Trump Continues to Attack High-Skilled Lawful Immigration

Trump is now targeting the STEM OPT program in his continued efforts to discourage legal high-skilled immigration to the United States. STEM OPT currently allows over 40,000 foreign STEM students at U.S. universities to work in the U.S. in a STEM field for three years after graduation. President Bush conceived the program, Obama extended it, and now Trump is trying to end it, which will only hamper America's leading position in the world. What does this say about Trump’s professed support of a merit-based immigration system?  And from a larger perspective, what message does it send about America’s historical role as a nation that welcomes immigrants and benefits from their economic and cultural contributions? 

Timothy R. Bakken
Founder

Debunking the Myth of Uneducated Immigrants

If one looks to data, rather than relying on stereotypes, the conclusion is obvious: Immigrants coming to the United States in the last 15-20 years are more highly educated and highly skilled than in the past.  Almost half of the immigrants in the U.S. between 2010 and 2015  had university degrees. 15% of immigrants hold professional or doctoral degrees, a higher percentage than for native-born Americans. Since the year 2000, the number of immigrants with a college degree has doubled. Click here to learn more about the education levels of immigrants, including links to statistical studies showing increasing education achievements of immigrants.

Timothy R. Bakken
Founder

The Truth Behind Immigration and Outsourcing: Immigration Keeps Jobs in the U.S.

Immigration helps keep jobs in the U.S. rather than losing them to other countries, especially when it comes to IT jobs, as explained by this Forbes article.  In fact, at many American universities the majority of graduate students in engineering and computer science are international students who hope to work in the U.S. in highly skilled and technical positions. The more high-skilled visa workers that we have here, the less need we have to send work abroad to be performed by high-skilled workers located outside the U.S.  Employment of high-skilled workers in the U.S. strengthens American companies and creates more jobs in the U.S. We should not give in to xenophobia and our laws should welcome and encourage immigration of intelligent, ambitious, educated, highly skilled, and creative individuals from throughout the world.

Timothy R. Bakken
Founder