We were reminded that foreign-born giants like Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi played a significant role in American technology as the Oscar-winning video Oppenheimer popularized the history of the Manhattan Project. In the wake of World War II, America welcomed and even attracted refugees for one of its most crucial federal safety operations. Their victories contributed to the victory of that conflict and the development of the nuclear foundation that supports U.S. protection to this day. But now, the chances that Einstein was get the random H1- B card raffle are a simple 11 percent.
The 2024 National Security Innovation Base Report Card from the Reagan Institute evaluates America’s advantages and disadvantages in the fight to be the top country for emerging technologies to fulfill its national safety objectives. In the face of techno-competitiveness with the People’s Republic of China, there is a major flaw in the skill pipeline for fields related to regional security innovation. While America struggles to fix its aging national security labor and outdated vetting procedures, its allies and partners are pursuing initiatives to utilize the flawed immigration system.
The hazards in the U. S. technology, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills pipeline, especially with foreign students, are glaring.  , As America attracts the country’s most promising heads and informs them at America’s best universities, the U. S. federal funds their studies through tax dollars — then fails to provide a route for them to be in the United States. According to America’s roman immigration system, as many as 90 percent of international students receiving developed degrees in STEM fields are forced to leave the country after graduation, substantially depleting America’s possible workforce.
Our national security innovation base — the ecosystem comprising U. S. national security organizations, research laboratories, defense primes, industry disruptors, and venture capital — is especially vulnerable to these talent shortfalls. Research, development, and manufacturing in AI, quantum computing, hypersonic weapons, and autonomy are precisely the sectors where Washington needs the most talented minds working to advance U. S. national security. The end result is a paradox: America trains the best and brightest of the world and then sends them home, many to hostile countries.
This talent gap is not something that money can fix. Without fulfilling the need for an estimated 300, 000 engineers, U.S. universities will graduate by 2030, the impact of the heartbreaking investment made through the CHIPS and Science Act cannot be realized. Due to a lack of skilled labor, the opening of a new semiconductor factory in Arizona has been delayed even with significant CHIPS funding. In the upcoming six years, 1.4 million people are expected to experience the STEM talent vacuum. And while expanding our domestic STEM talent pool is crucial, these efforts will take time to succeed, which the United States does n’t have in the innovation race with China. To attract and retain foreign talent, it will take urgent action to address the talent gap at the speed of relevance.
During the Ronald Reagan administration, Congress last passed comprehensive immigration reform. With nearly 80 % of the top AI companies in the United States being founded by immigrants or their children, locking talented individuals out of the U.S. national security innovation base ecosystem as a result of the impasse over immigration reform is strategic seppuku.
America’s adversaries are well aware of this self-inflicted talent crisis and are making use of it to their advantage. The Chinese Communist Party is looking for foreign talent to boost its knowledge-based economy and advance its vision of” Made in China 2025.” State- controlled media has articulated the party’s anxiety that U. S. immigration reform would deal a blowto China’s talent pipeline. China’s own innovation-focused growth model benefits from America’s failure to absorb the world’s brightest minds, and Beijing has created the Thousand Talent Program to attract those innovators to its shores. By rewarding post-doc researchers with higher salaries and grants than they typically receive in the United States, the UK, or Australia, China cultivates talent abroad.
Even U. S. allies and partners are benefitting from America’s missteps. To attract talented candidates based on a points system, the United Kingdom has established a High Potential Individual visa program. Similarly, Canada created a high- skilled express visa system to draw American- trained talent.
Fears that more foreign-born talent will be a part of the U.S. national security innovation base ecosystem will increase the risk of espionage are not unfounded. According to intelligence reports, Chinese attempts to elude intellectual property related to innovation have reached unprecedented levels that far surpasses that of traditional espionage. However, the U.S. government’s stringent security clearance requirements and compartmentalized access to information are designed to lessen these threats, whether they are domestic or foreign in origin. No person of concern should be denied a visa to work in sensitive national security positions. But why would Washington want to return the next great genius to their country of origin? Einstein and Fermi both immigrated from interwar-era Italy, where fascism was pervading. America has historically benefited from the brain drain experienced by adversary nations. It’s a comparative advantage the United States should protect, not relinquish.
Technological supremacy alone is n’t the key to 21st– century competition. The more exquisite the technology, the more highly skilled the workforce needed. When it comes to the battlefield, the future will be all about human- machine teaming. And while America is making progress with new technological initiatives, the United States is falling behind in terms of human factors. Despite bipartisan agreement on the need to advance U. S. leadership in technology, immigration remains bitterly polarized. Still, reforms remain in reach that can meaningfully improve America’s strategic footing.
The Biden administration has attempted to make changes to existing authorities by simplifying the application process for high-skilled applicants, including by expanding the range of study options for the STEM Optional Training Program, clarifying the requirements for the O-1A nonimmigrant with an extraordinary ability visa, and releasing new information on national interest waivers for EB- 2 immigrant visas. These efforts are all good. However, marginalization will require more than marginalization in order to address the severity of the talent deficit.
First, Congress should establish a” National Security Innovation Base Visa,” which encourages vetted talent with relevant skills to immigrate and foreign-born students with relevant degrees to stay. The program would recruit high- skilled workers in fields like AI, automation, cybersecurity, and an array of dual- use technologies to contribute across the national security innovation ecosystem. Originally proposed by the Reagan Institute’s Task Force on 21st– Century National Security Technology and Workforce, the idea has continued to gain traction with observers like David McCormick, now a Senate candidate, as a solution that harnesses America’s historical strength as a nation of immigrants.
Second, Congress should establish a green card “recapture” program to expand access to the talent needed to fuel the U. S. innovation ecosystem. The program would “recapture” unused green cards like the 100, 000 unallocated spots following the pandemic, redirecting them to candidates with skills in high demand relevant to national security. In the most recent National Security Innovation Base Report Card, the Reagan Institute includes this idea as a signature recommendation to stop the talent pipeline crisis and stop a grade from straddling the wrong path at the wrong time.
Alongside these efforts, the U. S. government must increase its institutional capacity to vet visa candidates, investigate cases of espionage and intellectual property theft, and aggressively prosecute offenders. The answer to those who contend that immigration reform will lead to exploitation by American adversaries is to increase enforcement rather than deprive the workforce of the vast majority of immigrants who would make a good faith contribution.
In a 1980 speech at the Statue of Liberty, then- presidential candidate Ronald Reagan spoke of the” Golden Door” through which millions of Americans had immigrated:” These families came here to work. They came to build. They merely inquired as to what this nation could do for them, but what they could do to make this refuge the greatest place of freedom in history. Our race to out- innovate America’s adversaries is not just about breakthroughs in technology. As contributors to the American national security enterprise, those breakthroughs and their ability to advance freedom are driven by people.
Rachel Hoff , serves as policy director at the Ronald Reagan Institute, the Washington, DC, office of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. She previously worked for John McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee as a policy advisor and speechwriter.  ,
Reed Kessler , is the associate director of policy at the Ronald Reagan Institute in Washington, DC, and a fellow in the International Strategy Forum. She previously served at the Department of State, the U. N. Operations and Crisis Centre, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Additionally, Reed’s London Olympics world record is held by him.
Image: National Archive and Records Administration
