The Obama administration's shift on immigration policy has opened the door to potential changes that would allow foreign graduate students in tech fields to stay in the U.S. after graduating from American universities. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is expected to introduce a bill as soon as this week that would offer 55,000 additional green cards each year to graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, a policy strongly supported by the tech industry. Roughly half of the students in STEM graduate programs are foreign, and they're often forced to return to their home country after graduation. Proponents of the legislation argue that ejecting those graduates is counterproductive, when American tech firms face a shortage of local workers to fill science and tech-related openings. Critics point to the vast number of unemployed college graduates and argue that high-tech companies are simply looking for a discount on cheap foreign engineering talent, rather than paying the price to compete with Wall Street and startups for America's best and brightest.
Regardless, there is widespread agreement that the way America handles foreign tech workers is in need of a fix. Currently foreigners must either obtain a skilled-worker visa that would allow them to stay in the U.S. for a fixed period, or persuade an employer to sponsor them for permanent residency. Both options give employers a disproportionate amount of control over the worker's immigration status, particularly since changing jobs often means going to the back of the immigration line. But the Obama administration's recent move to stop the deportation of undocumented young people that have attended college or served in the military may offer hope to both Silicon Valley and STEM graduates eager to stay in the U.S. By essentially implementing significant portions of its immigration agenda without legislation, the White House has addressed the hot-button issue of illegal immigration and given the Republicans an opening to move forward with their proposal, which is far less controversial.
Smith's bill is likely to sail through the House, while a similar effort (S 3185) from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, awaits action in the Senate. Democrats will likely look to attach a provision that would make it easier for the wives and spouses of all green-card holders to become permanent residents, a provision that previously drew stiff opposition from the GOP. But Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has expressed support for lifting family member visa caps, indicating a path toward a potential compromise. As with all immigration measures, the politics are complex and vary as much by region as by state. But for tech companies and foreign graduate students, the likelihood of action on skilled immigration appears greater than at any point in recent memory.
Identity Theft Bill Heads to Markup: The House Judiciary Committee will mark up a bill (HR 4362) on Tuesday aimed at stopping identity theft. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., introduced the legislation in April and has attracted bipartisan support, including that of Chairman Lamar Smith. Lawmakers have consistently pushed to increase the criminal penalties for identity theft, hacking, and other digital crimes in recent years, often with little or no push-back. That makes it likely the bill will sail through the committee; getting it to the floor, however, will prove more difficult with a crowded agenda ahead of the August recess. Malware Monday Strikes as FBI Moves On: If you weren't able to use the Web last Monday, you weren't alone. The FBI's decision to shut down a set of servers used by Estonian nationals to distribute malware last year was aimed at halting the spread of a virus that infected almost 600,000 computers, but federal investigators were only able to replace the rogue servers with legitimate versions. That left it up to users to purge their systems of the worm, known as DNSChanger. Of course, many users failed to act, which is why they found themselves unable to access the Internet last week. A researcher for McAfee Labs said the attacks were still relatively small and can easily be fixed with a few simple steps. But the government's efforts to inform the public about such cyber information could still use an update of its own. On the Move: CQ Weekly informs us that CBSNews.com is re-orienting itself to focus on original reporting and has brought back network veteran Steve Chaggaris to lead the Washington news operation for the website. Chaggaris spent a decade at CBS before leaving to help launch the ill-fated Washington news startup TBD.com in 2010. From January through May he worked as an elections executive producer for Yahoo. CBS is planning to bring the same hard-news format it employs on its broadcast to the Web. Wireless Carriers Hand Over (a Lot of) Subscriber Data to Government: The first public report from the wireless carriers to Congress on requests for subscriber information from law enforcement reveals the carriers responded to a stunning 1.3 million requests for data last year. Companies were forced to turn over records thousands of times a day in response to inquiries from police, subpoenas, court orders and other requests, highlighting the judicial system's increasing reliance on digital surveillance in the past five years. Telecom policy veteran Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who requested the reports from nine carriers in April, expressed surprise at the number of requests, at least some of which were deemed inappropriate and referred to the FBI. The government's ability to demand communications records was greatly enhanced by the Patriot Act and is a source of great concern for digital privacy advocates. But it's still unlikely that either Congress or the White House will move to limit the ability of law enforcement to access that information, mostly because of the fear of legal roadblocks preventing the arrest or prosecution of terrorists.