These include women, minorities, handicapped, economically disadvantaged and, in certain fields, older Americans. By tying the validity of their visas to continuing employment with sponsoring employers, current law limits the ability of most temporary visa holders to compete freely in domestic and international labor markets for better jobs, compensation and working conditions based on their own skills and qualifications. Many will accept substandard wages in order to enter or remain in the United States, reducing opportunities for American workers. Absent effective safeguards in current law, most employers are free to replace U.S. workers with temporary foreign workers, which is an attractive option if foreign workers with comparable skills can be recruited at the same or lower costs and can be tied to their sponsoring employer for periods of up to six years. The strong desire of foreign technical professionals to live and work in the United States coupled with the limitations imposed by their guest worker status makes it easy for unscrupulous employers to exploit foreign technical professionals.
Many guest workers come to the United States in anticipation of becoming permanent immigrants.
An overly complex and extremely bureaucratic immigrant visa processing system, coupled with numerical limits on annual admissions, results in interminable delays in the award of many permanent visas. Over reliance on foreign guest workers in critical, technology-dependent industries may jeopardize America's future economic growth and national security. Dependence on foreign technical expertise, like dependence on foreign oil, exposes the United States to serious risks in the event of any reduction in supply. The Benefits of Expediting the Admission of Legal Permanent Immigrants Even more than most countries, the United States has been a nation of immigrants. For more than 300 years, individuals from various ethnic, cultural and social groups have come here to reunite with loved ones, to seek economic opportunity or to find a refuge from political or religious persecution.