Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202-822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 18, 2007

Compete America Calls Senate "Merit-Based" Visa Proposal Unworkable in Present Form

U.S. Innovation Economy Not Advanced in Current Proposal

Washington, D. C. – In the following statement, Compete America expressed major concerns about provisions for the employment-based, H-1B and green card systems as contained in the Senate immigration reform proposal introduced yesterday.

“We welcome the Senate’s willingness to reform an outdated and counterproductive visa system for highly educated foreign professionals. However, while a merit-based system for allocating green cards may sound good for business, after reviewing the proposal, we have concluded that it is the wrong approach for the U.S. innovation economy, and will not solve the talent crisis facing many U.S. businesses.  In fact, in some ways it could leave American employers in a worse position than they are currently facing.

“We believe the merit system will take key personnel decision-making out of the hands of U.S. employers, who must be able to seek out and offer employment based on which skilled professionals would best meet specific business needs.  The proposed system would instead establish a bureaucratic solution driven by prospective immigrants rather than by the actual needs of a competitive and evolving economy.   Further, we continue to believe that foreign-born advanced degree holders, especially in critical disciplines like math, science and engineering, are too important to our innovation economy to be subjected to arbitrary point systems and visa caps. 

“We are also concerned that the merit system does not contain enough green cards to reduce the current green card backlog, which has kept thousands of skilled professionals in legal and professional limbo for more than five years.  These individuals are already contributing to economic and job growth, and deserve better from our immigration system.

“Moreover, the Senate proposal fails to sufficiently address the numbers of H-1B visas for highly educated professionals that our economy demands.  While the Senate proposal did raise the H-1B visa cap to 115,000 per year, it appears that the lack of a complete exemption for advanced degree graduates of U.S. universities could result in the higher H-1B number being insufficient to meet demand.

“A key pillar of the U.S. innovation agenda as articulated by the President and bi-partisan leaders in Congress is to reform the employment-based green card and H-1B visa programs to allow U.S. employers to recruit and retain highly educated foreign talent.  America benefits when the world’s brightest minds are put to work here, driving innovation and creating quality jobs.  This proposal falls short. 

“We recognize the intensity of the effort now underway and remain eager to work with the Senate to improve the current immigration proposal to adequately meet our nation’s ongoing needs.”

To learn more information on how highly educated immigration benefits America, please visit www.competeamerica.org.

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of corporations, educators, research institutions and trade associations concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.

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