Foreign High-Tech Graduates
With Congress slow to act on comprehensive immigration reform, one area that is gaining bipartisan support involves allowing foreign graduates to stay in the United States as a way to benefit the American economy and create jobs. A recent report from the Partnership for a New American Economy found that immigrants or the children of immigrants founded more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies, generating annual revenues of $4.2 trillion. In May 2011, the Obama Administration announced an expansion of degree programs that qualify graduates in the United States on student visas for the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program….
