Lawmakers Sell Out Americans!
When I ran against Congressman Tom Price I pointed out how Price was selling out American jobs and wages in exchange for campaign donations by co-sponsoring a bill (H.R. 3938) to increase the annual cap on all employment-based visas (not just technically-oriented H1Bs) by over 115% (from 120,000 to 260,000).
Please watch this training video by a law firm that teaches companies how to disqualify American workers and instead hire low-wage immigrants.
LD-According to the According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2000 and 2005, the United States’ employment for computer workers grew by about 332,000.
During the same time period, the United States imported about 330,000 H1-B workers for computer occupations.
The situation for engineers was even worse, with 95,000 H1-B visas issued in the same period for engineering, yet according to the Department of Labor, engineering jobs shrank by almost 124,000 jobs.
Do you think any of the front runners from both parties (Hillary Clinton, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, John Edwards, John McCain, and Mitt Romney) will address this issue? Or will all of them be blinded by the corporate donations?
June 28th, 2007 at 9:00 am
FYI AJC
Ga. business leaders push immigration bill
Senators take heat on overhaul
By BOB KEMPER
Published on: 06/21/07
WASHINGTON — Georgia business leaders on Wednesday turned up the heat on the state’s senators, Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, to support an immigration bill that many Georgians are demanding they oppose.
With the Senate scheduled to reopen debate on illegal immigration today, Georgia Employers for Immigration Reform, a coalition that includes businesses from poultry processors to carpet manufacturers, said the temporary-worker program and other elements of the bill are critical to their futures and to Georgia’s economy.
“These two senators have rolled up their sleeves and been willing to, against a lot of pressure, to get out there and participate in the development of this bill over many months,” said the coalition’s chairman, Wayne Lord, vice president of Pilgrim’s Pride, one of Georgia’s largest poultry companies. “The purpose of this campaign at this time is to encourage them to stay the course, continue to be engaged in this important process.”
Chambliss and Isakson helped shape the bill, which is based on an Isakson proposal that the U.S.-Mexico border be secured before other reforms such as the temporary-worker program are enacted. But neither he nor Chambliss supports the bill yet; they say its security measures are inadequate.
Debate over the bill shut down two weeks ago in a disagreement over efforts to amend the bill. But it is being revived by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who struck a deal with Republicans that would allow the full Senate to vote on nearly two dozen amendments before a vote is cast.
Since the unveiling of the fragile compromise on the bill last month, the offices of both Chambliss and Isakson have been flooded with calls from angry Georgians who contend that by providing a path to citizenship for about 12 million immigrants now living illegally in the United States, the bill would give amnesty to lawbreakers.
Isakson and a spokeswoman for Chambliss said Wednesday that the senators probably won’t support the bill unless President Bush sends to Capitol Hill an emergency budget bill that would begin funding border-security measures immediately. The two have told Bush that he needs to show his commitment to border security if he wants to win over congressional conservatives and an American public skeptical that the federal government will follow through with its promise to lock down the border.
Instead of sending that separate spending bill, however, Bush last week said he would include the money in the immigration bill itself, a move Chambliss and Isakson said fails to guarantee the funding or put the public’s concerns to rest.
“The public just doesn’t believe that part of it is going to get done,” Isakson said.
Still, both have said Congress must address the issue of immigration this year, while momentum for change is building, if illegal border crossings are to be curbed.
“Doing nothing is not an option,” Isakson said.
Opposition to the bill has grown so heated that it dominated Tuesday’s special congressional election to replace the late Rep. Charlie Norwood in Augusta. And several candidates are planning to run against Chambliss in the 2008 election, with campaigns built around Chambliss’ handling of immigration reform.
Georgia business leaders have emerged as the state’s major supporters of the current bill. Despite the strong headwind, they said Wednesday that the bill has to pass if they are to have the steady, adequate supply of workers they need.
“What we want to do is stabilize our work force,” said Steve Newton of the Southern Nurseries Association, adding that workers and employers are now operating under a “siege mentality.”
“If we do nothing, the system gets worse,” said Mark Woodall, president of the Georgia branch of the Associated General Contractors.
The businessmen said they’re struggling against public misconceptions of the bill. Too many people believe corporate America is just looking for cheap labor while the businesses, particularly farmers, are actually facing worker shortages, they said.
“Often, when emotion enters, facts go away,” said Skeeter McCorkle, president of McCorkle Nurseries and a member of the Georgia Farm Bureau Federation. “I think that has happened with this argument.”
June 28th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
We need to see more of the faces behind the corporate interests paying our elected represenatitives to drive down wages.
They, like these lawyers, have friends, families, and communities that may not appreciate their positions on trade and immigration.
June 28th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I agree!
June 28th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Well John, Edwards has been talking about this kind of stuff. Perhaps you ought to start reading some statements by candidates who aren’t Republicans.
June 28th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
Why did he support the immigration bill that would make the issue a bigger problem?
June 28th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Here:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZWJiZTUyNzcyOWRjNTczNWJmZTdkNDdmYjcyZDQ2OWU=
Where DO you get your information from? You keep making erroneous statement after erroneous statement when it comes to Democrats.
June 28th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
I am sorry I must be confused with Hillary and Obama!
June 28th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
John’s erroneous comments see no political bounds caroline…he is an equal opportunity factless offender.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Bart
Tell me what facts are wrong on this post!
June 28th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
The headline is an oxymoron…
The law firm is getting tons of free publicity from dupes like you posting their advervideo on blogs. Savvy marketing!
