House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan has a strategy for how to give President Donald Trump’s top ally, Elon Musk, the changes to high-skilled visa rules the tech billionaire so desperately wants.
In interviews this week, the Ohio Republican said he is eyeing his party’s flagship immigration bill as the legislative vehicle for overhauling existing laws to increase the flow of immigrants into the United States with expertise in science, technology and engineering.
But Jordan made clear he wouldn’t be the driving force behind making those changes to so-called H-1B visas, which let tech companies hire foreign-born experts. The high-tech visas have support among some Republicans but far from the majority of GOP lawmakers.
Rather, Jordan said, he would expect the H-1B overhaul to come up as one of any number of concessions Republicans might make to sway Democrats in the Senate, who will be needed to clear any legislation for the president’s signature.
“I think we got to come back and pass [the bill] and send that to the Senate,” Jordan explained, at which point both chambers could “then start that debate on what happens with various visa programs we have — whether it’s the high-skilled one, whether it’s [agricultural] workers, whether it’s what happens to Dreamers.”
He added that a House-Senate conference committee on that immigration bill would also allow the White House to “weigh in” on high-skilled immigration.
“I think that’s the best play for it all to work, and to have the full debate on everything that impacts immigration policy,” Jordan said.
Still, Jordan’s openness to allowing some sort of visa reform to come to fruition in a final immigration bill suggests that top House Republicans are now willing to negotiate with the tech lobby, Democrats and some Senate Republicans who see workforce benefits to allowing more specialists into the country.
It’s also the first time Jordan has articulated his long-range vision for overhauling immigration policy, including in an arena that’s important to Musk, with whom the committee chair enjoys a longtime rapport. Musk has framed the push for high-skilled immigrants as a top priority for the Trump administration.
Trump has backed Musk in his fight with immigration restrictionists over increases to skilled visas or green card exemptions for high-tech workers. Jordan said Tuesday that he has yet to talk to Musk about high-skilled immigration, but “I’m sure we will.”
A lot has to happen before tackling the issue on Capitol Hill, however — notwithstanding that a new version of the Secure Our Borders Act, which passed the House in the last Congress and is commonly referred to as H.R. 2, has yet to be reintroduced.
First, Jordan said, congressional Republicans must pass broader legislation through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process, which he sees as necessary for the GOP to enact broad swaths of Trump’s domestic policy agenda — including beefed up border security enforcement.
“There’s a sequence to this,” Jordan said, explaining his plans. The House Judiciary chair said it was necessary to “demonstrate to the country we’ve fully secured the border, and then you can look at the visa issues in the context of H.R. 2.”
