A Brief History

Early American history is most notable for its lack of permanent laws pertaining to immigrants. The Naturalization Act of 1790 and its amendment in 1795 set the baseline policy: US citizenship was available to "free white persons" of "good moral character" who had lived in America for at least five years. This racial restriction was gradually eased through the 19th century and most forcibly so by the ratification of the 14th amendment in 1868. That amendment also extended immediate citizenship to anyone born on US soil. Just previously, Congress had passed in 1864 "An Act to encourage Immigration," which created certain federal positions (mostly in New York City) to provide support for incoming immigrants.

This openness saw its first reversal in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act. There existed strong anti-Chinese sentiment, particularly in the Western US, due to the influx of Chinese laborers (many of whom worked on the railroads). The 1882 act effectively banned any Chinese immigrants from entering the US and even deported those who had arrived since 1880. This unfortunate piece of American history was extended twice in 1892 and again in 1902 (Geary and Scott Acts, respectively).

In the meantime, the previously informal process of immigration saw tighter oversight through the 1882 and 1891 Immigration Acts. They were responsible for the system we associate with Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus." Their stated goal was to prohibit immigration for "any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge," and they created a series of checks at the border (in practice, at Ellis Island) for any incoming immigrants. Those with disease or without a specific destination, for example, were liable to deportation.

At the same time as oversight tightened, immigration numbers began to skyrocket. Whereas immigration in the 1870s had been in the 200,000 per year range, it was up to 800,000 per year by the turn of the century and over 1.2 million people arrived in 1907. The Immigration Act of 1917 tightened strictures in response by, for example, requiring a literacy test for all adult immigrants.

A system of strict nationality-based quotas began in 1921 with the Emergency Quota Law and was solidified by the Immigration Law of 1924. The former, meant as a temporary measure to stem the tide of immigrants, set a quota of immigrants from each country at 3% of the number of present US residents from the same country. Notably, the law stated that immigrating professionals were exempt from the quota. The law was extended and superseded soon after by the Immigration Law of 1924 which cut the quota further to 2%.

Our present system is based on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Most importantly, it eliminated the system of nationality-based quotas, which were seen, especially in the light of the Civil Rights Movement, as discriminatory. In place, it set a total cap of 170,000 immigrants per year. Furthermore, preference would be given to family unification and the attraction of needed skills. One program the act created to attract needed skills was the H-1B visa program, described in detail later on.

The present system is too complex to describe succinctly, but the high points are these. The worldwide immigration ceiling now stands at 675,000 per year. This number is for those receiving a "green card" which provides permanent, lawful residence and allows one to apply for full citizenship. This is still divided primarily among "family-based" and "employment-based" programs (each with their own caps and sub-programs). Furthermore, there are a number of ways to gain temporary (non-immigrant) admission. Many are short-lived (student or tourist visas, for example), but the largest group of nonimmigrant visas are the "H" visas for temporary workers. More statistics on these visas and programs are presented in the following section.

Sources:
[1] Jana Braziel. "History of Migration and Immigration Laws in the United States." University of Massachusetts, accessed online: http://www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/USMigrat.html.
[2] Cornell University Law School, Legal Information Institute. "Immigration law: an overview." Accessed online: http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Immigration.
[3] "List of United States immigration legislation." Wikipedia, accessed online: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_United_States_immigration_legislation.
[4] Paul Lombardo. "Eugenics Laws Restricting Immigation." Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement, accessed online: http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay9text.html.
[5] Jennifer Ludden. "1965 Immigration Law Changed Face of America." NPR.org, accessed online: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5391395.

Current Statistics

Before presenting information pertaining specifically to skilled immigrants who come to America for employment, it is worthwhile to cast a wider net for a basic understanding of the full shape of US immigration. The numbers we present here are from a 2006 Congressional Budget Office Report, so exact values may differ slightly now, but there have been no sweeping changes or drastic shifts.

There are two ways to enter the United States as a non-citizen. The first and more common is with a temporary or nonresident visa that allows one to remain in the US for an allotted period of time. These visas come in a variety of forms, such as student visas, ones for temporary visitors (eg, tourists or business visitors), and the temporary worker visas. In 2003, the government issued 4.9 million nonresident visas. Of these, the bulk are for temporary visitors: 3.4 million (excluding visitors from countries for which visa requirements are waived --- primarily Western Europe).

Of those temporary visas, only 285,000 were issued to temporary workers. These are the so-called "H" visas, and they have many flavors. The largest set is the H-1B visa for "worker[s] of distinguished merit and ability." The H-1B visas are those used by technology companies to hire foreign workers and bring them to America. In 2003, there were 107,200 H-1B visas issued (and another 70,000 H visas went to family members). The number of visas that can be issued is capped at a certain level --- it is now down to 65,000 for the H-1B visas.

It is this shortfall on which much of present debate regarding skilled immigrants focuses. Historically, the H-1B cap was never met, but that changed during the Dot-Com years of the late 1990s. Congress expanded the quota in response (it reached as high as 195,000), but those expansions have since expired. Presently, the year's allocation of H-1B visas is gone within the first week of availability, and the allotment is allocated by lottery to those who applied in the first week.

The goal of many immigrants is not, however, a temporary visa but a "green card" for permanent residency. As with visas, there is a set of different caps and programs, each having its own internal stratification. The two primary groups are Family-Based Immigration (FB) and Employment-Based Immigration (EB). Each has a total cap and various internal priority levels. For our purposes, the most important is the "EB2" stratum for "professionals who hold advanced degrees or who are considered to have exceptional ability." This the group into which most H-1B visa holders fall. It has a cap of 58,456 people per year --- even lower than the H-1B visa program.

Sources:
[1] "Immigration Policy in the United States." Congressional Budge Office Report. Accessed online: http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=7051.