Affiliate Marketers: Time to Stand Up

For those of you who’ve been around me and know a bit about my background, I used to be very politically active. While that activist streak has mellowed with my ever increasing age, every now and again I find an issue that is worth championing. When flipping though TechCrunch the other day, I saw a group of Representatives had pulled together a piece of legislation that makes sense for all of us to get behind — H.R. 1930 and its Senate counterpart, S 1083. For most of us, all it takes is a brief stroll around our offices to see the contribution that foreign born workers make. Most of these people have advanced degrees and are some of the brightest people I know.

I’m not out to spark a debate about immigration here but simply want to provide information about an issue that impacts us as affiliate marketers and as members of the tech community. I’d encourage you to take a minute to klank out a letter to your Representatives and Senators. It’s really easy. Below you’ll find a copy of the letter I wrote to my Representative, Jane Harman and Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, feel free to tweak it to fit your feelings. I’ve also provided a link to the TechCrunch post too.

Affiliate Marketers do your best.

TechCrunch Post

Congressional Research Service Summary of H.R. 1930 and S. 1083

Find out who your Repesentative is

Find out who your Senators are

My letter to Rep. Harman:

Honorable Jane Harman
2321 E. Rosecrans Avenue,
Suite 3270
El Segundo, CA 90245

Dear Representative Harman,

I respectfully write you to express my support for H.R. 1930, the Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act of 2007 and urge you to become a co-sponsor of this legislation.

Your district is home to many vibrant technology firms that help develop some of the world’s newest technologies. Many of these firms such as the one I work for depend upon foreign-born but American educated workers. Sadly, many of these workers who have migrated here to better themselves and make significant contributions are sent home with their taxpayer subsidized educations because they are unable to obtain a visa. This seems illogical to me. These college educated immigrants are highly skilled workers that we want living in the United States and by not granting them a visa to work here, we lose twice. We loose first because we subsidize their university educations and we lose again when they return to their home countries to take up leadership roles in foreign based companies.

A recent example of America losing because of our immigration policies not supporting highly educated workers is a recent announcement by Microsoft to open up a development facility in Vancouver, Canada. Within their announcement, they specifically stated this facility was for foreign born workers who could not obtain the H-1B visas to work in the United States. If H.R. 1930 were to become law, instances like the one above could be avoided and we could have thousands of the world’s best and brightest leading businesses that employed other Americans and paying taxes to the United States instead of to competitor nations.

H.R. 1930′s most important provision besides raising the cap on H-1B visas is its provision that allows any foreign-born individual who receives a masters degree and higher from an American higher educational institution to continue to live and work here in the United States. This is simple common sense.

I urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 1930 and ask you to take a leadership position on this important legislation by urging Speaker Pelosi to bring this matter to a vote on the House floor.

Sincerely,

Lee Gientke