TECH INDUSTRY'S TELL : IMMIGRATION MASTER ESSAY

 

TECH INDUSTRY makes a case for immigration. So Silicon Valley may press Trump administration over visas for skilled workers.

'' Competition with China demands that we have top talent, '' said Vivek Chilukuri, the senior fellow and program director of the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security '' China's size is their strategic advantage, and our is immigration.''

Aaron Levie, the chief executive of the cloud  software company BOX, said he was more hopeful than at any point in the past 15 years that America could soon accept more highly educated immigrants - the sort of skilled foreigners he hires as software engineers.

Mr. Levie recently posted on X that America's immigration policies for high skilled workers are ''not responsive to the market,'' and that Elon Musk, with his position in president-elect Donald J Trump's orbit, could fix them.

'' I agree,'' Mr. Musk replied. The thread quickly filled with other tech workers and executives sharing stories of trying to get visas for themselves and their employees.

Welcoming more high-skilled immigrants is '' one of the highest leverage - maybe the highest leverage - thing you could do to make sure that America stays at the forefront, '' Mr. Levie said in an interview.

The technology industry considers that argument about economic competitiveness as one that could persuade Mr.Trump to allow increased levels of immigration for highly skilled workers.

But the industry's optimism clashes with past experience : The president-elect did not expand skill-based legal immigration during his first term in office. Instead, his immigration officials curbed visa programs for educated workers by overseeing them more stringently.

And although some in Silicon Valley and corporate America are hoping that this time will be different, Washington policy analysts, lawyers and visa holders themselves are less certain.

'' I do think there is potential for some sort of expansion or change to the skilled immigration world, '' said Shev Delal-Dheini, the American Immigration Lawyer Associations senior director of government relations.

''  But I think it's still going to be a battle with the restrictionist ideas that are a large part of his administration.''

The World Students Society thanks Lydia Depillis and Jeanna Smilalek.