DREAM Act Portal Forum - U.S. Needs Immigration Reform Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddgano...ration-reform/

One of the biggest disconnects between Main Street USA and Congress is on immigration. If Congress wants the U.S. to remain at the forefront of competitiveness, innovation and productivity, we need immigration reform.

Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”, wrote that the most important resource of any organization is not people. It’s great people. The leader of any organization seeks great people, gets them “on the bus”, and makes sure that they’re each sitting in the right seat on the bus.

An often-heard complaint is that one country or another is graduating so many more engineers or scientists than the United States is. Even when framing the issue in terms of percentage of population to accounting for population size differences, one finds the same result. In spite of the complaint, it’s actually worse.

The United States is home to great universities and colleges. Admissions are competitive. The student with the superior record and potential – irrespective of what country he or she is from – will be the one who gains admission. With only so many students who can be admitted each academic year, global competition for admissions has raised the level of quality of students at American universities and colleges. This is a good thing.

The bad thing is that as soon as those superior students graduate – whether it is with a bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree – our current immigration policy requires them to leave the United States. After an individual has been identified as having a superior record and having superior potential, we tell them they must leave – they are not allowed on the bus. After the United States has committed educational resources to an individual, we tell them they must leave – they are not allowed on the bus. This is insane.

Think about it. Let’s say that you are the owner of a small business or a manager at a larger business. Who do you want to hire? Do you want to focus on hiring a great person – as Jim Collins suggests? Or, do you only want to limit your pool of candidates to only Americans? Of course, you want the best candidate for the position. In the same way that global competition for U.S. university admissions raises the quality level of students, global competition for U.S. jobs raises the quality level of American workers.

Indeed, we want to keep these individuals. We want these individuals to help drive competitiveness, innovation, and productivity, which in turn will drive our economy and create more jobs. We want these talented and industrious individuals to be Americans. We want to offer them United States citizenship.

Or, we can have the attitude that they should simply go back home . . . where they will drive competitiveness, innovation, and productivity . . . and, ultimately eat our lunch.

Jack Welch has spoken about this issue passionately for several years. Not mincing words, Mr. Welch has challenged members of Congress to step up to the plate and pass legislation that would allow these bright and talented individuals to remain in the United States. It’s time for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.