In the tech race, the United States is confronted with a distinct challenge: how to keep an edge compared with rivals such as China, Japan and Germany. 

Meeting that challenge will mean revamping how we attract the international pool of tech talent, Andy Semotiuk writes in Forbes. The current flaws and delays in the U.S. immigration system, particularly for STEM professionals, are hindrances. 

Meanwhile, Canada started a new program last month to attract professional workers in the U.S. on H-1B visas — and filled the 10,000 slots almost immediately. But as Bloomberg editors note, the U.S. should look in the mirror rather than blame Canada. 

"This talent-poaching scheme is a model of creative policymaking, and should be causing alarm in Washington," they write. " … President Joe Biden should call on Congress to admit more immigrants with the skills businesses need and grant them permanent residence more readily once they’re here. Canada is teaching the U.S. a useful lesson." 

California isn’t waiting. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has allocated $2 million for a Global Entrepreneur in Residence (GEIR) program at the University of California to attract and retain international talent and bolster high-tech industries, Vivek Wadhwa and Alex Salkever write in Fortune. 

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Karime Puga, Clara Villatoro, Christian Blair and Ashling Lee. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected]. 

SUPPORT FOR AFGHANS — With the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul in two weeks, advocates keep pushing for certainty for Afghan allies, Maya Rao reports in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) reintroduced the Afghan Adjustment Act last month with 11 bipartisan co-sponsors. One is Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), and advocates in his state support passage too, as AJ Dome reports in the Kansas Reflector. And in an op-ed for the Idaho Capital Sun, Republican former state Attorney General Jim Jones describes how this bill would help Afghans, including former Afghan military pilots who have resettled in Idaho.  

FASTER TRACK — More than 50 bipartisan lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to allow applicants stuck in green card backlogs to apply for permanent residency earlier, reports Andrew Kreighbaum of Bloomberg Law. While it won't speed up the green card process, early filing would offer temporary relief with employment and travel flexibility. Administrative delays have caused over 194,000 employment-based green cards to go unused in the past two decades.  

NEW EFFORTS — Cape and Islands (Massachusetts) District Attorney Robert Galibois has endorsed a request to investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on the transportation of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last year, reports Ivy Scott of the Boston Globe. In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Galibois said he supports a request from a Texas sheriff and California officials "to open federal criminal and civil investigations into these incidents" and said he plans to start his own inquiry too. 

DIGNITY ACT — If Republicans and Democrats in Congress want to be part of the solution to a dysfunctional immigration process, they should take a serious look at the Dignity Act, per the Dallas Morning News editorial board. "Most of all, [the bill] acknowledges that a functioning immigration policy must secure borders and provide legal opportunities for families to seek refuge in the United States," the board writes. 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan