Two Business Roundtable CEOs make a compelling case for immigration reform, legislation that Congress seems very likely to consider in 2014 now that immediate budget issues have been resolved.

In an interview with Crain's Chicago Business (subscription), CEO Greg Brown of Motorola Solutions, describes immigration reform as a competitiveness issue. Brown, who chairs BRT's Select Committee on Immigration, notes his company has 200 open software jobs nationwide.

"The talent shortage gets alleviated by immigration reform," he said. "It's a competitiveness issue."

Mr. Brown said he's optimistic that Congress will pass immigration reform next year, despite major differences between the Senate and House of Representatives. "It's more likely than not it will get done in '14," he said. "I think there will be some compromise between comprehensive reform in the Senate and the multiple bills in the House.

"Immigration reform is good policy and good politics for both parties. It spurs economic recovery, improves competitiveness of U.S. business. It's rare when the business community is united around one issue. And this is an issue that's not going to go away."

In a far-reaching interview on Bloomberg TV, Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the private equity group Blackstone, also put immigration reform in the broader context of international competitiveness. He tied it in with the outmoded ("territorial") of system of taxation that discourages U.S. companies from repatriating foreign earnings because they will taxed a second time (first in the foreign country and then again when brought into the United States). The segment is about 14 minutes, 45 second into the video:

[The] whole concept of immigration reform, this is something we really need to do. The idea that we educate, for example, foreigners, get them Ph.ds at our best schools and then don’t allow them to stay here anymore and ship them back where they go into competition with us, combined with the fact that we leave our money offshore and discourage companies from bringing it back so that they’re expanding with capital that should be coming back here, with workers who have been trained in the United States, is actually, really almost deranged.

Things like this need to be fixed because it’s good for America.

For more, see this BRT summary from Oct. 29, 2013, "Bottom Line: America’s Business Leaders Continue Push for Immigration Reform."