June 28th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Caroline. John Edwards talks the talk but according to his voting record and sponsorship and cosponsership of Bills he is line with others willing to sell out white and blue collar labor for illegal immigrants:
http://www.numbersusa.com/index
Voting records dont lie.
June 28th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Bart
After reading the post do you support Congressman Tom Price in his job of killing wages and putting Americans out of work?
June 28th, 2007 at 8:14 pm
See a couple of interesting comments (links provided):
“When the market rhapsodizers instruct the American workforce that it must now compete with the developing world’s labor market, what they conveniently omit is that to do so, our workers must be willing to adopt a developing world’s lifestyle. Because that’s what the pay scale supports.” quoted from
read
“… it would be a sad loss for the nation if, over time, so many IT professionals were rendered jobless that we eventually began to lose our technological edge because, like manufacturing, technology was no longer done here.” quoted from
read
June 28th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
_Nonny_Mouse
Thank you for the links!
June 29th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Kudos on the video plugin John!!!
This will open up a lot of opportunities for your work here. What’s the policy in terms of others posting clips? And if we’re allowed to, what is the html code needed to embed a video?
The law can be written to make what these people are doing illegal. I can’t imagine that if you asked a guy like Byron Dorgan or Jim Webb whether they feel this should be legal that they’d tell you “yes”.
I don’t even have to think about what Trent Lott or Mitch McConnell would say about it.
Food for thought…
June 29th, 2007 at 5:53 am
Al
Thanks for the tip!
June 29th, 2007 at 5:55 am
Al
FYI
GRASSLEY LOOKS FOR ANSWERS TO VIDEO ADVISING HOW TO SKIRT H-1B REGULATIONS
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley today sent a letter to a Pittsburgh law firm asking for the rationale behind a video posted on http://www.youtube.com that advises participants in a seminar on how to bypass qualified American workers when hiring foreign employees. Specifically in the video the firm advises businesses “to meet the requirements …as inexpensively as possible, keeping in mind our goal. And our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. In a sense that sounds funny, but it’s what we’re trying to do here.”
A letter was also sent to Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao asking about the level of fraud monitoring done at the Department.
Grassley sent the letters with Rep. Lamar Smith.
Here is a copy of the letter to the law firm as well as the letter to Chao.
June 21, 2007
Cohen & Grigsby
11 Stanwix Street
15th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1319
To Whom It May Concern:
As members of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, we have a responsibility to oversee and evaluate our country’s visa programs. We have become increasingly concerned about fraud and abuse of the H-1B program, and the impact of this program on American workers.
While many companies insist that they are not participating in fraud, many are finding loopholes around government rules and regulations in order to bring in cheaper foreign workers. These loopholes lead to abuse that ultimately displace qualified Americans. The abuse is evident thanks to a video produced by your firm during the Seventh Annual Immigration Law Update Seminar conducted in May 2007 in Pittsburgh.
In the video, Lawrence Lebowitz, director of marketing for your firm clearly states that an employer’s goal is “to meet the requirements…as inexpensively as possible, keeping in mind our goal. And our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. In a sense that sounds funny, but it’s what we’re trying to do here.” In fact, Mr. Lebowitz states that other members of his team will help employers bypass Americans. The video provides evidence of how your firm recommends employers accomplish this.
The spirit of the H-1B visa program was intended to bring temporary workers to our country to fill a void in the high tech sector, and to enhance the United States’ position in the global marketplace. The video made by your firm advises potential employers that they can fulfill Department of Labor PERM certification requirements by advertising the position in places where they will not find the most qualified applicants. Your firm asserts that an employer can advertise in regional publications with limited circulation, while internally listing the job for a foreign worker. We would like you to please explain how this practice does not constitute outright discrimination based on nationality and why your firm so blatantly promotes this type of behavior.
When applications are received, firm members Jennifer Pack and Jennifer Barton tell employers how they can disqualify U.S. applicants based on their resume or by personal interview when the resume lists all requirements of the job posting. Very qualified applicants are brought in for an interview for the sole purpose of finding a basis to disqualify them. Why does your firm undermine the recruitment effort by coaching potential employers to “find a legal basis to disqualify Americans” to hire a foreign worker?
In addition to explaining the video, we respectfully request that your firm provide us with the number of H-1B visa holders who have been petitioned for or hired by your firm in the past five years. We would also appreciate knowing exactly how many and the names of your clients who have been assisted by your firm to bring in H-1B workers.
The H-1B positions are available in limited quantity each year and the PERM certification process was created to fill positions where no qualified U.S. worker is available. Your firm’s video advises employers how to hire only foreign labor, while making it nearly impossible for a qualified American worker to get the job. We look forward to hearing from you on how such advice is ethical and does not undermine the programs by enticing fraud and misuse.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley Lamar Smith
United States Senator United States Representative
June 30th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Re: The Cohen & Grigsby Employment Chirade
John,
You’re doing a great job ‘outing’ certain employment lawyers in this regard. We’ve reached a sad moment in our democracy when American attorneys educate American employers on how to hire undocumented aliens ahead of American citizens. The Cohen & Grigsby video is outrageous. Fishing for illegals over job-eager U.S. workers amounts to a ‘race for the bottom’ for wages. The job market is tough enough for many in competing with our own qualified folks for available jobs. Rigging the system to hire illegals over interested U.S. workers is hideous. I appreciate your work. Keep it up!
Bob
June 30th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Bob
Thank you for the comment! Keep up the great work as VC of the Cobb GOP!