High-level White House Discussions Underway with Big Businesses On Immigration

*While it’s good to see this happening, why did it take so long? Congress has been intransigent on immigration for years; immigration has been kicked around for just as long; nothing has been done …VL

By Latinovations

A series of high-level talks with top business leaders are currently underway at the White House to explore a potential widening of the executive actions President Obama can take on immigration.

Senior White House officials are meeting with corporate giants in the technology, agricultural and business sector in hopes of finding long-term solutions for the country’s immigration system that go beyond stemming deportations and tweaking enforcement policies. This is part of a broader outreach strategy that officials hope will add a range of perspectives and garner critical political support for President Obama’s decision to act on immigration through executive action.

Beto Cardenas, a lawyer from Vinson & Elkins who was present at earlier sessions stated that he was “encouraged to hear that nothing was on the table.” Cardenas continued,  “It’s impressive to be able to sit with an administration that wants to listen to individuals who have a direct pulse on the economy, that have employees, in many cases thousands or hundreds of thousands, to better understand how the administration of policy can impact them.”

Companies such as Intel, Cisco and Accenture in addition to the companies officials met with earlier this month are offering key input on an array of executive actions the president can take regarding immigration ranging from recapturing unused green cards, to provisions for low-skilled workers and spouses of workers with high tech visas to work.

Compete America’s Executive Director, Scott Corley acknowledged that, “only Congress offers a long-term solution to our immigration problems. They haven’t acted, and that’s costing our country hundreds of thousands of new American jobs each year.”

This article was originally published in Latinovations.