Does our immigration policy hamper us abroad?

Bill Richardson: Yes it does because there’s . . . there’s thousands of legal immigrants that are trying to get in this country – through what are called H1Bs – that are skilled, and especially technology, that are not allowed in. We have a broken immigration system not on . . . not just on the illegal immigration side, but also dealing with legal immigration; dealing with those that are trying to get here legally that have applied for years, that legitimately should be part of technology, and computers, and are not allowed in because of a huge backlog; because of inefficiency in our bureaucratic system; because they don’t have enough staffing at the immigration service. What we need to realize is we can’t just deal with illegal immigration. We have to deal with legal immigration. And what I would do is . . . I mentioned all those standards for illegal immigrants. First to be able to come into America should be those that are trying to get here legally. And those that are here legally, trying to become citizens. Recorded on: 11/20/07