Wasn’t Christopher Columbus technically an illegal immigrant? What about scores of Europeans who followed him in boats without visas to found and build America?
Immigrants are the foundation of this country and provide us with brainpower. We don’t bring immigrants to add diversity, it’s to increase innovation, fill jobs, and to lift the economy.
My path to getting where I am now is a classic example of an immigrant’s journey to America. I arrived in the United States in 1991 from a village in Punjab, India at age 21, bringing with me two main things: passion and obsession.
After working for IBM in San Jose, Calif. in 1992, I decided to forge a more independent path by creating a startup. As a Sikh, I strove to be a turbaned version of the many successful Silicon Valley veteran entrepreneurs who came before me and have long created amazing companies, jobs, and huge gains in shareholder value.