Wall Street Journal (08/19/14) Laura Meckler

The White House is considering changes to immigration policy aimed at helping businesses, part of a broad review of procedures that also is likely to provide new protections for people now in the country illegally. President Obama after Labor Day is expected to announce executive actions to refine deportation priorities and potentially expand a program that gives safe harbor and work permits to qualifying illegal immigrants. The administration also is reportedly reviewing actions on issues that are priorities for businesses, which mostly focus on legal-immigration policy.

One proposal would have the administration exclude dependents from the numerical cap on employment-based green cards, which is now 140,000 a year. The change could, in effect, double the number of green cards available. Another proposal would “recapture” unused employment green cards from previous years, which could produce more than 200,000 new green cards.