Michael Bloomberg Suggests More Flexible Immigration Policies
NEW YORK—Calling current immigration policies “national suicide,” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggests more work and immigrant opportunities be provided to immigrants and international students graduating from U.S. colleges and graduate schools, in his prepared remarks for a speech at Stanford University on Friday.
The mayor criticized the federal government for turning away visa applications from foreign workers.
“The more difficult we make it for foreign workers and students to come and stay here, the more likely companies will be to move jobs to other nations. Just look at what’s happened here in Silicon Valley. Many companies that have not been able to get workers into the country have been forced to move jobs to Vancouver,” says Bloomberg, who called the current visa application process for foreign workers “torturous.”
“Just as troubling, more and more foreign students are reporting plans to return home because of visa problems,” continues Bloomberg. “We educate them here and then, in effect, tell them to take their knowledge to start jobs in other countries … Our immigration policy is a form of national suicide.”
The current process requires companies that wish to hire foreign workers to file an obligatory petition with a fee. The capped amount of work visas that can be granted to foreign workers is at 65,000 for 2011, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“I’ve proposed that we give a green card to anyone who graduates from a U.S. college with an advanced degree in science, engineering, and other important fields—and to give a visa to any entrepreneur who wants to come here and has backing to start a business,” said Bloomberg.
The mayor’s city is home to some of the nation’s leading institutions and is America’s largest college town with post-secondary international students.
