R***r 发帖数: 158 | 1 In our response to your petition, Foreign GRADUATES with ADVANCED U.S.
DEGREES (M.S.& PhD.) should get GREEN CARDS, we invited petition signers to
join us for a conference call on February 1st to further discuss the
importance of reforming our immigration system – in particular, the impact
of the existing system on foreign students.
Below is a blog post discussing the call from petition response signers
Felicia Escobar, Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Domestic Policy
Council and Doug Rand, Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of
Science and Technology Policy.
A Conversation with "We the People" about Immigration Policy
By Felicia Escobar, Senior Policy Advisor for White House Domestic Policy
Council & Doug Rand, AAAS/Goldhirsh Fellow in the Office of Science and
Technology Policy
Felicia Escobar, Senior Policy Advisor for White House Domestic Policy
Council & Luis Miranda, Director of Hispanic Media in the Communications
Office participate in a conference call with people who signed a petition on
We the People.
Yesterday, we joined a conference call with individuals from across the
country to discuss issues impacting foreign students studying in our
colleges and universities. We were joined by our colleagues Julie Rodriguez
from the Office of Public Engagement and Luis Miranda from the Office of
Communications. The conference call was the next step in our response to a
petition submitted through We the People on Whitehouse.gov. We the People is
a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of
important issues facing our country. We created We the People last year to
help make your voices heard in our government. We know that some of the best
ideas come from individuals directly impacted by federal policies.
On our call, we discussed the impact that existing immigration laws have on
foreign students who have earned advanced degrees in American schools. As
President Obama said during his State of the Union address, it makes no
sense to allow these talented students to come to the U.S. and “to study
business and science and engineering, but as soon as they get their degree,
we send them home to invent new products and create new jobs somewhere else.
” That’s why the President supports legislative measures that would
attract and retain immigrants who create jobs and boost competitiveness here
in the U.S. – including "stapling" green cards to the diplomas of certain
foreign-born graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
fields – as a part of his vision for building a 21st century immigration
system.
We reiterated this message on our call, and also discussed what the
Administration is doing—independent of Congress—to help improve existing
immigration policies to attract and keep the best and the brightest in our
country. During the Q&A session, callers raised many concerns regarding F-1
and other visas targeted for highly skilled immigrants. Among these was a
question regarding the possibility of extending employment authorization to
certain spouses of H-1B visa holders who are awaiting the adjudication of
green card applications. We were especially pleased to inform the callers
that the Department of Homeland Security had announced just the day before—
as part of the One Year Anniversary of the White House Startup Initiative —
that they will be addressing this very issue through regulatory reforms.
Every day, the Administration is working to make improvements in the areas
where we can really make a difference. It is invaluable to hear from people
directly affected by our current immigration policies in order to get closer
to the President’s vision of a 21st century immigration system that grows
our economy and meets our security needs.
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