For this election, immigration should be one of the most important topics. America was built by immigrants. Four out of the seven CEOs of the so-called Magnificent Seven companies (the top tech companies in the US and the world) are immigrants. As a naturalized American citizen, immigration is a topic I personally care deeply about.
However, it’s unfortunate that all the recent discussions about immigration seem to focus solely on border security. While border security is undoubtedly important, it’s not the only crucial aspect of immigration policy (though it certainly makes for a sensational headline):
- How do we ensure we continue attracting top talent to this country?
- Could there be a better H1b visa system to identify top talent (perhaps utilizing AI and social signals) rather than relying on a simple lottery system?
- Can we find a better way to retain top students graduating from U.S. universities? Non-STEM OPT only lasts for one year; could we develop a more effective strategy to keep these top students in the country?
- How do we make sure that immigrants and their children, regardless of how they arrived in this country, are given the same opportunities to achieve the American Dream?
- How do we ensure that immigrants are not systematically marginalized, which will almost surely lead to social unrest and violence, as has unfortunately happened in some parts of Europe?
The list goes on. I hope the next administration will focus on comprehensive immigration reform, rather than fixating solely on building a better wall.