Work Authorization Bill Introduced By Palo Alto Representative

PALO ALTO, CA -- The Trump administration's nationalist agenda might have met its match, tangling with Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, who rolled out legislation Friday to try to keep Obama-era work authorization allowances in place for spouses of workers on H-1B visas.

The visa allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations -- those that require a high level of skill, experience and education. Former President Barack Obama expanded the visa program to include H-4 visas for dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders.

It didn't take long for U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten to throw out the rules under the guise of limits on immigration in the nation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is yet to implement the restriction but is expected to do so at the first of the year. Eshoo and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, want to halt the change before it happens with the passage of the H-4 Employment Act, citing their constituents have benefited from the more than 100,000 workers receiving employment authorization.

"Protecting work authorization for these H-4 visa holders is a matter of both economic fairness and family unity," Eshoo said. "Eliminating this benefit would create a painful choice for many immigrants to either split up their families or return to their home countries and use their talents to compete against American businesses."

Eshoo and Lofgren, with 13 other congressional members, wrote a letter Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen encouraging her to reconsider enacting the eligibility rules for dependents.

Lofgren contends "the American citizens-in-waiting" are stuck in a bureaucracy that may stifle their desire to use their talents here. She fears they'll simply move away or never arrive and will instead go to a country with "a more sensible approach to immigration."

Silicon Valley Leadership Group Vice President of Tech & Innovation Peter Leroe Munoz said the technology world is already witnessing a trend in which stymied interest in working in the United States has led these highly-skilled international workers to look elsewhere.

"It's a disturbing trend already that works against us as this administration makes (immigrating here) less attractive," Munoz told Patch.

The economic detriment to the tech sector of the South Bay economy may be far-reaching on a global scale.

"They contribute to this economy. If we don't allow visas, we lose all that brain power. It's frustrating this administration doesn't see that," Munoz said.

--Image courtesy of Rep. Anna Eshoo's Washington, D.C. office