Scientists a 'no-cost import'

But solutions to what problem? Most pundits and media-seeking politicians stand under the wrong lamppost. They talk about lost jobs, the social burden of immigrant workers, the downward pressure on low-end wages and anything that will keep us all from shining a flashlight on the very real crisis confronting America: U.S. competitiveness.

That's right. Today, many claim that we should restrict the number of visas that enable highly trained but foreign-born and -educated workers to take jobs in this country. They ignore that the United States has slipped to sixth internationally in the number of engineering degrees awarded annually. China graduates four times as many engineers; Japan graduates twice as many. Half of all U.S. graduate degrees in engineering go to foreign nationals.

The United States used to welcome workers with special skills. We issued H1-B visas that permitted highly trained foreign workers to fill engineering and computer science positions. J-1 visas allowed architectural and other firms to bring over interns on exchange programs. It was a no-cost import. It was as if other countries were willingly filling up our strategic oil reserves. Scientists, who someone else paid to educate and train, were clamoring to work and settle in our country and help our companies compete in a global marketplace.

Should we have barred Einstein?

Today, the xenophobes and the protectionists have taken over. In the aftermath of 9/11, with the same analytic sophistication that identified WMDs as a great threat, Congress slashed the number of H1-B visas from more than 200,000 a year to 65,000. American businesses consumed all of the available visas two months before the beginning of this fiscal year.

On one side of the congressional aisle, we hear that Americans must know the whereabouts of all foreigners. These congressional leaders ignore the requirement of H1-B visa holders to work for a sponsoring firm -- that has an address.

On the other side of the aisle, we have the Pavlovian response that immigrants take "American" jobs. No one has ever offered one iota of credible evidence that U.S. graduates with engineering, software or other degrees have lost jobs to H1-B visa holders, but that doesn't stop the protectionist drool.

There is evidence today that the xenophobic climate in the United States, coupled with improved opportunity in their county of origin, have motivated some technologists to leave the United States and go home. Other English-speaking countries, such as Australia and South Africa, have established stronger engineering programs at their universities so that they can train and keep the students that we used to welcome.

As our government increases its hostility to foreigners and denies U.S. businesses access to necessary resources, technology companies exercise the other option before them: they outsource. The politicians who puff up their chests and represent themselves as protectors of the American worker are doing nothing more than accelerating the tsunami of jobs going overseas.

The panderers, who would use 9/11 to advance an anti-foreigner agenda in the name of national security, make us less secure by stripping the United States of valuable human resources. Have they forgotten the role of foreign-born scientists in our development of defense technologies? Would they have sent Albert Einstein back home? Not allowed Andy Grove to stay and build Intel?

We should be talking about solutions. We should address the crisis of U.S. competitiveness at home and abroad.

We should staple a green card to every foreign-born student who completes a college-level program in engineering. We want those human resources to stay in this country, help us build and support our businesses and raise families.

We should immediately expand the number of H1-B visas to 500,000 and at the same time improve our own funding of technology education.

If we don't take action, we won't be talking about immigration. The topic will be emigration as our children take advantage of opportunities in other countries. I hope that they can get a visa.

The Chicago Sun-Times