I find it utterly baffling that the US is in a position to easily absorb the best and brightest from other countries, and yet shoots itself in the foot with ridiculously restrictive immigration policies.
Sadly, neither side wants to negotiate. On the Federal Dems side reform on skilled immigration needs to also be lumped with undocumented immigrant reform, and on the Federal GOP side due to some semblance of racism plus opposition to negotiating over undocumented immigration. I sadly speak from experience working on this.
Silver lining, just about every other country sucks as skilled immigration as well. But on the negative side, skilled professionals in Israel+India+PRC+SK+ASEAN increasingly prefer to stay put over being in immigration limbo.
[0] - https://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/nancy-pelosi-immigrat...
American cars can't compete with Asian or German cars. No engineers.
American homes aren't built for efficiency. No engineers.
American semiconductor and hardware tech is powered by immigrants. If/When they leave because of backlogged immigration, the companies will see more competition. Already America is resorting to sanctioning Chinese semi companies because American companies can't compete.
American software industry is powered by h1b slaves who can get deported by BS American laws themselves.
America is out of doctors and nurses too.
The only thing America succeeds at is financial engineering and management enriching itself.
Baffling!
Roughly speaking, developed countries want to welcome the immigrants who would contribute to the economy and reject the ones who would be a burden. But it's difficult to achieve that with a single set of policies and a single immigration authority. Usually you end up either encouraging or discouraging immigration categorically. Either the culture in the immigration authority leans towards accepting anyone who could plausibly meet the criteria, or it's constantly looking for excuses to reject any application. Most countries tend to choose the latter.