Reward Skilled Immigrants

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that our immigration system is broken, yet nobody seemed to be able to agree on how to fix it—at least until recently. Almost miraculously, a bipartisan compromise bill that has survived early challenges has emerged from the Senate. Though tremendously complex, at its heart the bill has several key features: a path to citizenship for most illegal immigrants currently in the country, the improvement of border security, a guest worker program, and a point system that will give skilled workers higher priority in receiving a green card. Although there has been some debate as to the exact formula used, the innovative idea of a system that gives greater weight to skill is a step in the right direction.

If the US wants to maintain its place as a technological and intellectual superpower, giving priority to skilled workers will be very important in the coming years. Scientists and engineers who are citizens of other nations, especially countries such as China, India, and Japan, are attaining better education and training, filling many of the top jobs in their fields, and thus attracting more resources to their countries. If America does not have enough skilled labor to compete, we will continue to lose valuable workers and assets necessary for high quality scientific research and general innovation.

Yet America’s current system focuses overwhelmingly on giving green cards to family members of current green card holders and citizens, with family members accounting for 87 percent of green cards given out. Occupational considerations only account for the remaining 13 percent. While maintaining family ties is important, they should be balanced with the America’s need for an educated workforce. The new bill does just that, allocating 62 percent of green cards on the basis of family ties and 38 percent on the basis of skills. Though the exact formula may need some fine-tuning, we hope that the final product retains the greater emphasis on skill.

That’s not to say the bill is perfect. We do not believe that further emphasis on border security will be productive. The economic, social, and political forces that draw immigrants to the U.S. are tremendous. Securing the border with an eye toward illegal immigration will not remove the forced that draw these immigrants to choose to immigrate illegally, nor will it remove all means of doing so. A greater budget for border security thus amounts to throwing cash down the drain. The government has better things on which to spend money.

A more appropriate means of targeting and reducing or eliminating illegal immigration is the demystification of the process to citizenship. If this process is made less complicated and easier to access, the incentives to immigrate illegally will pale beside the ease of the legal path to citizenship.

Ultimately, however, there must be some process of selecting who will become a permanent resident and eventually a citizen. We believe that a system that puts a higher premium on skills better meets America’s demands than the status quo, and we hope that the ultimate bill keeps this crucial feature.