June 11, 2020
The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce commends you and your administration for the many
actions taken to help businesses recover in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency. The tax relief
and sensible regulatory policies put in place over the last several years provide an important
foundation for restoring millions of workers to their jobs as well as creating new ones, and the
Chamber looks forward to continuing to work with the administration to build on last month’s
job growth.
As the economy rebounds, American businesses will need assurances that they can meet
all their workforce needs. To that end, it is crucial that they have access to talent both
domestically and from around the world. Policies that would, for example, impose wide-ranging
bans on the entry of nonimmigrant workers or impose burdensome new regulatory requirements
on businesses that employ foreign nationals would undermine that access to talent, and, in the
process, undercut our economy’s ability to grow and create jobs.
Specific concerns have been raised about the impact a potential entry ban would have on
the hiring or continued employment of intracompany transferees under the L-1 visa category.
These visas are used by American businesses such as automobile manufacturers that require the
services of their company’s engineers to prepare new plants for opening, financial services
companies that need executives to oversee critical investment projects, and pharmaceutical
companies whose scientists and researchers are embarking on new medical research initiatives.
If these American businesses are unable to bring needed expertise into the country, investments
and research may not happen, to the detriment of American workers and our economy.
Very similar concerns have been raised with respect to the effects that an entry ban would
have on employers of H-1B visa holders. American businesses across multiple industries,
including technology companies, accounting firms, manufacturers, among others, employ H-1B
workers for the skill sets they possess that drive innovation and productivity gains within their
own companies or for their clients. If companies cannot hire new H-1B workers or continue to
employ their current H-1B workers, innovation and productivity growth, particularly that which
is achieved through patent production, would suffer greatly to the detriment of our overall
economy. Short-term disruptions in the L-1 and H-1B visa programs would hamper businesses’
ability to make long-term planning and domestic investment decisions.
Employer worries regarding the ability to access specific workers are not unique to the
high-tech sectors of America’s economy. Seasonal employers, such as forestry and landscaping
firms, have expressed similar concerns about entry bans on H-2B workers. Without these
workers, many seasonal employers will not be able to operate at full capacity and could have
difficulty meeting contractual obligations. Many of these businesses are small businesses, and
these employers often operate on thin margins. If they lose business because they lack an
adequate labor force, the employers and the Americans who work for them full-time would
suffer.
Several other potential policy changes are also raising concerns among employers. These
include the following:
• Imposing new restrictions on hiring international students who were educated or
trained in the U.S. and severely limiting which foreign national graduates are eligible
for work authorization.
• Substantial increases in filing fees for H-1B workers, which would negatively impact
all companies and would be most harmful to small businesses that are more sensitive
to drastic fee increases.
• Curtailing work authorization eligibility for the spouses of H-1B visa holders, which
would exacerbate worker retention issues across multiple industries.
• Instituting a new requirement that companies must perform labor market tests for a
service provider’s H-1B workers. This novel idea seeks to establish a joint
employment relationship between firms simply due to a contractual relationship,
which stands in stark contrast with a new Labor Department rule that seeks to limit
determinations of joint employment status.
America’s immigration system clearly is not perfect. As you acknowledged a year ago, it
discriminates against “genius” and “brilliance.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce agrees with
that assessment in many respects. However, the potential changes to immigration policy
discussed above would only serve to magnify those flaws of our current system.
Businesses and workers are starting to recover from the downturn caused by COVID-19.
However, restrictive changes to the immigration system will push investment and economic
activity abroad, slowing down the recovery and reducing job creation. The Chamber is
committed to helping unemployed Americans get back to work and key to doing so is taking all
necessary steps to support and maximize economic activity. We look forward to continuing to
work with you on economic recovery and on positive reforms to our immigration policies that
would serve the interests of American businesses and American workers.
Sincerely,
Thomas J. Donohue
