Our view on legal immigration: Congratulations, graduate. Now leave the USA.

Limits on skilled-immigrant visas hurt the nation’s competitiveness.

Around this time each year, thousands of foreign students graduate with science and engineering degrees from U.S. universities. Many are eager to stay in America and contribute to the U.S. economy.

So does the United States welcome them with open arms? No, the government tells thousands of them to hit the road — and take their sought-after skills and brainpower to countries and companies that compete with the USA.

Talk about a self-defeating immigration policy.
Mind you, these immigrants are not seeking to sneak across the border and stay here illegally. They are educated students, many with professional or masters' degrees or doctorates, who want to play by the rules. U.S. companies want to hire them. But they get painted with the same broad anti-immigration brush that Congress has used to make the nation's legal immigration system a morass of quotas, caps and unconscionable waits.
For years, Congress has limited the number of highly skilled foreign workers whom U.S. companies can hire under what's known as the H-1B program. Every April 1, companies — from high-tech to financial firms — file petitions to hire these individuals.

In recent years, the cap of 85,000 (including 20,000 set aside for those with advanced degrees from U.S. institutions) has been reached within days, sometimes the first day. Last year, about 78,000 of the best and brightest didn't make the cut.

High-tech companies, such as Microsoft and Oracle, have long lobbied to eliminate this counterproductive system. This month, they gained a powerful ally,

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "Our immigration laws discriminate pretty heavily against highly talented scientists and engineers who want to come to this country and be part of our technological establishment," Bernanke told a congressional panel. By opening doors to more people with top technical skills, he predicted, "you'd keep companies here, and you'd have more innovation here, and you'd have more growth here."

Instead, Congress has been moved by labor leaders and others who argue that foreign workers take jobs from Americans, work for lower salaries and push down wages. These arguments sidestep a number of facts, including the nature of the free market.

In some U.S. graduate programs, foreign students simply outnumber Americans. In 2006, more than 58% of graduate students in computer sciences were foreign, and so were more than 68% in electrical engineering, according to the National Science Foundation. To shun them is to ignore a huge resource.

When companies can't hire the talent they need at home, they go elsewhere. In 2007, Microsoft, for one, expanded from its home in Redmond, Wash., into Vancouver and did its hiring in Canada.
Because of the recession, this is the first spring in years that visas haven't been snapped up at a breakneck pace. Even in this tough year, though, 45,000 are already gone.

The respite marks a good time for Congress to reassess and make the system flexible enough to meet employer needs. The current policy makes no sense. It turns away talent educated at top universities, often subsidized by U.S. taxpayers, at the very moment the nation needs all the smarts and innovation it can muster.

Posted at 12:22 AM/ET, May 12, 2009 in Immigration - Editorial, USA TODAY editorial
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