As it stands, America faces the threat of millions of unfilled jobs in the semiconductor, manufacturing and defense sectors, as well as trillions of dollars in lost economic production.

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The Biden Administration has somehow managed to worsen our immigration debate by creating a national security crisis on our southern border, as anyone beyond Biden’s most hardened corps of bad-faith apologists acknowledges.  

By the same token, however, most Americans agree that legal immigration to the United States must be encouraged, especially as it relates to people with advanced degrees and valuable expertise that our nation’s innovation economy desperately need.  President Donald Trump himself, who made border security a central pillar of his presidency, emphasized that point when introducing his own immigration reform plan on May 16, 2019:  

Under the senseless rules of the current system, we’re not able to give preference to a doctor, a researcher, a student who graduated number one in his class from the finest colleges in the world – anybody.  We’re not able to take care of it.  We’re not able to make those incredible breakthroughs.  If somebody graduates top of their class from the best college, sorry, go back to your country.  We want to keep them here.  

Companies are moving offices to other countries because our immigration rules prevent them from retaining highly skilled and even, if I might, totally brilliant people.  We discriminate against genius.  We discriminate against brilliance…  Some of the most skilled students at our world-class universities are going back home because they have no relatives to sponsor them here in the United States.  And that’s the only way.  We want these exceptional students and workers to stay, and flourish, and thrive in America.  

He’s absolutely right.  We cannot allow other nations to gain a competitive edge on the U.S. while the Biden Administration further poisons the well of public debate.  

That’s particularly true with regard to China and its growing menace.  Here’s how the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) – which in 2019 was named the “Top Defense and National Security Think Tank” in the world – captures the matter:  

[T]oday, for the first time in decades, U.S. leadership is under serious threat.  Reaping the fruits of significant long-term investments, China’s supply of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent now rivals that of the United States, both in terms of quantity and quality.  Given current trends, it is inevitable that China will overtake the United States in purely domestic terms – if it has not done so already.  The most powerful – and perhaps only – lasting and asymmetric American advantage is its ability to attract and retain international talent, a feat that China has not been able to replicate despite extensive efforts.  But the U.S. government risks squandering that advantage through poor immigration policy.  Without significant reforms to STEM immigration, the United States will struggle to maintain long-term competitiveness and achieve near-term technological priorities…  

Accordingly, competition for highly skilled STEM talent is not only a matter of economic competitiveness, but also national security.  

Believe it or not, provisions of legislation that recently passed in the House of Representatives would address this issue in a positive manner.  

Although the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022 includes objectionable elements that should be excised during the conference process with the Senate, it contains important provisions to welcome more highly skilled talent to America.  Those provisions would remove outdated green card caps for applicants with advanced STEM degrees from recognized research institutions.  In addition, they would create a new visa for entrepreneurs in start-up companies and facilitate the path to Legal Permanent Residence (LPR) status for STEM Ph.D. graduates seeking work in the U.S.  

As it stands, America faces the threat of millions of unfilled jobs in the semiconductor, manufacturing and defense sectors, as well as trillions of dollars in lost economic production.  While the overall bill must be improved in conference, provisions in the America COMPETES Act will help keep the American economy competitive by easing access to skilled talent for jobs that will otherwise go unfilled, and it will further promote STEM education in U.S. colleges and universities.  

Otherwise, potential inventors and entrepreneurs in critical STEM fields will take their talents to other countries, including China, and compete directly against American companies.  In an increasingly competitive global economy, we simply cannot let that occur by forfeiting this commonsense opportunity.