obama “believes it’s important to understand and consider the full range of perspectives on this issue,” White House spokesman Shawn Turner told The Post.

Wednesday, Earnest pushed back against Republican threats to shutdown the government to defund the executive action, saying that it would not deter Obama from moving forward.

“No. It won’t, because the president is determined to take the kinds of common sense steps that are required to address the worst problems of our broken immigration system,” Earnest told reporters.

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