Despite more than 84,000 high-tech layoffs in the first quarter of 2009, by late April, U.S. employers had filed more than 45,000 new petitions to hire foreign workers, under what's known as the H-1B visa program, instead of investing in training and developing American workers. Worse yet,current law allows American workers to be replaced with new H-1B workers.

The free flow of these workers creates a disincentive to America's own best and brightest to train for many of the jobs that are critical to our economic future. Depressing wages by increasing the labor pool of high-tech workers often directs our most talented people to other professions.

Besides depressing opportunities for American workers, importing large numbers of H-1B workers forestalls the urgent need to recruit and train American workers for the jobs of the future. Instead of perpetuating this dependency through ever-larger H-1B quotas, our nation would be better served by making a commitment to cultivate the talents of our own current and future workers.