| House Republicans Offer Green Cards to Foreign Graduates With Advanced Degrees |
| Nov-30-2012 |
| Keywords: immigration, house, bill, 55,000 visas, foreign graduates, advanced degreee |
House Republicans approved a bill that would offer green cards to foreign students with advanced degrees, but only after a partisan fight that spells trouble when Congress attempts a wholesale immigration overhaul next year.
In approving what is called the STEM Jobs Act on a 245-139 vote, Republicans who control the House hoped to show Hispanic voters who abandoned them in the election that they're serious about fixing the flawed system. The bill passed Friday would provide 55,000 permanent residency visas to foreign students with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. But it drew fire from Democrats because it would kill a program that helps less-trained people from Africa and elsewhere gain entry to this country.
"We could boost economic growth and spur job creation by allowing American employers to more easily hire some of the most qualified foreign graduates of U.S. universities," said Rep. Lamar Smith, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. "These students have the ability to start a company that creates jobs or come up with an invention that could jump-start a whole new industry."
But the bill is unlikely to go anywhere this year in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the Obama White House has come out against it, saying it "does not support narrowly tailored proposals that do not meet the president's long-term objectives with respect to comprehensive immigration reform."
A major point of contention is that the bill offsets the increase in visas for the highly educated by eliminating the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. This year the program made 50,000 visas available to people from countries with traditionally low rates of immigration. About half of those visas go to African nations.
Read the full story on FoxNews.com |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 8:00 PM Email to a friend |
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