AZ's own Gabrielle Giffords votes to increase foreign work visas

[Alex Dean]

David Huerta wrote:
>> "The Innovation Employment Act, introduced by Representative Gabrielle
>> Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, late Thursday, would increase the cap
>> in H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 a year. In addition, there
>> would be no cap on H-1B applications for foreign graduate students
>> attending U.S. colleges and studying science, technology and related
>> fields. Currently, there's a 20,000-a-year cap on visas for graduate
>> students in all fields."
> 
> 
> From what I've heard, ASU had 0 American citizens begin a graduate
> program in Computer Science in the fall of 2007. (I wanted to make it
> 1, but the GRE math protion thought otherwise).  It seems to me that
> the specific case for lifting quotas for foreign graduate students
> will help bolster the *existance* of graduate and even undergraduate
> computer science education in Arizona, which would, without foreign
> students, probably atrophy itself out of existance for lack of
> popularity and tuition revenue.

I have heard the same things from the admissions people at ASU.[1]  When
I applied, I was told there were <5 Americans in the MCS program, at any
stage.  I might not have the number exactly right, but it's fair to say
that only a small minority were Americans, and that was due primarily to
a lack of qualified applicants.

I'm not at all against foreigners coming here for an education.  We
should be motivating our own children to study more math and science,
not closing doors for children from other countries who are willing to
work hard and earn degrees in our universities.

My comments here only apply to students.  I'm not sure what I
think about employment visas.  Foreign medical students usually have to 
find work in an underserved area if they want to stay in the US after 
graduation.  Maybe engineering/programming needs an equivalent.  "You 
can stay, but only if you write software for nonprofits." :)

alex

[1]: I was missing some undergrad prerequisites which I'm currently
filling in before reapplying to the grad program.  Surprisingly, I
didn't learn much assembly language or discrete math by majoring in
Gaelic history and philosophy... :)


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