Michael Barone


But up on Capitol Hill, there appears to be progress -- bipartisan progress, even -- toward changing our immigration laws to reflect current and emerging realities.


This ignores the fact that Democrats didn't move immigration bills when they had control of the House and a supermajority in the Senate. Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought global warming and health care were more important.

As for the Republican presidential candidates, most are calling for construction of an ever-higher border fence and opposing anything with a whiff of amnesty. They're attacking Rick Perry because he opposes the fence in Texas -- it's hard to build one along a river -- and backs in-state tuition for children of illegals in state colleges and universities.


Those trends are likely to continue. As former Mexico Foreign Minister Jorge Casta?edn explains in his recent book "Manana Forever?," most Mexicans are now in the Walmart middle class or above.

Mexican birth rates plummeted 20 years ago, which means fewer young people will be needing jobs -- and with the U.S. economy struggling, they're not likely to look for them here. Nor are legal immigrants as likely to bring extended family members to the United States.


At the same time, it's apparent that the United States needs more high-skill immigrants -- job creators rather than job seekers. The death of Steve Jobs (whose birth father, it turns out, was an immigrant) reminds us that highly talented individuals can be huge national assets.


One sponsor is Silicon Valley's Zoe Lofgren, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee's immigration subcommittee. Another, who apparently copied much of Lofgren's bill, is Idaho freshman Republican Raul Labrador.



He does have some concerns. He points out that graduates with doctorates are far more productive than those with just master's degrees. And he cautions that diploma mills could make profits grinding out degrees to foreigners intent on gaming the system.


Reaching agreement on such provisions does not seem impossible. "With tweaks to our immigration system," Smith said earlier this month, "we can accommodate those graduates whom American universities and businesses most desire and who are most able to contribute to our economy."





Michael Barone
