WTAF
“More Migration Without Political Backlash”:Biden’s Former Immigration Insiders and the Tech-Backed Plan to Bring Foreign Workers to American Towns
Backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the fund supports a 30-plus-hub recruitment plan targeting communities losing young people—and visa assistance for startups seeking foreign researchers.
11 minutes ago
“a future of much more migration without political backlash.”
That is the future described in the Talent Mobility Fund’s strategy paper.
The fund now has a former Biden immigration adviser at its helm, backing from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and grants supporting recruitment in American communities losing their younger populations.
Its portfolio connects two powerful interests: immigration advocates seeking more migration and employers seeking more foreign workers. Former government officials help supply the expertise. Philanthropic donors supply the money.
American communities supply the destinations.
The fund’s director, Doug Rand, served as senior adviser to the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under Biden. Amanda Baran, the agency’s former policy and strategy chief, sits on its experts council. Deputy director Diane Rish previously managed immigration at Salesforce.
Renaissance Philanthropy’s account of the fund’s origins identifies Schmidt and Open Philanthropy as early backers. It traces the idea to Amy Nice leaving the Biden White House in 2022 with a strategy for increasing use of existing immigration pathways.
The attraction for donors was explicit: they could pursue immigration expansion under existing law, without securing new legislation.
That approach puts former policymakers’ expertise to work outside government—helping employers, attorneys, and nonprofits make greater use of the immigration system those officials understand.
The fund’s strategy paper also describes opponents of increased immigration as an “unmovable block.” It argues that migration tied to national labor needs offers a way forward with less political resistance.
The premise is revealing: public opposition becomes a problem to overcome on the way to higher migration.
The fund even sets a price benchmark for the additional migration it wants to produce.
Its return-on-investment document says it makes project grants when it expects at least one additional scientist, technologist, or engineer eventually to enter or remain in the United States for every $5,000 spent.
Rand supplied the demographic rationale in a November 2025 Yale interview:
“I think that we can’t have a growing economy without more people. Period.”
The fund’s support for inSpring translates that argument into a plan for specific places.
InSpring’s grant announcement identifies communities with:
“flat or declining youth populations”
It also prioritizes workforce shortages and low retention of international talent. Its hubs are designed to connect foreign-born graduates of American universities with local employers—meaning the initiative includes retaining people already studying here.
The four named locations are Oklahoma, South Carolina, Rochester, New York, and Birmingham, Alabama.
The grant supports strengthening those hubs and opening more. InSpring also describes ambassadors promoting employment and retention of foreign-born graduates.
Its ten-year ambition is more than 30 hubs, established as a lasting presence in regions across the country.
Places losing young people are being mapped into a recruitment strategy. Whether the next generation of Americans can afford to stay and build families there is a different measure of success from whether employers can fill jobs.
https://nataliegwinters.substack.com/p/more-migration-without-political
1 of 2