The U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a bill that would set aside 55,000 visas for highly-skilled immigrants who earn advanced degrees in the United States in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The vote on the STEM Jobs Act of 2012 fell mostly along party lines, 245-139, with most Republicans joining the majority.
The bill aims to keep foreign-born technology students in the United States after graduation and would also grant temporary visas for the families of those immigrants.
There is a consensus that those graduates should be provided visas, but Republicans and Democrats differ over when and how it should be done. The Obama administration announced last week that, although it supports STEM legislation, it “does not support narrowly tailored proposals that do not meet the president’s long-term objectives with respect to comprehensive immigration reform.”
The STEM Jobs Act is unlikely to get a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and the White House officially came out in opposition to the bill on Wednesday. But its passage in the House can be viewed as indicative of things to come as the two parties map out a broad plan for dealing with immigration. The STEM bill is the first major piece of immigration legislation since the November elections, which boosted interest in reform from members of both parties.
