Immigration News & Opinion
Sat - May 19, 2012

Daily Caller, February 1. A Customs and Border Protection officer checks the passport of a non-resident visitor to the United States inside immigration control at McCarran International Airport, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011, in Las Vegas. White House press secretary Jay Carney today doubled down on President Barack Obama’s support for more immigration of high-tech workers, despite growing public concern about the displacement of the American white collar workforce. “We need to make it more possible for highly qualified people who are being educated here, or coming from abroad to work here, [to] build businesses here, grow the economy here, create jobs here,” Carney said at the midday press conference. “The broader picture is one of a need for more engineers, a need for more highly skilled, highly educated workers to help us grow those industries in the United States that will be the foundation for our economic future,” Carney said. However, a large-scale program for high-tech workers risks alienating middle-class voters who don’t want to see their jobs, or their relatives’ jobs, given to low-wage immigrants, said Center for Immigration Studies director Mark Krikorian.