The first two months of 2013 have seen a flurry of activity
relating to immigration reform. President Obama is pushing
for comprehensive reform as are powerful factions within both the
Senate and the House. And the political will and rising tide of
opinion in favor of reform are making for unusual bedfellows, as
exemplified by the recent joint statement of principles from the
American Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO.
But in this same timeframe, lawmakers anxious to change current
immigration law to create new pathways for entrepreneurs and highly
educated immigrants have introduced a number of bills designed for
this purpose, including the Immigration Innovation (I²) Act of
2013 introduced by Senators Hath, Klobuchar, Rubio and Coons and
the Startup Act 3.0, introduced by Senators Moran, Warner and
Coons. These bills contain many excellent provisions that make
tremendous sense, addressing shortcomings and deficiencies in our
current law. For example, the I² bill
