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Americans are losing jobs to a visa program [H-1B]. Can it be fixed?
Christian Science Monitor ^ | February 3, 2016 | Schuyler Velasco

Posted on 02/04/2016 8:26:52 AM PST by ConservingFreedom

[...] Its supporters, including the Obama administration, have touted the H-1B as a way to inject highly sought-after skills into the US talent pool. But more often, critics say, big companies exploit it to reduce labor costs, leaving more and more skilled American tech workers out of a job.

"There are literally tens of thousands of American workers who have trained their foreign replacements," says Ronil Hira, a public policy professor at Howard University and a leading authority on H-1Bs. "And the workers being imported have no more than ordinary skills that are abundantly available in the US."

[...] it needs some serious revisions. And as the controversy over both H-1Bs and immigration writ large heats up, a growing force of economists and lawmakers, are offering up ways to do it, from requiring companies to prove they recruited in the US first to limiting the program to foreign workers with advanced degrees.

[...] "most of the top H-1B employers are using the program for cheaper temporary labor - as a vehicle to outsource jobs overseas rather than as a bridge to permanent immigration," Hira said in congressional testimony last year. [...]

"Require that the market wage be paid and require employers to prove they recruited US workers first."

"Have a Labor Department database that requires you post the job for 30 days [in the US]," he continues. "If you really can't find anybody, you get your worker. If that is going to destroy the program, that means it really is just a tool for exploitable labor."

Hira also recommends conducting random audits of employers, particularly those with a past of displacing American employees. "The current compliance system relies on whistleblowers," he says, "who can face retaliation or legal action from their companies." [...]

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; corporatewelfare; h1b; jobs; laborforce; trainreplacements
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To: The Toll

The law needs to be repealed since we cannot rely on politicians to enforce it. On the other hand the victims need to man up and tell the story. That is tough to do it but you can’t just let them take your job and lively hood without a fight. I would be out the door as soon as they asked me to train my replacement. I don’t like unions but this a case that may require some Union formation. At least this should get all unions and workers to support rpeal.


21 posted on 02/04/2016 8:48:02 AM PST by Oldexpat
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To: ConservingFreedom

As an engineer in the Silicon Valley who has had a large chunk of my career spent unemployed, I say KILL IT!!!


22 posted on 02/04/2016 8:48:42 AM PST by Yossarian
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To: ConservingFreedom

So, he changed his previous position of increasing H1b visas by 500%? I am from TX, voted for Cruz in the primary and general. That’s all he’s getting from me.


23 posted on 02/04/2016 8:52:22 AM PST by sockmonkey (Donald Trump will ban auto-correct with an Executive Order. Go Trump!)
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To: tennmountainman

Disney likes it!


24 posted on 02/04/2016 8:52:33 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Iron Munro
A 350 kiloton nuclear device centered on Washington, DC would get the process started.

Not enough, you need to more like a dozen evenly spaced 10 Megaton to nail the beltway too.

It's pretty hard to take down a Hydra. You get two new heads every time you cut one off.

25 posted on 02/04/2016 8:54:02 AM PST by no-s (when democracy is displaced by tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote...)
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To: Kenny

Unbelievable.


26 posted on 02/04/2016 8:56:47 AM PST by exnavy (good gun control: two hands, one shot, one kill.)
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To: ConservingFreedom
Senator Cruz:
In 2013, Sen. Cruz proposed amendments to the "Gang of 8" bill that would strengthen border security, expand green card opportunities, increase high-skilled "H1B" visas, prevent illegal aliens from receiving welfare benefits, and enforce the rule of law.
Was he lying the or is he lying now?
27 posted on 02/04/2016 8:59:53 AM PST by lewislynn
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To: ConservingFreedom

It CANNOT be fixed, anyone saying you can fix it is just providing cover for their donors who want to keep it alive.... This program needs scrapped, its been openly abused for decades and no reforms will end it.


28 posted on 02/04/2016 9:01:04 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: ConservingFreedom
Senator Brownback once tried to justify the H-1B program by saying something to the effect that it's not so bad because we're only destroying one profession (white collar, high-tech).

This is why H-1B has survived. If all professions were equally affected by this, the public outcry would kill it. Put it to a vote. Ask everyone in the country who works for someone else if it's OK if their employer advertizes the job they currently have worldwide and then fires them if anyone in the world will do it for a lower salary.

29 posted on 02/04/2016 9:02:21 AM PST by snarkpup (My goal in life is to die of old age before the country does.)
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To: sockmonkey
So, he changed his previous position

Yes. "Ted Cruz Explains Why His Position on H1-B Visas Has Changed" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3375976/posts

30 posted on 02/04/2016 9:03:32 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (Trump fans:'he's no more conservative than Mitt'-www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3389209/posts)
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To: lewislynn
Was he lying the or is he lying now?

