Wall Street Journal (Letter to the Editor)
By Bruce Morrison
May 15, 2013
As the principal author of the last permanent increase in legal immigration, the Immigration Act of 1990, which also created the H-1B program, I'd like to make two points regarding your May 9 editorial "Bureaucratic High-Tech Visas."
The way "for the world's best and brightest to stay in America" is a green card—legal permanent residency. The H-1B is a temporary visa.
Most Republicans recognize that fixing the many broken pieces of our immigration system, which hasn't been systematically maintained since the 1990 act, requires legalization. Most Republicans will either vote for, or at least allow a majority (particularly in the House) to pass, a comprehensive bill. So it is not legalization itself that can stop this bill.
What can stop comprehensive immigration reform is the perception that it has become a corporate giveaway which hurts American workers; no one seriously questions that is the function of the H-1B program. Most H-1Bs go to outsourcing firms, contrary to the intent of Congress. The program sharply discriminates against women. Indian companies actually brag about how they send H-1Bs to the U.S. at substantially less than American market wages, because of this failed regulatory mess.
Green cards solve all of those failings. They create new Americans who can quit if they are underpaid, so there is no incentive to hire foreigners over equally skilled Americans if they are available—including women. The Gang of Eight's bill removes the cap on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) green cards and deregulates their delivery. The amendment the Journal endorses goes the wrong way—and it could sink the bill.
Bruce A. Morrison
Bethesda, Md.
Mr. Morrison was a member of Congress from 1983-91.
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