Say Anything Blog

Ews48, you might want to check your sources.  If I multiply the couple of decades we’ve had H1B visas by about 100,000 per year, I only get to about two million people who have had them, and that’s only about 20% of the estimated ten million illegals. 

In other words, the math to get to 50% ain’t workin’.  Besides, H1B is generally in technical fields where someone really cannot hide without valid ID and such.  It’s not as if we’re getting our hog butchers, lettuce pickers, and roofers from this program.

I would agree, for what it’s worth, that H1B needs to be modified and reined in.  For starters, visa holders shouldn’t be tied to one company--it’s a recipe for abuse of the visa holder and his coworkers, too.  However, Cantor is correct to state that H1B is not a major factor in illegal immigration.

My two cents.

While most seem to focus on the impact on working class Americans in that they are being displaced by illegal aliens working for much lower wages, with fewer, if any benefits and longer hours than they would if American labor and tax laws were being followed, the H1-B visa is impacting the educated classes of Americans, such as engineers, programmers, nurses and other professionals. 

I have heard-tell of US engineers and nurses being laid off and being replaced by foreign engineers, software coders, LPNs and the like, at much lower wages.

Then, after being displaced, the American professionals are at a severe disadvantage in locating new employment, since now they are competing not with other American graduates, but with H-1B visa holders coming in from Taiwan, Pakistan, Eastern Europe, the Philippines and the like.

This uncontrolled immigration is really impacting the middle and, labor and entry-level labor classes across America.

Also:

Employers who don’t follow the rules are making a windfall, while employers who HIRE AMERICAN, pay American wages and benefits, are getting reamed when it comes to producing goods or providing services in competition with the illegals.

It really is a major issue for America’s immediate future and continued existence as --- well --- America.

But all the candidates running seem to be for open borders.  This may require some executive action to correct once they are sworn in the the damage begins in earnest.

...for great justice

I have heard-tell of US engineers and nurses being laid off and being replaced by foreign engineers, software coders, LPNs and the like, at much lower wages.

If that’s actually the case rather than a few anecdotal instances than the visa’s should not be increased.

On the other hand I suspect that there are plenty of jobs for people that want to work, but not so many for those that want the pay but aren’t willing to perform.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

This took about point-two-seconds in a Google search to find:

A video clip that teaches employers how not to hire Americans has prompted two lawmakers to ask Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to investigate whether U.S. companies may be abusing the H-1B visa program.

The H-1B program lets U.S. employers import a certain number of foreign college graduates to work here for up to six years before they’re supposed to go home. As part of the immigration debate, high-tech employers want to hire more of these skilled guest workers while labor groups say these newcomers push Americans out of white-collar jobs.

Siding with the displaced Americans, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, wrote Chao Thursday after seeing a five-minute video in which the marketing director of a Pittsburgh law firm is shown telling employers how they can advertise a job so as to appear that the only qualified applicant is a foreign national.

“Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker,” says Lawrence Lebowitz of the Cohen & Grigsby law firm during a seminar taped in May. ”In a sense it sounds funny, but that’s what we’re trying to do here.”

A spokeswoman for the firm said the seminar was “compliant with all of the relevant laws governing the employment of foreign workers,” while expressing regret at “the choice of words that was used during a small segment” of a longer seminar that was boiled down by H-1B opponents.

In their letter, Grassley and Smith said the seminar reveals “the blatant disregard for American workers and deliberate attempts to bring in cheaper foreign workers through the H-1B program” and urged Chao to use her powers as labor secretary to investigate “the law firm’s unethical procedures.”

...for great justice

Probably better to simply ask a few questions if you want to get into the H1B issue.  If we really have a lack of engineers & technical people, we should see the following responses:

1.  Wage increases should be well beyond the rate of inflation. (nope)

2.  Promotions should be readily available.  (nope)

3.  People should be being actively recruited.  (nope)

4.  Employers should be reducing the requirements for certain jobs, rather than insisting on MS or Ph.D. when a lot of people with a BS could do it quite well. (nope)

Reality is that the press for H1B is NOT to be accurately made on a need for engineers--it’s a need for people to fill slots at the wages they want to pay and with the conditions they’re ready to offer.  Pure corporate welfare.

Fix #1 for H1B; de-couple it from the employer. 

Fix #2 for H1B: couple increases and decreases in the program to wages vs. inflation; if wages aren’t increasing, then arguably the problem isn’t a lack of engineers.  It’s that companies don’t want to pay them the going rate.