The take up of E-Verify programs shows that state officials prefer the highly skilled over temporary immigrant workers with lower skills

The election of Donald Trump illustrates that the immigration debate is here to stay. In new research, Adriano Udani uses data on temporary immigrant labor admissions to better understand which immigrant groups policymakers think deserve to work in the United States. He finds that state officials ease employment verification rules when there are more “highly-skilled” migrants gaining visas. He argues that this policy preference for more specialized, highly skilled migrants is likely to reinforce patterns of segmented assimilation and racial and gender disparities among immigrants.