A provocative read is Amy Chua (Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - And Why They Fall), Professor of Law at Yale and herself an immigrant to the United States. Chua argues that the U.S. should overhaul its admission priorities. Since 1965 the chief admission criterion has been family reunification - 800,000 people immigrated on this basis in 2006, whereas only 70,000 entered based on employment skills. Chua says that this is backwards. Families who are here can sponsor their extended families to join them; but unless we change our policies, she argues, the U.S. will fall behind in the fierce global competition to attract the world's best high-tech scientists and engineers.   
 
Last year, for example, Microsoft opened a massive research and development center in Canada, in part because foreign engineers can more easily obtain employment visas there. Chua also quotes Google's Vice President for People, Laszlo Bock: "Every day we find ourselves unable to pursue highly qualified candidates because there are not enough H-1 B visas."
 
Immigration, legal and otherwise, has become a hugely controversial issue, so much so that the candidates for President side-stepped it during the campaign. It is too important to ignore. Nor can we ignore the millions who have immigrated here illegally - how can we rationally and humanely resolve this situation?
 
What do you think?