Bennett Wisniewski, Attorney at Law

With less than a month to go before the 2008 presidential election, many people living in America and around the world are anxious to find out who the next president will be – Senator John McCain (R-AZ) or Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). This election will have a significant impact on the nation’s immigration policies as well as America’s popularity abroad. Would American become a more attractive place to immigrants under an Obama Administration or a MaCanin Administration? What are the candidates’ immigration policies?

Obama Welcomed in Foreign Countries

On 10/06/08, a Reader’s Digest poll was released which asked 17,000 people in 17 countries, including Brazil, Taiwan, Germany, India, Indonesia, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, France, South Africa, Poland, and Russia, whom they would like to see elected president. The results show that Senator Barack Obama is overwhelmingly favored in all foreign countries surveyed. What is particularly interesting is that embedded in this survey was the question “Would you be interested in moving to America if economic and political barriers were non-existent”. The results from this survey showed that the majority in India (73%), South Africa (65%), the Netherlands (55%) and France (52%) would be interested in moving to the U.S. America remains to be an attractive country for those pursuing the American Dream and it seems that under an Obama administration more people from other countries would consider immigrating to America.

Senator John Mccain’s Immigration Policy

Senator John McCain has proposed several changes to U.S. immigration policy. Particularly of interest to alien professionals and researchers, are his plan’s for high skilled foreign worker immigration:

1) Ensure high skilled workers trained and educated in the United
States have the opportunity to stay and work in the United States upon graduation.

2) Reform and rise caps for H-1B visa program and reduce
bureaucracy and waiting times.

3) Increase available green card numbers to reflect employers and
employees’ demand.

4) Ensure available and qualified American workers are given
adequate and fair opportunities to apply for available positions.

However, despite these goals and his previous support for comprehensive immigration reform, Senator McCain’s current position is to secure America’s borders first before pursuing further immigration reform for high skilled workers. On his campaign website, Senator McCain states, “We must prove we have the resources to secure our borders and use them, while respecting the dignity and rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States. When we have achieved our border security goal, we must enact and implement the other parts of practical, fair and necessary immigration policy.” Senator McCain has stated that he wouldn’t vote for the immigration reform bill, which he had originally sponsored, if it came to a vote in the Senate today, because the boarder security issue has not been solved. . Therefore, under a McCain administration, immigration reform would be a future goal but it would take a backseat to border security, which is Senator McCain’s top immigration priority.

It is unclear whether this position is reflective of Senator McCain’s true intent or whether it is an election year tactic aimed at appealing to US conservative groups, who traditionally oppose increased immigration and greatly favor increased border security.

Senator Barack Obama’s Immigration Policy

In contrast to Senator McCain’s immigration plan, Senator Obama’s plan is not preconditioned on increased boarder security. Although Senator Obama is committed to securing America’s boarders, he has not indicated that he would wait for the boarders to be secured before pursuing immigration reform. Specifically, Senator Obama’s immigration plan involves:

1) Improve speed and efficiency of FBI background checks for immigration applications. In his capacity as Senator, Obama introduced legislation that passed the Senate to improve the speed and accuracy of these background checks.

2) Increase H-1B quota for temporary high skilled workers. Senator Obama has described this plan as a “stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively.”

4) Establishing a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants. Senator Obama supported last years comprehensive immigration reform bill and continues to strongly support the idea despite the bill’s failure.

Although Senator Obama has not worked on immigration issues in the Senate as long as Senator McCain has, he has been active on immigration matters throughout his Senate career and there is every indication that he is a fast learner on immigration policy. However, there is limited information as on what priority he would put on immigration policy, and how skillfully he can maneuver a bipartisan passage of immigration bills.

As is always the case with American politics, the future effect of this election on America’s immigration policy is difficult to predict. With the recent economic downturn and the growth of special interest groups opposed to immigration reform, there are additional obstacles for any administration to push through a comprehensive immigration reform bill. We all, however, can take some comfort in the fact that both candidates recognize that America’s current immigration policy is broken and needs to be fixed.

* Bennett Wisniewski, Attorney at Law. Ben is an attorney at Zhang & Associates, P.C.’s New York City office. Ben graduated cum laude from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii, where he concentrated in Pacific-Asian Legal Studies. He is licensed both in New York State and in the state of Hawaii. Ben also holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he double majored in Japanese language and Asian studies.