Putting the Green in Green Card: An Immigration Policy for an Ailing Economy and a Sustainable Planet
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| Author |
5-2009 NEWS & ANALYSIS 39 ELR 10487
C O M M E N T
Putting the Green in Green Card:
An Immigration Policy for an Ailing
Economy and a Sustainable Planet
by David S. Rugendorf
David S. Rugendorf is a partner in the Immigration Department at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP.
I. A “Green1 Magnet” to Incubate Solutions
for a Green Planet
In almost every policy statement made on the subject while a
candidate, president-elect and now President Barack Obama
has paired the idea of long-term economic recovery with an
ambitious, concerted eort toward national development of
a new green-tech infrastructure. is theme wa s present in
the recent debate on his economic stimulus plan; it has also
entered the discussion on his budget, on tax policy, and as
a part of t he ongoing debate on the future of the domestic
automobile industry. e new Administration and its allies
envision a future where the seemingly ever-expanding and
deepening crater that is the rampant unemployment crisis is
lled in with bulldozer loads of new green jobs, new tech jobs,
and new green tech jobs, in the most startling transformation
of the national work force in generations. It is in many ways
a big, bold gamble—one that the new Administration can
take right now because of the president’s currently high pop-
ularity level, his party’s control of the U.S. Congress, and the
demands of an electorate increasingly nervous about making
it to the next paycheck. In this Article, I make the ca se that
if this is the way out of the bleak present, to get from here
to there our leaders will have to act not only fast but perhaps
also counterintuitively and in a way not likely to be popular:
that is, in order to create more American jobs, we will have
to open up our job markets to foreign talent.
1. I realize that in this Article I use the word “green” a lot. Sorry. I use it here
mostly as shorthand to describe sincere eorts to tackle the increasingly urgent
problem of human-caused climate change, which by 2009, a scientic consen-
sus pretty much unanimously acknowledges does exist and is only threatening
the survival of this planet ever more each day. ese eorts included within
“green” are those that seek to reduce carbon emissions, create alternative fuels
and energy technologies, preserve species biodiversity, and develop cleaner and
more ecient vehicles, products, homes, and buildings. I have found it easier
to reduce it to one word—green—although I realize that this term has been
entirely overused and may mean dierent things to dierent people. If you nd
my rampant usage annoying in any way or too imprecise for your tastes, my
suggestion is for you to create a game out of it, and take a drink every time you
encounter the word in this Article. For Al Gore’s sake (and your own), do not
do this with hard liquor, but rather, do it with beer—and please, don’t forget
to recycle the bottles.
On December 15, 2008, at a press conference in Chicago
where he presented his environmental team to the American
people, President-elect Barack Obama remarked that
the pursu it of a new energ y economy requires a sustained,
all-hands-on-deck eort bec ause the foundation of our
energy independence is right here, in America—in the
power of wind and s olar; in new crops and new technolo-
gies; in the innovation of our scientist s and entrepreneurs,
and the dedication and skill of our work force. ose are the
resources we must harness to move beyond our oil addiction
and create a new, hybrid economy.2
e idea of intertwining environmental concerns and an
energy policy into a job creation strategy is not new, but it
is one which has gained signicant traction because of this
unique conuence of events: the meltdown of the nation’s
nancial infra structure; mass layos; w ildly unstable energy
prices; and a new Administration that unequivocally accepts
the idea that rapid climate change is now occurring and that
human activity is its principal cause.
No one, not even the most optimistic environmentalist
proponents of the “energy economy,” believe that it is realistic
for a green jobs plan to pay substantial dividends in the short
term. e Obama Administration, now in full management
of expectations mode, cautions that the creation of a new
green economy is a long-range solution, one that will require
a sustained investment of capital and a public and private-
sector commitment to research and development in these
critical areas. e task wil l be daunting, but if our nation
is to accept the challenge—really accept the challenge and
make more than just a supercial eort—and make a whole-
hearted and sincere push to control climate change, develop
alternative energy sources, preserve biodiversity, and redene
our transportation system (and the beleaguered industry that
spawned a nd has sustained our current transportation sys-
tem for generations), we not only need money for research,
development, and innovation, but we need a sound immigra-
tion policy to complement and nurture that eort.
2. President-Elect Barack Obama, Announcement of Energy and Environment
Team (Dec. 15, 2008).
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