US Losing Its Best and Brightest Due to Unworkable Immigration Scheme

The recent USA Today article, More of the World’s Talented Workers Opt to Leave USA,  describes how the US is losing its best and brightest due to these foreign national’s opportunities at home, but also immigration delays.    The CEO of TiE Global, a worldwide network of professionals who promote entrepreneurship, explains, “If the country is going to maintain the kind of economic well-being that we’ve enjoyed for many years, that requires having these incredibly gifted individuals who have been educated and trained by us.”

 On an everyday basis, I find my corporate clients exasperated by long delays in visa processing, unfounded requests for evidence on pending applications, and general frustration in the delay and amount of time and money spent on immigration petitions.  One high technology client has chosen to relocate research and development activities abroad so it can be assured of choosing the scientists and researchers it needs without the headaches of considering immigration implications with each hiring decision.

 Other clients tell me that they will no longer sponsor foreign nationals for work visas due to the headaches involved.  This seems to be the answer that many who would have the US close its borders are seeking.  However, within a short while, each and every one of these clients has changed this position as they cannot locate a US worker to fill a position which requires higher education in the science, technology, engineering or math fields. 

 I am in support of creating jobs for US workers, but what many American’s don’t realize is that these innovators are creating jobs.  They are developing green energy solutions, creating smaller and smaller electronic devices with more power, and making our cars more fuel efficient.  Without these workers, our US COMPANIES would fail.  If we want to work on creating more jobs for US workers, let’s turn our attention towards our education system and training our students to compete on a global level rather than turning to the protectionism that will only hurt us in the long run.

Obama’s Heckler: Let’s Understand the Big Picture

The immigration debate is emotionally charged.  This was certainly evidenced when South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson accused President Obama of lying when he stated that his health care reform bill did not apply to illegal immigrants.  

  Obama’s health care plan is certainly sweeping and controversial in its own right, but Rep Wilson’s outburst brings up the point that immigration reform also must be addressed.  By simply excluding immigrants from his reform proposals, Obama is looking at half the problem.  Policies that restrict immigrants’ access to health care such as preventive services lead to the inefficient use of emergency room and other costly services.  The economics behind immigration and health care are addressed in the report by the Immigration Policy Institute, entitled, Unequal Accecss: Immigrants and US Health Care.

Dr. Sarita Mohanty, a professor of medicine from the University of Southern California , the author of the report, explains that although immigrants comprised 10 percent of the US population in 1998, they accounted for only 8 percent of US health care costs.  Further, she documents that, “despite the fact that all immigrants are eligible for emergency medical services, they had lower expenditures for emergency room visits, as well as doctor’s office visits, outpatient hospital visits, inpatient hospital visits, and prescription drugs.”

 Although this report focuses on immigrants and health care, it captures the essence of the immigration debate by underscoring the importance of immigrants to our economy and to our nation.  Even pushing aside the fact that we are a nation of immigrants, as besides the Native American’s our ancestors all hail from other nations, the hard facts speak to the importance of immigration.  Not only to illegal immigrants perform jobs that native born Americans cannot and will not do, they also contribute to paying taxes and paying into the Social Security system for benefits they will never collect.  In 2001, the Social Security Administration (SSA) found that undocumented immigrants pay a major portion of taxes into the Social Security system under names or social security numbers that don’t match SSA records and which payees can never draw upon.  As of July 2003, these payments totaled $421 billion.

 It’s time to give undocumented immigrants an earned path to legalization so they can obtain health insurance and continue to contribute to our country, rather than focusing the health care debate on a broken immigration system.