ImmigrationU.S. defense industry pushes for immigration reform

Published 21 November 2013

CEO Linda Hudson of BAE Systemsis making a plea for immigration reform as she links the defense industry’s urgent need for skilled engineers to the push for the United States to develop a simpler path to citizenship for skilled and educated immigrants. She also says that “if we’re forced to forgo international talent we damn well ought to be doing something to produce that talent domestically.”

CEO Linda Hudson of BAE Systems Inc. is making a plea for immigration reform as she links the defense industry’s urgent need for skilled engineers to the push for the United States to develop a simpler path to citizenship for skilled and educated immigrants.

Defense News reports that on a recent trip to India, Hudson said she was astounded by the skill level of engineers in India’s growing technology sector, lamenting “that’s the kind of talent I need” in BAE System’s IT and security business.

Restrictive citizenship rules in the United States and growing nationalism in emerging nations are reducing the talent pool available to American defense companies. Speaking to an audience at the Atlantic Council, Hudson urged lawmakers and businesses to support a path to citizenship for immigrants with highly technical skills needed in the defense sector, as the demand for highly complex and networked military systems increase. Hudson noted that highly skilled American citizens capable of working in the defense sector are being recruited by companies in Silicon Valley who promise excitement and less regulation. “I need U.S citizens to work on classified programs. We are rapidly losing our technological superiority in America, and immigration can be an important tool to fill that gap. However, in the national security space, these immigrants need a path to citizenship to help keep our nation safe.”

Defense Newsnotes that according to Hudson, 75 percent of engineering students receiving a Ph.D. in American universities are non-U.S citizens, and 75 percent of those students are “untouchable by the Defense Department” because they have no interest in becoming U.S citizens in order to work for the defense industry. Hudson claims BAE Systems have a “couple of thousand jobs” in high tech and IT sectors that she is unable to fill due to lack of skilled talent, and “if we’re forced to forgo international talent we damn well ought to be doing something to produce that talent domestically.”