The US House of Representatives passed a controversial bill this morning that would grant 55,000 new visas to foreigners who graduate from US universities with science, technology, engineering or math degrees (so-called STEM graduates). The vote comes just two days after the Obama administration said it was opposed to the bill.
The bill, called the STEM Jobs Act, passed on a 245-139 vote mostly along party lines, with about two dozen Democrats joining Republicans in supporting the bill, according to a report from the blog The Hill. Most Democrats opposed the bill, though, because the STEM Jobs Act adds the 55,000 new visas at the cost of a diversity-visa program that grants the same number of visas to countries with historically low levels of immigration to the US.
About half of the diversity visas would go to African immigrants, and some minority Democratic representatives today accused the bill of being shortsighted or even racist. Shutting down the main program that provides visas to African immigrants "is racist, if not in its intent, then certainly in its effect," said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), according to The Hill report. "Republicans have just received a historically low vote from minorities in the past election, yet they want to create an immigration system that gives visas with one hand while taking visas away from minorities with the other."
Republican advocates of the bill have presented it as a straightforward jobs program. "For each person we welcome to America with one of these high degrees, we create jobs, net jobs," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). "We create opportunity for expansion of the kinds of businesses that in fact Americans are prepared to work in, but often we do not have enough engineers, scientists, or math professionals."
As for the racism charge, Issa said he was "personally insulted" that it had come up, and said that STEM graduates are a diverse group. More than 12,000 African citizens are now studying in STEM fields in US schools that could benefit from the program, he noted. When opponents noted that would still result in far fewer visas going to Africans, Issa accused Democrats of "looking at the numbers rather than the merit."
In any case, the bill doesn't have much chance of passing. It might not even come up for debate in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Facebook
Twitter