I don’t claim to be any more savvy than other Americans when it comes to investing. And I don’t pretend to know any more than most when it comes to setting national spending priorities. But I do feel strongly that one of the best investments this country can make is in having a generous and open asylum policy.

No better evidence of this was the news this week that the celebrated company Google is going public. One of the company’s two young founders is Sergey Brin. The thirty-one year old is about to become one of the richest men in America when his company goes public in the very near future. He also happens to have been the beneficiary of America’s asylum policies. Brin entered the US at the age of five when his family fled religious persecution in the Former Soviet Union.

Brin, by the way, is not the only refugee to have left his mark in Silicon Valley and on the world as a whole. Andrew Grove, the founder and CEO of Intel, is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. He was born Andras Grof and managed to avoid the sad fate of the vast majority of his fellow Hungarian Jews by hiding in a cellar in the countryside in a dark cellar for much of the World War II. His family hid in that same cellar in 1956 during his country’s uprising against the Soviets.

We hear regularly about contributions made by other types of immigrants, but rarely do we hear about how asylees give back to their adopted country. While most asylees obviously can’t match Brin’s and Grove’s business success, there are so many stories that are equally compelling. America is a richer country – in many ways other than just financially – as a result of our asylum policies. In recent years we have become less generous to those seeking asylum status. And it leaves me wondering whether we’re turning away the next Brin or Grove when we decide we cannot afford to allow in more than a tiny number of refugees and asylees.

*****

I’m off this week to Washington to lobby for the physician immigration bill pending in both the Senate and the House. The bill is critical if we are going to be able to get vitally needed foreign physicians into medically underserved communities across the country. Those of you interested in learning more about what’s going on with these bills and how you can help, please let me know.

*****

In firm news, Siskind Susser’s award-winning web site is the subject of a feature article in the Memphis Lawyer, the magazine of the Memphis Bar Association.

*****

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients and employers seeking to comply with immigration laws. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind