'There Simply Are Not Enough People': Deborah Ross Urges Increased Visa Approvals To Help Businesses

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During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) questioned witnesses about visa approvals.

Transcript

00:00Yes, ma'am.

00:01The first one is an article from NBC News entitled,

00:04Hundreds of International Doctors Due to Start Medical Residencies Are in Visa Limbo.

00:09And the second one is, because we've had so much conversation on overstays,

00:14it's the Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2023 Entry Exit Overstay Report

00:20that specifically says that the overstay rate is 1.02%.

00:25Without objection, admitted.

00:27The chair recognizes Representative Ross.

00:31Thank you, Mr. Chairman and the ranking member for holding this hearing.

00:36I'm going to try to overlap in a positive way with Mr. Van Drew

00:41and talk about what we need to enhance legal immigration.

00:46I am absolutely convinced that we can fix our immigration system

00:53to deal with illegal immigration, the overstay situation.

00:59Obviously, we're working on the border, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

01:03Both the chairman and I represent one of the fastest-growing areas in this country in North Carolina.

01:12Every day, and we just came back from being in our districts,

01:17I hear from the agriculture sector, largest sector, economic sector in North Carolina,

01:27the hospitality industry, the construction industry.

01:30We've talked about the medical industry, the research industry,

01:35that they need more workers, and they need to have people who can get their visas.

01:43They need better H-1B processing.

01:46They need better H-2B visa processing.

01:50They want to hire people who are legal.

01:54But we have a backlog.

01:56We have not increased many of these visa quotas in more than 30 years.

02:04People want to come into this area.

02:07We are growing.

02:08We have amazing institutions of higher education educating lots of people from the United States.

02:15I'm very big on increasing the pipeline from the United States.

02:18But as we've discussed, in North Carolina, there simply are not enough people for our growing economy.

02:26So increasing pathways to legal immigration is either the first or the second highest priority

02:35for the North Carolina Farm Bureau, the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce,

02:41the North Carolina Home Builders, our education institutions.

02:46So, Mr. Narasta, can you tell us how we could fix some of the problems that we're hearing with our visa system

02:58and expand opportunities for more of these people to get legal visas

03:06because these employers in my district and in my state who are generating all the economic prosperity

03:14want to do it the right way?

03:16The major problem with the legal immigration system in the U.S. is that it is far too restrictive.

03:22It is far too complicated.

03:24It is far too burdensome.

03:26It is the second most complicated portion of American law after the income tax.

03:30Now, I'm just a humble supporter of the free market.

03:33But I think that people should be able to go back and forth based on where they are demanded,

03:37where their opportunities are,

03:38where people want to buy and sell from them and to them.

03:43And I think that we need to expand these opportunities for low-skilled workers in areas like agriculture,

03:48but also create a visa for construction workers.

03:51I think we need to create a visa for manufacturing, for all different types,

03:54for every sector of the American economy, for mid-skilled workers,

03:58for people who are higher skilled, make it easier for them to come in,

04:02some of them temporarily, some of them permanently.

04:04I mean, but at a minimum, I think the thing that we can do is create a visa for entrepreneurs,

04:08which this country entirely lacks.

04:10I mean, that's a no-brainer here.

04:11That's the biggest no-brainer around.

04:13And Mr. Narasta, we've only touched on this.

04:16I have, ever since I got here, been one of the primary sponsors of a bipartisan bicameral bill

04:23to deal with what we call the documented dreamers,

04:26the children of H-1B visa holders who come over here before, you know, they weren't born here.

04:32Sometimes their siblings are U.S. citizens, but they are not.

04:37And they literally age out of their visas when they're 21 years old.

04:41And the backlog is so long that they will never be able to be able to get a visa or become a U.S. citizen.

04:49They're the children of highly educated people.

04:51Most of them are in college.

04:53We've paid for their education.

04:54And now we're deporting them to countries that we compete with.

04:59And what do you say to those documented dreamers who I've been fighting so hard for?

05:04You should be allowed to stay in the United States.

05:07You should be allowed to become an American citizen.

05:09You should be allowed to use your talents and your skills and your grit to do well here.

05:14The one thing we know about children doing well or how well they're going to do in life is it's related to their parents.

05:20And H-1Bs who come to the United States do extraordinarily well.

05:24They have above the 90th percentile in wages in the United States.

05:27So kids are going to do about as well as they do if we let them, if the government lets them succeed.

05:34And all we need to do is get out of their way.

05:36All we need to do is take the government out of this equation to legalize these folks and allow them to do what they want to do,

05:43which is to succeed and become Americans.

05:45Thank you, and I yield that.

05:46Thank you, Ms. Ross.

05:48The chair now recognizes myself for five minutes.

05:50Ms. Vaughn, one of my greatest frustrations is the conflating of illegal versus legal.

05:56No one up here is against legal.

05:58We all want to strengthen it.

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