Congress to Immigrants: Give Me Your Scientists

You might not believe it, based on all the attack ads they’re running against each other, but there is one thing Democrats and Republicans actually agree on right now: giving out more visas to foreigners who graduate from technology and science programs at U.S. universities. According to the good people at Bloomberg four members of Congress—two Democrat and two Republican—are starting to push bills that would increase the number of visas the U.S. gives to these highly skilled grads.

The Republicans, Representative Lamar Smith and Senator John Cornyn, are both from Texas, where 38 percent of the population have Hispanic origins. Their pieces of legislation would more than double the number of visas for science, math, and engineering grads, to 55,000 from 20,000. They’d do this by eliminating the lottery that awards papers to 55,000 random visa seekers, which means the total number of immigrants allowed to stay in the U.S. wouldn’t rise. The bills sponsored by Democrats—New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who plans to announce his today, and California Representative Zoe Lofgren—would also raise the number of graduate visas to 55,000, but without getting rid of the lottery….

Read all about it at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-19/congress-to-immigrants-give-me-your-scientists#r=read