Neither: "Ted Cruz Explains why His Position on H-1B Visas Has Changed" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3376485/posts

31 posted on 02/04/2016 9:06:11 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (Trump fans:'he's no more conservative than Mitt'-www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3389209/posts)
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To: ManHunter

You are correct. I hired my first H1-b in approximately 1996. We followed the rules. We only hired this person because they had an extremely unique software skill set and we could not find the person we needed at the prevailing rate which was probably $250/hour. It was costly and time consuming to do it the legal way.

Today, it is for people with very common skills at less than $25/hour. Theses companies like TATA and others bring in Indian workers, pay the $10/hour and room them at like 8 to 10 people in a low rent three bedroom apartment.

This is slavery pure and simple. The worker puts up with it because they want their green card. If you leave the plantation you are deported. The slave master will not transfer your H1-b as that removes their power. Stay and work for $10 or be deported, period. So you have an Indian slave and an unemployed American and a CEO with a sick bonus. When the worker eventually gets his H1-b, he is the meanest, nastiest person to deal with because for 5 years he has been raped and he is not happy about it.

The program is bad, very, very bad. It is causing our demise to accelerate exponentially as it is causing high paid professional jobs to be brought down to the level of minimum wage jobs.


32 posted on 02/04/2016 9:41:16 AM PST by coon2000 (Give me Liberty or give me death!)
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To: no-s
Not enough, you need to more like a dozen evenly spaced 10 Megaton to nail the beltway too.

I was hoping to avoid damage to the Arlington National Cemetery and the US Marines Corps War Memorial located there.


33 posted on 02/04/2016 9:46:14 AM PST by Iron Munro (The wise have stores of choice food and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20)
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To: snarkpup

If H-1Bs affected lawyers, there wouldn’t be any.


34 posted on 02/04/2016 9:54:17 AM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: reg45

“If H-1Bs affected lawyers, there wouldn’t be any.”

There’s a fact.

Ted Cruz: I’ve introduced legislation to increase the number of H1B visas...I want innovators, I want-
Laura Ingraham: But they abuse that...the H1B thing is one of the most abused vehicles that corporations are using today...Disney just laid off a bunch of Americans- I assume you don’t support that? 150 Americans laid off by Disney...bringing in the foreign replacements...and they’re training their foreign replacements...I mean, that’s an H1B visa person we need!? I don’t get that...you don’t support the way they did that, do you?
TC: I, uh, um, I don’t know the facts of that Disney example-
LI: I just told you the facts!

http://www.mofopolitics.com/2015/07/07/ted-cruz-wont-criticize-disney-for-making-american-workers-train-foreign-replacements/


35 posted on 02/04/2016 10:00:25 AM PST by AuntB (Illegal immigration is simply more "share the wealth" socialism and a CRIME not a race!)
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To: snarkpup
This is why H-1B has survived. If all professions were equally affected by this, the public outcry would kill it. Put it to a vote. Ask everyone in the country who works for someone else if it's OK if their employer advertizes the job they currently have worldwide and then fires them if anyone in the world will do it for a lower salary.

I think a smart constitutional lawyer could argue this is a bill of attainder against a class of Americans.

36 posted on 02/04/2016 10:08:32 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: ConservingFreedom
Not quite. Ted was once in favor of increasing it:

Cruz admits immigration flip

Now, I take him at his word. It's a pity that the rabid anti-Trump posters here can't extend the same courtesy to Trump when he changed his mind on an issue and hold him to something he said 30 years ago, etc.

37 posted on 02/04/2016 10:17:55 AM PST by stratboy
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To: AuntB
LI: I just told you the facts!

Lesson learned. "Ted Cruz Explains why His Position on H-1B Visas Has Changed" - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3376485/posts

38 posted on 02/04/2016 10:19:26 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (Trump fans:'he's no more conservative than Mitt'-www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3389209/posts)
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To: stratboy
extend the same courtesy to Trump when he changed his mind on an issue and hold him to something he said 30 years ago

LOL! Bet you can't link to ONE example of Trump being criticized for a position he changed 30 years ago.

39 posted on 02/04/2016 10:21:28 AM PST by ConservingFreedom (Trump fans:'he's no more conservative than Mitt'-www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3389209/posts)
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To: Iron Munro
I was hoping to avoid damage to the Arlington National Cemetery and the US Marines Corps War Memorial

heh, they've got you foxed then...props to HL Mencken: "There is always an easy solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong."

40 posted on 02/04/2016 11:09:56 AM PST by no-s (when democracy is displaced by tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote...)
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