If a California congresswoman has her way, a lot more people will get their green cards soon.
Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) introduced a bill on Tuesday that would amp the number of green cards for foreign students and entrepreneurs.
The students have to meet a lot of criteria, though. They must have at least a master's degree or higher in science, technology, engineering or math and it has to be from a school deemed worthy by the Director of the National Science Foundation. If you care about the nitty-gritty of exactly who fits the bill, check out, well, the bill.
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They're calling it the Immigration Driving Entrepreneurship in America Act of 2011. The truncated name: the IDEA Act. I wonder who DREAMed that one up?
The New York Times' Julia Preston wrote a story yesterday about the IDEA Act and another immigration bill, backed by a Texas Republican, which would mandate that all employers nationwide use E-verify.
The measures were a sign that lawmakers here are skeptical that President Obama can reach his goal of passing anytime soon a broad immigration overhaul, which would include giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants. In a speech last month in El Paso, Mr. Obama insisted that he wanted just such a package.
Neither bill's future looks too bright. The IDEA Act has only Democratic sponsors and solely Republicans back the other, called the Legal Workforce Act.
I guess for now we'll stick with the let's-wait-for-a-magic-wand-to-fix-immigration-in-its-entirety-but-not-do-anything-proactive-in-the-meantime approach. It's been working well so far, right?
