Sen. Brown Continues 88-County Roundtable Tour In Dayton With Community Stakeholders

Press Release

As the Senate prepares to debate bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was in Dayton today to hear from Ohio families, businesses, and community leaders for a conversation on immigration. Held at the Ahiska Turkish American Community Center of Dayton, the roundtable was aimed at determining how immigration reform can be structured to maximize American economic prosperity, provide a path to citizenship with fair and rigorous requirements, impose tough sanctions on employers who break the law, and secure our borders.

"Our country makes meaningful progress when students, families, and business owners tell their stories and call for meaningful change," Brown said. "Citizen-advocacy has always helped move America forward. To fix our broken immigration system, it will take efforts in Congress, and energy from southwest Ohio."

Participants discussed high-skill (H-1B) and low-skill (H-2B) visas, family-based visas, and immigrant visas for STEM graduates, among other issues.

A recently-introduced bipartisan plan aims to reform our broken immigration system. The bill would strengthen America's economic prosperity, secure our borders, impose tough sanctions on employers who break the law, and provide a path to citizenship with fair and rigorous requirements.

Brown and U.S. Senator Grassley (R-IA) recently introduced the bipartisan H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2013, which addresses the issue of H-1B and L-1 abuse. The bill would provide additional oversight of the H-1B visa program by requiring all employers to make a good faith effort to hire an American worker, advertise an opening for at least thirty days before applying for an H-1B visa, and offer all H-1B workers the prevailing wage. The legislation would also authorize the Department of Labor to strengthen whistleblower protections for the H-1B visa program.

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