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"Mashable is proud to join technology's brightest entrepreneurs in the March For Innovation, a virtual march on Washington that calls for smart, comprehensive immigration reform to attract and keep the best and brightest to fuel innovation and American jobs.\nI grew up in Eugene, Oregon. I was fortunate enough to attend Eugene International High School, an innovative program that exposes high school students to cultures and belief systems from around the world. \nI studied the five pillars of Islam and learned about apartheid in South Africa. I represented Fiji in the Model United Nations. My family hosted an exchange student from Japan. If you have ever been to Eugene, you\u2019ve seen a lot of \u201CThink Global, Act Local\u201D bumper stickers on Volkswagen buses around town. \nYet, with all of this internationalism around me,the first time I truly felt like a global citizen was when I began to explore the Internet.\nThe Internet has eliminated many borders. Social media powered the Arab Spring, toppling governments thousands of miles away from Silicon Valley. President Obama is dancing \u201CGangnam Style\u201D thanks to the unbelievable proliferation, via YouTube, of Psy\u2019s music video in Korean. And by the way, just where is \u201Cthe cloud\u201D?\nAs the CEO of an Internet company, I video-conference each week with colleagues in London, Paris, Hamburg and Tel Aviv. We have clients in 35 countries and serve more than 10 billion ads each day to consumers all around the world. Our business is truly global \u2014 except when we try to hire the world-class talent we need to build and innovate here in New York City.\nI won\u2019t belabor how costly, complicated and time-consuming our immigration laws are. We know that the world\u2019s brightest students come to the U.S. for the best college educations, then return home to start businesses because they can\u2019t get visas. \nSEE ALSO: The High-Tech Immigration Debate: Everything You Need to Know\n\nI\u2019ve spoken to children who have no path to documentation even though their parents have green cards, forcing them to work illegally just to stay in this country with their families. Same-sex couples face forced separation because our laws prevent partners from sponsoring their spouses for green cards.\nIn this day of truly global citizens, of freedom spreading across borders, of software and open source and the cloud, how can America close its borders to the best and brightest? Let\u2019s bring these people here. Let\u2019s let them innovate here and spread their ideas and technologies. In fact, we have many brilliant, talented immigrants already living within our borders that know our language and love this country. Let\u2019s ask them to stay and join us as Americans.\nAs Congress takes up immigration reform, leaders from politics, business, tech, media, sports and entertainment -\u2013 in addition to hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country \u2013- will participate in the largest-ever virtual march on Washington to support bipartisan reform legislation. The entrepreneurial spirit underpinning this issue is part of our company\u2019s culture, New York City\u2019s future, and the American dream, so we at AppNexus intend to do whatever we can to preserve it.\nI\u2019m proud of those taking a leadership role in this fight for immigration reform and look forward to standing beside Mayor Bloomberg, Steve Case, Ron Conway, Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Mike Maples and thousands of others in the march to support comprehensive reform. I hope you\u2019ll join us.\n\nImage via Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/05/22/brian-okelley-march-for-innovation/>