Arkansas Congressman to Advocate STEM Immigration Reform

This morning, Arkansas Republican Rep. Tim Griffin announced he will introduce a bill to make it easier for highly-skilled immigrants to stay in the country, according to U.S. News's Mallie Jane Kim.

The bill would presumably allow immigrants working in the United States on an H1-B Visa—often awarded to foreign engineers, mathematicians, and programmers—to stay longer, perhaps indefinitely.

"We've got teams and other countries have teams," Griffin said. "Right now, we are going to their countries; we're finding the best athletes; we're bringing them to our team. We're training them, we're making them awesome, and sending them back to beat us," he said. "We've got to stop that."

Last week, a group of CEOs argued for similar reform at a manufacturing conference in Washington, D.C. Keith Williams, CEO of Underwriters Laboratories, a company that designs scientific safety equipment, said that the U.S. "should staple a green card to [skilled foreign students'] diplomas."

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