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The Spectacle Blog

What the GOP Should Have Done with Immigration Reform

By Patrick Ryan on 2.19.13 @ 1:50PM

Why didn’t Senate Republicans initiate immigration reform with visa reform for skilled, educated immigrants? They should have drafted a bill immediately after the election.

The comprehensive approach requires visas for entrepreneurs to be linked to those of low wage laborers.

Per The Washington Post:

Republicans have proposed increasing the number of visas for skilled immigrants by cutting the number available for unskilled immigrants—a trade-off that Democrats oppose.

The United States does not have a specific visa for young entrepreneurs, unlike Canada and Chile.

President Obama and some in Congress have proposed a “start-up visa.” Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies responded to this in the following way to the Post:

“It’s a stupid idea,” said Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter immigration controls. “What is an entrepreneur? Businesses come and go.”

While the Republican Party laments the stupidity of President Obama’s policies and Sen. Rubio works to draft a probably insufficient “comprehensive” immigration bill, China, Canada, and Chile poach our foreign-born graduates:

China has given bonuses of up to $150,000 to thousands of highly skilled expatriates…Chile is luring top talent with $40,000 in capital, free office space and a quick visa through its “Start-up Chile” program…On April 1, Canada plans to launch a start-up visa program giving entrepreneurs immediate permanent residence.

Our graduating immigrants don’t want to go home. They want to invent and work in the United States. Meanwhile, we want their determination and talents for science, math, engineering and technology.

Again, why didn’t the GOP draft a bill expanding the H1-B visa for foreign workers who have started their own businesses? Currently, only employees of U.S. firms are eligible for these, but not those who’ve created their own start-ups.

Instead, we chose to pursue the “comprehensive” approach.

So goes economic innovation. So goes policy innovation.

About the Author

Patrick Ryan recently graduated from Villanova University with a BA and MA in Political Science and was a volunteer in Romney for America’s War Room in Boston. Originally from San Francisco, he currently lives in Washington, D.C.

http://spectator.org/blog/2013/02/19/what-the-gop-should-have-done

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