February 16, 2016 12:56PM 

# Deregulating Skilled Immigration – What President Obama Can Do 

By [Alex Nowrasteh](https://www.cato.org/people/alex-nowrasteh) 

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In 2013, 53 percent of all [employment-based green cards](https://www.cato.org/blog/employment-based-green-cards-are-mostly-families) actually sponsored the family members of workers while only 47 percent went to the workers themselves. [Some of those family members are workers](https://www.cato.org/blog/many-family-sponsored-immigrants-are-workers-too), but they should have a separate green card category or be exempted from the employment green card quota altogether.

If family members were exempted from the quota, or there was a separate green card category for them, an additional 85,232 highly skilled immigrant workers could have entered in 2013 *without increasing the quota.*

As I explain in this video, President Obama has the power to improve this allocation of visas:

For more on this issue, please read this [work](http://www.ilw.com/articles/2012,0201-endelman.shtm) by immigration attorneys Cyrus Mehta and Gary Endelman and quotes [here](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/executive-action-obama-should-take-immigration) by renowned immigration attorney Matthew Kolken.

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