In speaking to a friend of mine who often travels overseas for business the other day, I was reminded of the pointless horrors of our immigration system. If I recall correctly, his high-tech worker friend must risk life and limb by returning to Nepal so that he might spend months applying for one visa that he knows in advance will be rejected, so that he can then apply for another visa which he suspects will be accepted. Isn’t that lovely?

I fear that far too many Americans are largely unaware of the problem. They are not directly subject to it, but might only hear of it from foreign friends. (I’m certainly in that boat.) So I’m glad to see (via Virginia Postrel) that business leaders like Steve Forbes are giving the Bush Administration a much-needed thrashing over this issue.

If only American business had the grand conspiratorial powers attributed to it by leftists, this problem would have been solved long ago. But they do not, so it has not.

Crossposted to The Egosphere.