Colorado is a “hotspot” for high-tech industries like aerospace, software and telecommunication. We increasingly draw both companies and talent to the state because of this reputation. 

Aerospace alone is huge. From behemoths like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to startups like Loft Orbital in Golden and York Space Systems in Greenwood Village, which announced they’re going public this week, Colorado is home to over two dozen aerospace companies.

Employers in these advanced fields depend on recruiting as many smart, productive people as they can get. That means Colorado and the United States rely on excellent talent.

But in September, the Trump administration put up a roadblock when it implemented a one-time fee of $100,000 on the H-1B visa, the primary visa for skilled foreign workers. It’s fourteen times the previous maximum fee of $7,000, on top of salaries and other filing and legal fees.

This fee puts a real squeeze on employers that are critical to Colorado’s economy — especially smaller startups that may need these workers yet will have a harder time affording such an exorbitant cost.

Innovation and growth depend on the best talent. We’d prefer those workers to be American, but when they aren’t, expensive barriers only drive business elsewhere.

The Cato Institute’s David J. Bier notes H-1B workers aren’t “tied to a single employer and change jobs regularly.” A company could pay the $100,000 fee on a new hire, only to lose both the worker and the investment when that employee jumps to another firm a year or two later.

They could outsource and hire remotely in Canada or India, but that makes it less likely the job will ever be filled by a Coloradan. We’d much rather have someone doing the work here than overseas, including legal-immigrant students already receiving a taxpayer-funded education.

Now, President Trump seems to be rethinking his position on the steep H-1B visa fee. That’s welcome news. 

In an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, he acknowledged America’s exceptional need for high-skilled talent.

“You don’t have certain talents, and people have to learn,” Trump said. “You can’t just say a country is coming in, going to invest $10 billion to build a plant and take people off an unemployment line who haven’t worked in five years, and they’re going to start making their missiles. It doesn’t work that way.”

The president is right. We have no doubt that, as he’s asked companies to invest more in America, they’ve discussed the challenges of finding top-notch talent here at home.

If Colorado wants to stay ahead of the curve, leading in high-tech fields for years to come, we need as many smart, productive people as we can get — wherever they’re from. That’s why our companies recruit talent worldwide.

These high-skilled workers create wealth for American firms and, in turn, more jobs — especially for Americans. It all comes down to having the right people with the right skills in the right jobs.

Trump knows this firsthand, having hired H-1B workers himself. His business instincts are kicking in. He should scrap the fee.

Colorado is already losing ground as an innovation hub thanks to the rising cost of business. We can’t afford Washington piling another $100,000 onto a single worker.

Our congressional delegation — Democrats and Republicans alike — should help kill this barrier before Colorado’s high-tech innovators and investors look elsewhere.