Nearly 43.8%, or 219 companies, in this year's fortune 500 list were founded by immigrants or their children, according to a report released by the American Immigration Council. The report underlines the need to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation and the essential role of immigrant entrepreneurs in the US economy.

A study commissioned by the National Venture Capital Association has found that venture-backed companies with at least one foreign-born founder are now responsible for more initial public offerings and job creation than before the economic downturn.

The Partnership for a New American Economy – a group of more than 450 Republican, Democratic, and Independent mayors and business leaders who support immigration reforms that will help create jobs for Americans – released a new study today, Patent Pending: How Immigrants Are Reinventing The American Economy, showing that 76 percent…