I started my first company at age 14 in Bogota, Colombia. Five years later, my family immigrated to the U.S. and I built a small 20-person company with my first partner, a Cuban-American entrepreneur I met while in college. Our small, bootstrapped operation was not big enough to sponsor me for a visa.
Despite creating American jobs and happily paying my taxes, I was told by the U.S. government to go back to Colombia. At the time, almost all visas from Colombia were being denied, and I knew that if I left, I would probably never return. Fortunately, before that happened, I met Tania, the love of my life and the future co-founder of some of my companies, and we got married.
I am speaking out on immigration reform because I believe immigrants, like myself, should not have to get lucky to have a chance at success in America. Immigration reform will benefit the U.S. by attracting the world’s most talented business minds, and with them will come economic growth and prosperity for their new community.
My current company is growing, and I just recently had the luck of hiring one of the brightest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. Ideally, he would move from Colombia and build his team in our San Francisco office. However, since he did not get chosen in the H1B visa lottery, he was forced to stay in Bogota and hired five new people there instead of in San Francisco.
Viewing the global economy as a huge football league, why would you keep the U.S. team from being able to recruit the best players in the world? And, unlike a football team, there is no limit to the amount of players that can participate. By closing our doors to immigrant entrepreneurs, we are allowing other nations to welcome them with open arms, and we are losing potential U.S. jobs and revenue.
Today, what we are seeing is not only a country that is turning away hard-working immigrants who want to contribute to the U.S. economy, but also a country that is building an “anti-immigrant complex.” Google, Dupont, Disney, AT&T, and Sarah Lee are just a few of over 200 Fortune 500 companies that were founded by immigrants. Imagine the repercussions on the U.S. economy if those companies were turned off by the U.S. attitude toward immigrants and chose to build elsewhere.
Finally actions are being taken to address our broken immigration system. The bill passed in the Senate is not perfect, but is a big step in the right direction. The House of Representatives needs to act on it.
The House won’t act unless the business community speaks out. Fellow entrepreneurs need to share their stories, not just in the Bay Area, but across the country. I participate in https://marchforinnovation.com using technology to spread the word, and encourage others to do the same. Smart immigration reform will allow companies like mine, and our entire nation, to not only compete, but lead in the global economy.
Alexander Torrenegra (@torrenegra) is a tech entrepreneur, offroader, and investor. He is the founder and CEO of VoiceBunny, Voice123, and Torrenegra Labs. Alex was awarded “Top Colombian Innovator of the Year” from MIT’s Technology Review, was honored with the title of NYC Venture Fellow in 2013, and met with President Obama about immigration reform.