The foreign-born now account for about half of the Ph.D. engineers, life scientists, physical scientists and math and computer scientists in the U.S., the National Science Foundation says. A Stanford University study estimates that half of all Silicon Valley high-tech companies have at least one founding member who is foreign born. Eight of 18 Ph.D.s in Dr. Sengupta's research program are foreign-born.

The immigration service, part of the Department of Homeland Security, says that in 2005 1.1 million immigrants received green-card visas, which means they are allowed to stay permanently and eventually apply for citizenship. But most green cards go to relatives of earlier immigrants. Congress caps the number of permanent visas available to skilled workers and their families at 140,000 a year. The result is that the typical wait for a permanent employment-based visa is now five years or more.

Congress also allows the State Department each fiscal year to issue 65,000 temporary employment visas -- so-called H-1B visas -- that allow skilled workers to stay in the U.S. for up to six years. But H-1Bs for the 2007 fiscal year ran out last month, five months before the fiscal year even begins and just weeks after the government began taking applications. . . .

Let me give you an example of how horrendous our visa system is, as it relates to highly skilled workers. I spoke with an immigration attorney here in Atlanta today regarding an individual one of our portfolio companies is trying to hire. During the conversation, this attorney, who is very good at what he does, told me that if the employer-sponsored application for an H-1B visa is denied, for whatever reason, it's better to simply start over, in spite of the fact that you are allowed to appeal. Even if the Department of Labor loses all your properly executed paperwork, for instance, and denies your application, you might as well start over.

Why? Appeals take months and months simply because there are no real resources set up for the appeal process, according to this knowledgeable attorney. In other words, the right of appeal, which is detailed in the letter of denial you receive from the Labor Department, is really, in essence, one big sham. It's a one way ticket to the padded room in the basement of the bureaucracy.

I suppose if you're Microsoft or Cisco or some other large company, you can throw legal resources behind a valued employee indefinitely. If you're a small company, however, you're screwed.

According to the Department of Labor's own Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the number of job openings is now about 5 million, about double what it was just three years ago. It is simply incorrect to make the assertion that we are denying qualified Americans jobs they would otherwise have. According to the DOL's own statistics, jobs are begging to be filled in this country.

If the self-proclaimed champions of small business, the Republican Congress, really cared about the health of this constituency, they would fix this problem. According to the WSJ article, an increase in the number of visas allowed for skilled workers is unlikely.

It's a pitiful shame that Congress is so focused on looking tough with talk of "securing our borders" that they cannot deal with competitiveness issues like this one.