I think working in another country is a great thing. It encourages an exchange of ideas and fosters international communication. It can promote understanding - and sometimes misunderstanding. If you talk long enough, though, you usually come back to some kind of understanding for how things work in another country.
I have been lucky enough to live and work in another country, and I think people from those countries should have the same opportunity to come here and work as well. There are many businesses in the U.S. willing to hire foreign nationals - finance companies, software companies, engineering companies.
I'm sure many of the foreign nationals later leave the company and return home, taking their knowledge and skills with them.
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But are there times when this is not okay? What about with aerospace companies? What about defense contractors, or contractors for NASA? Is it okay to have people from, say, China or Saudi Arabia work at a place where they can learn about U.S. missile defense? How about military satellites? And then leave and return to their home countries with this kind of information?
According to Aviation Week, the Daily Press, and the office of congressman Frank Wolf, this is what has been happening with NASA.
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There have been 20 cases of economic espionage and trade secret criminal cases from January 2009 to January 2013, according to the U.S. Justice department. A strategy paper released by the Obama administration in early 2013 identifies espionage threats to military/NASA aerospace programs.
Congressman Wolf has accused NASA of working around federal hiring restrictions on foreign nationals. NASA does this by contracting out much of its work to various companies and then dictating to those contractors what employees they want on board.
Take the case of Bo Jiang. Jiang was arrested at Dulles International Airport after allegedly lying to federal investigators about what computer storage equipment he was carrying. He was already under active investigation for possible violations of federal arms control laws.
Jiang was employed by the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), a nonprofit contractor with NASA. His employment was an apparent attempt to circumvent appropriations restrictions on NASA. NASA had "farmed out" work to NIA and requested that Jiang work on the project.
Before that, there was the case of Quan-Sheng Shu. He founded a research company called AMAC International which had contracts with the U.S. Army and NASA. He was an expert in cryogenics. He focused on research and eventually shifted to marketing American high-tech products in China. In 2008, he was arrested and charged with illegally turning over rocket technology to the Chinese government.
There has been an investigation of officials at NASA Ames Research Center beginning in 2009 by the FBI. The investigation is regarding the possible illegal transfer of weapons system technology to foreign countries. However, the the investigation seems to have been stalled.
According to The Daily Press: "(Congressman) Wolf claims the U.S. Attorney had sought indictments in the Ames matter, but that the Justice Department had refused them. In subsequent statements to the Washington Times, however, the U.S. Attorney denied making any such request, and the Jusice Department denied refusing it."
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_03_11_2013_p01-02-557038.xml
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=%2Farticle-xml%2Fawx_02_08_2013_p0-547247.xml
http://www.wolf.house.gov/press-releases/wolf-potential-security-violation-at-nasalangley/
