Eric Thomas or Frances Cox 202/822-9491 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 29, 2008

Compete America Renews Call for Congressional Approval of Green Card Recapture Legislation

Criticizes FAIR for Unsubstantiated Claims on Impact of Recapture

Washington D.C. – Compete America urged Congress to approve reforms to the Permanent Resident Visa (“Green Card”) program, including legislation being developed by U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) that would  “recapture” previously approved visas that have gone unused due to government processing backlogs. The Menendez proposal is based on bipartisan legislation introduced earlier this year by Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI).  A similar proposal received the support of 85 U.S. Senators in 2005.

Compete America also criticized FAIR – the Federation for American Immigration Reform – for its apparent lack of understanding of the benefits of the employment-based green card program to the U.S. economy.

“Tens of thousands of highly educated green card applicants are already here, contributing to U.S. job creation and economic growth.  They help drive our innovation economy.  We applaud Senator Menendez, Congresswoman Lofgren and Congressman Sensenbrenner because their proposal will ensure our legal immigration system actually works to help our economy, by keeping American jobs in America,” said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America. 

Hoffman noted a recent study by the National Foundation for American Policy, which provided evidence that the hiring of skilled foreign professionals has a positive impact on U.S. job growth.  The Foundation’s analysis found that for every temporary visa requested, U.S. technology companies showed an increase in employment of 5 workers. For technology firms with fewer than 5,000 employees, each visa requested was associated with an increase in employment of 7.5 workers.

“Facts don’t lie – America’s innovation economy is in dire need of skilled professionals if we are to stay competitive, while retaining and creating jobs in the United States.  The best stimulus for our economy would be to give our innovative companies the tools and talent they need to compete. This means reforming our system for highly educated, legal immigration,” Hoffman concluded.

For more information on how highly educated immigration benefits America, please visit www.competeamerica.org. 

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of corporations, educators, research institutions and trade associations concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.

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