Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) is lending his support to an immigration reform bill that promotes keeping highly skilled immigrants in the United States.
Delaware’s junior senator joined a bipartisan group on Capitol Hill Tuesday in introducing the Immigration Innovation Act of 2013.
Coons says the bill would create a new class of green card for immigrants who’ve earned advanced STEM degrees from U.S. schools. It also increases access to green cards for high-skilled workers by eliminating per-country limits and expanding exemptions.
Coons says America’s immigration laws have failed to keep up with the demands of the modern world economy.
“We cannot afford to keep educating the world’s most brightest students at our leading universities, which I’ll remind you are subsidized by US tax dollars and American charitable giving, and then telling them they cannot repay those investments by contributing to the US workforce,” said Coons on the Senate floor.
Coons added, in order to grow, the U.S. economy needs more workers skilled in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math or STEM.
“Half of all master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM fields at American universities are today earned by foreign-born students who then face an uncertain, expensive and unwieldy path to pursuing their dreams in the United States,” said Coons.
Senators Orin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) are co-sponsors of the bill.
