As U.S. lawmakers argue about the economic effects of immigration on the country, they might as well consider that a lot of America's most profitable companies were founded by people born elsewhere.
In fact, immigrant-founded Fortune 500 companies employed 3.6 million workers around the world in 2011 and were responsible for more than $1.7 trillion in revenues in 2010, according to the Partnership For A New American Economy.
Those job-creation tendencies aren't unique to a few success stories. A 2012 report found immigrants as a whole are more than twice as likely to start a business as someone born in America. With that comes job creation: as of 2011, immigrant-run businesses employed one in 10 American workers. That's nothing to laugh at.
Here are just some of the American companies founded by immigrants:
