Easier entry for some immigrants

Blink and you may have missed it, but on Tuesday a bit of bipartisanship broke out in Congress on immigration.

Not illegal immigration. That issue is still too hot for Washington's taste. But legislation making it easier to hire top foreign science and technology talent passed the House 389 to 15. The Senate should follow suit.

The bill would eliminate annual limits on the number of employment-based green cards available to people from specific countries. The law currently allows 140,000 of the cards each year. That number wouldn't change. But the share available to people from any one nation, including large, talent-rich ones such as India and China, would no longer be capped at 7 percent of the total.

The idea is to allow companies to hire the best available talent, rather than limiting them to the best available talent from nations with unused visas, said bill sponsor Rep. Jason Chaffets (R-Utah). Employers would still have to show there are no qualified Americans for the jobs. But fewer top-notch foreign-born, U.S.-trained PhDs and engineers would be forced out of this job market.

In an unrelated nod to families, the per-country limit on green cards based on family ties would rise from 7 percent of the 226,000 allowed annually to 15 percent.

With illegal immigration reforms stymied, tweaking the rules for legal immigration is a fruitful way to move toward a system more attuned to the nation's needs.