Editorial: Room for skilled immigrants

Wednesday, May 17, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

Congress is grappling with the complexities of a comprehensive immigration reform bill this week. As lawmakers focus on the most visible problem at hand - how to deal with an abundance of undocumented, unskilled workers who are in this country - they should not lose sight of another important immigration issue that hasn't received nearly as much attention: too few skilled immigrants.

High-tech companies, including Microsoft, have for years been quietly lobbying Congress to provide more temporary visas for highly skilled workers - documents known as H-1B visas - and to ease restrictions that impede these workers from ultimately gaining U.S. citizenship.

Jack Krumholtz, managing director of government affairs for Microsoft, told Reuters news service that the company has 2,000 high-tech jobs it cannot fill with U.S. workers, a problem that he said eventually could force the company to ship some of its development work overseas.

Computer chip giant Intel already is setting up engineers in Canada, Ireland and Israel. "These people are the people that can help drive U.S. competitiveness and our economy," Intel Chairman Craig Barrett told Reuters. "Let's make the U.S. the place where they want to come by choice. Let's welcome them with open arms."

One Senate proposal pending in the broader immigration debate would increase an annual limit on H-1B visas from 65,000 to 115,000 . Such a provision makes sense. Immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs have long played a key role in developing America into an economic super power.

A new generation of some of the world's best architects, engineers, mathematicians, scientists and physicians will help keep this country on the cutting edge of the future.