Until recently, I was optimistic that our President and the Democratic Party would do what they were promising and fix the immigration problem.
But politics usually trumps common sense in DC.
As you will read below in my Forbes piece, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no hope in sight.
At best, we will get another badly needed, but flawed and unpopular bill like Obamacare.
Why Immigration Reform is Destined to be Another Obamacare
Silicon Valley was one of the largest contributors to President Obama’s election campaign. In return, it expected he would do what he promised—fix the immigration bottleneck that is choking innovation and forcing the world’s best and brightest to return home. But on the first opportunity he has had to keep his word, the President has let the Valley down. The White House announced on Nov 28th, that it will not support a bill that the Republican-controlled House later passed—which solves part of the technology industry’s problem.
Sadly, the President is repeating the mistake he made with Obamacare—going for all or nothing. As a result, if we get any immigration reform at all, it will be unpalatable to both sides. It will take months or years to negotiate and will be messy. And while the political battles rage, tens of thousands engineers, scientists, and researchers will return home and Silicon Valley will suffer.
The entire story can be read at Forbes.
Vivek Wadhwa, a former North Carolina entrepreneur, is now a Fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Vice President of Innovation and Research, Singularity University; Director of Research, Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization and Exec in Residence, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University; Columnist Washington Post and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
