a republican WANTS immigrants?? whaaaaaaaaat.

This is where Mr. Snyder's plan would help. The Republican has proposed assigning 50,000 EB-2 visas [[i.e., employer-based green cards) over five years to high-skilled immigrants who volunteer to work and live in Detroit. He also suggests giving these immigrants a "national interest waiver" that allows them to bypass Department of Labor certification. This would reduce the bureaucratic headaches and attorneys' fees of employing foreign workers.

huh, i actually agree. this is probably the only way you're going to get 50,000 people to move into detroit.

One obstacle is that the feds cap EB-2s at 40,000 per year. Assigning 10,000 of those each year to Detroit would run into objections in Silicon Valley. Quotas also limit each foreign country to a maximum of 2,800 EB-2s, so Indian engineers who want to work at a Detroit tech startup could have to wait over a decade for a green card. The EB-2 backlog is five years for Chinese applicants and nearly 10 years for Indians.

doubt snyder has the pull to pull it off. but obama could bail out detroit with this plan.

The Obama Administration could help Detroit right away by issuing the national interest waivers even with the quotas.

i really should finish reading before

But Congress could help even more by lifting the green-card limits for high-skilled foreigners. Mr. Snyder is showing the way for the GOP by promoting the economic benefits of immigration across his state, but especially for depressed communities like Detroit where unemployment is 14.6% and more than 40% of residents live in poverty.

Republicans in Congress would be smart to run with Mr. Snyder's idea by proposing a special green card for all foreigners—not merely those with advanced degrees—willing to live and work in areas with high poverty. Such a plan would be based loosely on Jack Kemp's "enterprise zones." Immigrants have helped to revive major cities like New York City, Chicago and Boston, and they could do the same for Detroit.


hahaha, congress helping? not going to happen.
snyder cant even get the michigan state republicans to fix michigan roads. hows he going to get national republicans to fix detroit?

imagine 50,000 skilled labor moved into detroit, it would either send unemployment through the roof or make silicon valley move to detroit.

invent 50,000 jobs? in michigan? in detroit? what IS gov snyder smoking?