Dentons Davis Brown — 2025 Catalysts Honoree
From Cornfields to Code: How Immigrants are Key to Fueling Iowa’s Growing Tech Industry
Iowa needs people — and immigration is how we get them.
That was the message from Kailey Blazek Naranjo, shareholder and immigration attorney at Dentons Davis Brown, who laid out a clear case for why foreign-born workers and students are key to Iowa’s future.
At the 2025 Catalysts Live event on July 17th, Blazek Naranjo took the stage to explain more.
Without immigration, Iowa’s population, economy, and GDP will decline.
Since 2021, Iowa’s population growth has increased about 60% more than it would have without foreign immigration, shared Kailey Blazek Naranjo, shareholder and immigration attorney at Dentons Davis Brown.
This group of people is key to helping Iowa address its workforce gap, especially now. Blazek Naranjo explained that the state is consistently seeing a net negative migration, meaning more people are moving out of Iowa each year than are entering. While this gap has slightly decreased over time, it still persists.
Particularly concerning is the number of individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 who are leaving the state. College-educated people are leaving at twice the rate — a trend often referred to as the “brain drain.” Combine that with an aging population of baby boomers retiring from the workforce, and the state is facing even deeper skill and labor shortages.
“With all these factors at play, to maintain economic growth, we need more people in the state."
She emphasized this by noting that if foreign immigration into Iowa were halted for the next four years, the state would lose 11,000 workers and $300 million in GDP. That’s alarming.
So, how can Iowa address this? One key population is international students. Coming to the United States as a student is a common pathway for people entering the country. In the 2023–24 academic year alone, there were 1.1 million international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities.
To study here, students must apply to a university, be accepted, prove they have the financial means to support themselves, and undergo a background screening — all before they can even travel to the United States. It’s a lengthy process, but one many find worthwhile.
Once they arrive, international students contribute to the economy in significant ways: they rent apartments, buy groceries, go out for entertainment. In fact, during the last academic year alone, international students contributed $43.8 billion to the U.S. economy. They also support jobs — more than 378,000 of them.
International graduate students are especially important because after earning their degrees, they can apply for Optional Practical Training (OPT), which provides up to 12 months of employment authorization in a field related to their studies. If their degree is in a designated STEM field, they may be eligible for a 24-month STEM OPT extension, allowing for up to 36 months of work authorization.
OPT is a great way for students to gain experience in the U.S., and it can help organizations fill workforce gaps. But after students are hired for OPT roles, employers should also be thinking about how to retain them after their training period ends.
Blazek Naranjo said she hears one question again and again from students on campus: “Is there a list of employers who will sponsor or hire foreign nationals?”
To her knowledge, the answer is no.
“One of the calls to action I have for you today is to consider how your organizations can or should be partnering directly with foreign nationals as international students — or with colleges and universities — to fill the workforce gaps you’re seeing."
She encouraged the Catalysts crowd to speak up and advocate for federal immigration reform, making their voices heard so that Iowa can better address its labor shortage and have a more streamlined process to recruit and retain that critical talent.
Explore more stories from this year’s honorees:
