U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today unveiled a bill to create a new green card category for foreign students pursuing advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The bill attempts to address the brain drain by reforming the visa system via provisions specifically designed for STEM-pursuant foreign students who are college-bound and those already in college who are here legally on student visas.
"Foreign college students with an advanced degree in STEM subjects would be eligible for the new STEM green card category, which would allow them to stay and work," Adam Bozzi, Communications Director for Sen. Bennet tells The Huffington Post.
"A separate provision would allow undocumented students who enroll in college and are taking STEM education to apply for student visas ... These students are DREAM eligible."
Under the bill, undocumented high school graduates would be eligible for temporary student visas and, upon their graduation from an American university, would "cut red tape" on the visa administration process to become more cost-effective and timely for employers. It would also create a new fund through the visa fees to promote the fields among K-12 institutions, provide field training for former military personnel and the unemployed, and provide STEM scholarships to low-income students.
The bill would also strive to make reforms to the high-skill guest worker H1-B and L visas, which have been regarded as "out of control" by the Economic Policy Institute think tank for loopholes that make it easy for employers to substitute U.S. workers for foreign workers.
The bill, Bennet argues, would help promote interest in STEM fields which are already facing unsettling vacancies.
"We are facing a shortage of workers in high-tech jobs, and more and more of our STEM degrees go to foreign students who leave the United States to work," Bennet said.
According to Bennet's office, "between one-half and two-thirds of all Ph.Ds awarded by U.S. universities in physics, economics, computer science, chemicals and other highly technical fields were earned by international students" in 2009.