Experts: On Immigration, "Our Country Cannot Afford to Go Back"

Fiona McEntee, Stephen Yale-Loehr & Dan Berger, The Well News, Sept. 3, 2024

"[T]he Biden-Harris administration has put forth a sustained effort to attract and retain global talent, especially those in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This administration has coupled its rhetoric — “America’s greatest strength is our ability to attract global talent to strengthen our economy and technological competitiveness” — with several policy updates that have transformed business immigration.  One example is the recent revival of the International Entrepreneur Parole program. Unable to persuade Congress to enact a startup visa for immigrant founders, the Obama administration created IEP as an administrative alternative. This program gives special “parole” status to promising startup founders who raise significant funding from U.S.-based sources and can show that their business has a high potential for growth and job creation. ... We are confident that we may soon see many more IEP cases filed and approved. That should bring us closer to the estimated hundreds of thousands of jobs these immigrant startup founders could create.  Our nation faces major challenges, like an aging population and a geopolitical rivalry with China and its larger talent pool. Thus, it’s more important than ever to maintain a competitive edge. This is especially true in STEM and emerging fields like AI and quantum computing, areas in which immigrants play an “outsized role.”  After many years of advocacy, IEP is finally a viable option for immigrant startup founders. It’s been a rollercoaster getting to this point.  Now that we’re here, our country cannot afford to go back."

Fiona McEntee is the managing attorney of McEntee Law Group. She can be reached on LinkedIn. 

Stephen Yale-Loehr is an attorney of counsel at Miller Mayer, LLP. He also teaches immigration law at Cornell Law School. He can be reached by email.

Dan Berger is joining Green & Spiegel as a partner and is an academic fellow at Cornell Law School. He can be reached on LinkedIn.