Yesterday’s HOTLINE presented powerful evidence that skilled immigrants create far more jobs than they take. Skilled foreign workers are a gift from the rest of the world to the United States in part because most, if not all, of the education expenses, are borne by taxpayers in the origin countries, but Americans get all the benefits.

Right now the cap on H-1B tech visas is about 80,000 annually with roughly 200,000 of these “temporary” visa holders receiving extensions each year.

However, the demand for these high-skilled workers is about 300,000 per year.

Tech firms in Silicon Valley say these foreign workers are nearly indispensable. In that case, the federal government should auction off perhaps 200,000 a year to the tech companies that employ these workers. If the average bid were $25,000, this would raise $5 billion every year for Uncle Sam – and create an incentive to hire Americans. It’s a win-win-win for the U.S. economy, the companies, and the federal taxpayers.