Grassley Wants NAFTA Negotiations to Address High-Skilled Visas

The North American Free Trade Agreement's (NAFTA) high-skill visa program should be put on the negotiating table with an eye on better protecting U.S. workers, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer.The nonimmigrant NAFTA professional (TN) visa program allows high-skilled Canadian or Mexican nationals to reside in the U.S. for three years, after which they can renew their status. There are around 60 categories of professions allowed in the TN visa program including doctors, lawyers, engineers and interior designers. Those categories and were "imported wholesale" from the U.S.-Canada agreement of the mid-1980s, Demetrios Papademetriou, a former head of immigration policy at the Department of Labor under President George H.W. Bush, told Bloomberg.Grassley argued the TN visa program offers an "uncapped and under-recognized pool of high skill employees" that he estimates could reach 100,000 workers in the U.S. These individuals "could negatively affect U.S. workers in certain industries that already rely heavily on foreign workers," Grassley wrote."Given President Trump's willingness to reevaluate – or reject – any and all of the NAFTA agreement, and in the interest of protecting American workers, I recommend that you specifically include temporary workers in the ongoing NAFTA review," Grassley urged. "I also ask that you consider whether the admittance of unlimited temporary workers under a multinational trade agreement – as opposed to through the existing statutory and regulatory frameworks employed by the Departments of State, Homeland Security, and Labor in other worker visa categories – best serves the interests of the American people and American workers."