Relaxing H-1B rules not Obama's priority

Technology companies have been pushing for years to ease restrictions on letting more skilled foreign workers into the United States. Under the current system, it is capped at 85,000 highly-skilled workers a year.

However, President-elect Barack Obama has signaled that this is not one of his priorities as he prepares to become president and deal with the nation's most pressing issues. The economy, the war in Iraq and health care are front and center for the new administration, and they will take up the energy of the new administration, according to BusinessWeek.com. Even if those issues were easily solved, immigration is always a tough issue, with plenty of Democrats opposing immigration reform. A weak U.S. economy makes it even harder to get the attention of lawmakers.

"As long as economic growth is off the table, [comprehensive] immigration reform is off the table," says Craig Regelbrugge, spokesman for the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC), a lobbying group that supports more low-skilled immigration.

The Obama administration may eventually push for more green cards for foreign graduates of U.S. universities with degrees in math and science. But don't expect that to happen quickly.

"There is limited space on the legislative agenda, and immigration isn't at the top now," says Sheri Steisel, an attorney for the National Council of State Legislatures.

For more on Obama and immigration:
- Check out this BusinessWeek.com article

Also see:
> The first truly wired presidency. Article
> How Obama will use Web 2.0 for change. Article
> Google CEO won't be Obama's CTO. Article
> Importance of cybersecurity to grow under Obama. Article
> Obama likely to hold off on IT investments. Article

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