STEM Green Cards Part of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Proposal

The “gang of 8”, Senators Schumer, McCain, Durbin, Graham, Menendez, Rubio, Bennet, and Flake has released its Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform on January28, 2013.

In the section of the proposal entitled “Improving our Legal Immigration System and Attracting the World’s Best and Brightest” the proposal philosophically embraces efficient green cards for STEM graduates in the following language:  

"The United States must do a better job of attracting and keeping the world’s best and brightest. As such, our immigration proposal will award a green card to immigrants who have received a PhD or Master’s degree in science, technology, engineering, or math from an American university. It makes no sense to educate the world’s future innovators and entrepreneurs only to ultimately force them to leave our country at the moment they are most able to contribute to our economy.”

Microsoft Proposes New STEM Green Cards

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told a live Brookings Institution and streamed video audience that the company proposed immigration reforms that would fund STEM education. The proposal is detailed in Microsoft's White Paper that was released on September 27, 2012, contemporaneously with the Brookings' event.

The two part proposal features:  

1. Invest more in STEM education by focusing on better teachers and higher standards in K-12 education, increasing the number of computer science courses in high schools and colleges, and focusing on the “college completion crisis” where half of American students drop-out before getting their degree. Smith called on Congress to put $500 million per year behind the effort, sending that money to the states based upon a competitive process.
2. Raising federal revenue to pay for the $500 million per year effort by insourcing skilled labor to fill those unfilled jobs today -- adding 20,000 new visas for workers with STEM skills at a cost of $10,000 each and 20,000 new green cards for workers with STEM skills at a cost of $15,000 each.

 

E-Verify Self-Assessment: The Beginning of an “Industrial Strength”, Audited Immigration Compliance Program

High profile employers need more than an “off-the-shelf” compliance approach.  They require an “industrial strength” immigration compliance program that addresses the assessment and correction of important E-Verify compliance risk factors. An independently audited, immigration compliance program, which incorporates the  E-Verify Self-Assessment Guide’s checklists, could protect employers from debarment or involuntary termination from the E-Verify program. Read Charles Miller’s article …