I, FOR ONE, WILL WELCOME OUR HIGH-TECH IMMIGRANT OVERLORDS. Just ran into the wise and powerful Harold Meyerson in the TAP halls. After the winds subsided and the thunderbolts ceased cracking cross the cubicles, he made an interesting point on immigration. Apparently, without many folks noticing, Nancy Pelosi switched the chairmanship of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law from Texas's Sheila Jackson-Lee to California's Zoe Lofgren. The importance of the move is geographic: Lofgren is a Silicon Valley Democrat, and thus exquisitely attuned to the tech industry's desire for more work visas for highly skilled immigrants. As a Post editorial points out today, the current cap of 65,000, down from 195,000 just a few years ago, is laughably inadequate, and every one of those immigrants we don't admit goes to give a European or Asian firm a competitive advantage against us. Lofgren, whose district includes many of those most worried about the issue, will certainly try and use her chairmanship of the relevant committee to ease their minds. And Pelosi's decision to put her in the top spot suggests that the Democratic leadership will be receptive to the effort. --Ezra Klein
