This is a crosspost from The Huffington Post by Annette Bernhardt and Haeyoung Yoon.

The debate over comprehensive immigration reform has the potential to be one of the defining moral moments of our time. In the ongoing struggle over what kind of country we want to be, immigration reform gives us the chance to show our humanity, commit to values of inclusion and justice and honor the dreams and aspirations that immigrants bring to our shores.

But immigration policy is also economic policy, and here the case for reform is just as strong. If we care about future growth in America, our goal must be to provide a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States, as well as for future immigrants. If we get it right, a  new report  from the Congressional Budget Office shows that everyone who lives and works in America will see significant economic gains; even conservative economists are  weighing in  to support reform.

When Microsoft, Oracle, Facebook and the other big-time cyber giants say they need to import more foreign high-tech workers and then put on a full-scale lobbying assault to up the number of H-1B visas allowed in the immigration reform bill now under consideration, what are they really after? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has the answer in an op-ed in today’s edition of USA Today .

This is about powerful companies pursuing lower wages.

Over the weekend, young people watched or read about President Obama speaking at Morehouse College and first lady Michelle Obama addressing the graduates of Bowie State University. Hopefully they were inspired by seeing so many young and gifted people finishing the course they chose to follow. Well, here is a little known set of facts. 

Why do Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Oracle want to hire foreign high-tech workers instead of qualified U.S. workers? They won’t admit it, but it is because they can—and do—pay them less. That’s why they are pushing so hard for a series of amendments from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would remove provisions in the immigration bill under consideration that give qualified U.S. workers the first shot at those high-tech jobs.

Get your slingshots ready #TechGoliaths trying 2strip wkr protections and make it easier to fire and displace US wkrs #CIRmarkup

— Andrea DiBitetto (@andiezd) May 16, 2013

Before a company, say Oracle, would be allowed to recruit and hire foreign workers under the H1B visa program in the draft of the immigration bill now under consideration in the Senate, it first must give U.S. workers who are equally or better qualified the first shot at the jobs. That sounds like a patriotic no-brainer.

But recent news reports outline a huge lobbying effort by high-tech firms—like Google and Microsoft—to get those pro-U.S. worker provisions out of the bill.

This January, Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the  Immigration Innovation Act , known as "I-Squared." It will triple the number of foreign temporary workers from about 800,000 to more than 2.3 million. This will distort the labor market for jobs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which has only 4 million workers all told. I-Squared will  seriously depress the domestic STEM labor market .

John See of AFT’s Public Affairs Department reports on two important rulings that protect the rights of immigrant workers .

Teachers across the globe are fighting back against abuse and exploitation. With the assistance of AFT and partner unions in the Philippines, the rights of teachers who came to the United States on temporary visas were affirmed recently  in rulings in  two countries.