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Dear Editor,
The decision by the Republican majority in Congress to adjourn without
restoring 245(i) or moving up the registry date entirely takes the political
momentum out of both issues and checkmates the attempt of the Clinton
Administration to gain an electoral advantage prior to the November
elections from their skillful exploitation. It reminds us again the vagaries
of marrying immigration policy with political tactics. The imbalance between
the number of H-1B visas and the number of Employment-based immigrant visas
is greater now than ever before. Sooner or later, the pressures within the
system resulting from such lack of symmetry will no longer be able to be
kept in check and Congress will be pressured to act by raising the quotas
themselves. This is obviously what the pro-immigration forces are counting
on. In one sense, this is political realism since the Democrats would never
have accepted positive action now on the EB-quota issue. Beyond that,
Congress responds to emergencies backed by money and lobbying rather than
setting policy in advance of a crisis. There is an institutional bias
against being proactive. However, the business lobby is taking a real risk
in putting off the ultimate solution for another day. The economy is cooling
off, the magic of the dot.com boom is beginning to fade, and the business
cycle has yet to be repealed by the digital age. Leaving to tomorrow what we
did not do today leaves the whole issue completely vulnerable to forces that
we do not even know about much less control. The making of immigration
policy as a series of incremental emergency campaigns may be inevitable but
it is high stakes poker and we may not like who gets to pick up the
winnings.
Gary Endelman
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