Dear Senator Rubio...

Sen. Rubio addressed Erickson's concerns about the immigration-reform bill.

Among other things, he said:

...The economic ramifications, however, are even more serious. For example, our technology sector creates roughly 120,000 computer engineering jobs a year, but our universities only graduate about 40,000 students a year in that field. The long term answer, of course, is to get more American students to graduate in this field. But the immediate problem is that, in the absence of an immigration system where these workers can be brought here, these jobs are sent overseas to them....

Umnnhhh.....not exactly.

As Norm Matloff has pointed out, umpty-thousands of US citizen C.E. grads remain unemployed, even when they have M.S. degrees.  And then there are the "old" and experienced C.E. folks, who are also unemployed.  "Old" means 'over 35 years of age' in that particular industry.

...a recent study showed engineering to have the lowest rate of wage growth of any major profession?  Tony Carnevale of Georgetown University, author of that study, told the Wall Street Journal, "If you're good at math, you'd have to be crazy to pursue a STEM career."  Well, guess why.  Clearly, the large influx from abroad has suppressed wage growth in the field....


IOW, the income potential does not match the student-loan-plus-living-expenses total.  As to the "old":


...the major point of H-1B and green cards involves AGE.  The real savings employers get from these visas is that it allows them to hire young foreign nationals when they run out of young Americans.  (This too is a point not well understood by critics of H-1B.)

If Sen. Rubio wishes to argue that US-citizen C.E.'s are overpriced compared to others, he can do so.  But to argue that "there are not enough qualified US C.E.'s' is simply not accurate.