It's key to every strategically important tech.
Rachel Hoff and Reed Kessler 24, Hoff (policy director at the Ronald Reagan Institute,) Kessler (associate director of policy at the Ronald Reagan Institute,) 4-1-2024, "STEMming the Crisis: Immigration and the U.S. National Security Talent Base," https://warontherocks.com/2024/04/stemming-the-crisis-immigration-and-the-u-s-national-security-talent-base/
The pitfalls in the U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent pipeline, particularly with international students, are glaring. As America attracts the world’s most promising minds and educates them at America’s best universities, the U.S. government funds their research through taxpayer dollars — then fails to provide a pathway for them to stay in the United States. Due to America’s byzantine immigration system, as many as 90 percent of foreign students receiving advanced degrees in STEM fields are forced to leave the country after graduation, massively depleting America’s potential workforce.
Our national security innovation base — the ecosystem comprising U.S. national security organizations, research laboratories, defense primes, industry disruptors, and venture capital — is especially vulnerable to these talent shortfalls. Research, development, and manufacturing in AI, quantum computing, hypersonic weapons, and autonomy are precisely the sectors where Washington needs the most talented minds working to advance U.S. national security. The end result is a paradox in which America trains the world’s best and brightest and then sends them home — many to adversary nations.