Reis Pagtakhan and Jessica Jensen Address U.S. Immigration Reform

Winnipeg immigration lawyers Reis Pagtakhan and Jessica Jensen recently addressed the issue of U.S. immigration reform in the latest issue of Belmont University’s Law Review. Belmont University’s law school is located in Nashville, Tennessee.

In their paper entitled Is the Future United States Immigration System Just North of the Border? Why Canada’s Economic Immigration System Should be Adopted by the United States, Reis and Jessica present their argument for reform of the U.S. immigration system based on Canada’s model for economic immigrants. Reis and Jessica originally presented in their argument at the Belmont Law Review’s Fall 2021 symposium on Contemporary Issues in Immigration Law.

In their paper, Reis and Jessica suggest the U.S. look at reforms to their immigration system that would mirror some of the goals of the Canadian immigration system. In particular, they recommended changes to the U.S. immigration system that would:

  1. Prioritize immigrants who can meet the employment needs of the community in which they intend to settle;
  2. Select immigrants with transferable skills as movement between employers and occupations increasingly becomes more commonplace; and
  3. Leverage existing familial ties to United States citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents to assist immigrants in settling in the United States and to increase the prospects that immigrants will remain in the United States.

They also recommended that the U.S. immigration system:

  1. Rebalance the proportion of immigrants entering the United States so that a greater proportion of immigrants arrive primarily under employer-based categories rather than primarily as family-based candidates;
  2. Change employer-based categories to provide an incentive for employers to recruit family members of United States citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents; and
  3. Change employer-based category criteria that weighs both the immediate employment need the immigrant is intended to fill and the ability for that immigrant to be successful in the long term.

Read the full paper.

No matter what your needs are, the immigration team at MLT Aikins can help, offering start-to-finish immigration application services for employers and ongoing support to ensure you’re compliant with regulatory obligations.