Posted on 12/23/2015 7:45:48 AM PST by conservativejoy
I had the opportunity to sit down yesterday with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100% at a campaign event in Nashville and ask him several questions. One of the questions I asked was whether Senator Cruz still supported expanding the H-1B visa program, as he has in the past. Senator Cruz indicated that he no longer does, and you can see his explanation here:
Transcript:
RedState: Senator, I think the path to legalization issue has been beaten to death and I won't go over it again. One of the things you have supported in the past is raising the ceiling on the number of H-1B visas. Is that something you still support?
Ted Cruz: It is not. And in this circumstance, there are changed circumstances, and anyone responds to changed circumstances. I have supported and I still support the original idea of the H-1B program which is to bring in very high skilled workers to produce jobs and economic growth. That's a good thing, when you have more jobs and economic growth.
However, we have seen in recent months this program being abused over and over and over again. We've seen companies, blue chip names that we all know bringing in not high skill workers, but medium to low skill workers, and IT workers, and firing American workers and replacing them with foreign workers. And then, to add insult to injury, forcing the Americans who have just been fired to train their replacements. That is wrong, it is grotesque, it is offensive, it is a perversion of the program.
And so, like any rational person faced with changed circumstances, you change your position in response to how the facts have changed.
That's why I've said that as President, I will impose a 180 day moratorium on the H-1B program, in order to carry out a comprehensive audit of the companies that have received H-1B visas to determine if they are abusing the program , if they are bringing in low skilled workers, if they're firing American workers, if they're perverting the program. Any company that has abused the program will be suspended from participating in it, and any company that has violated the criminal laws will be prosecuted.
You know, this is yet another manifestation of the lawlessness of the Obama administration. They don't enforce the laws, the President decrees illegal and unconstitutional amnesty, but he's also lawless with big companies that are abusing the H-1B program.
It's one of the reasons I joined with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) 80% in introducing legislation to dramatically reform the H-1B program so that it can function as it's intended to. To require, for example, an advanced degree, not just a bachelor's degree, but a master's or a PhD. To put a preference to U.S. universities. To require as a minimum salary $110,000, so that you're not using it to bring in low cost foreign workers and replace American workers. To put in a 2 year hiatus from any company bringing in H-1Bs from laying off workers, so you gotta choose one or the other, but you can't be laying people off at the same time you're outsourcing.
All of these are reforms that are common sense I think to make the program work. And we need to make sure that our immigration laws prioritize American workers first, and as President, that's what I'll do.
That's the Chamber of Commerce's line. So it's not surprising that - as a Senator - that's what he keeps hearing from lobbyists and advisors alike, over and over again.
The question about whether you still beat your wife has been beaten to death and I won't go over it again.
And this is a difference between Cruz and Trump. Gandhi was once asked how he could take a position on one day that was different from his position the day before. His answer was, “Because I’ve learned something since yesterday.” Cruz is not a man who changes his positions lightly. But when presented with evidence showing his position to be wrong then he will change. As far as Trump is concerned I don’t think he is capable of changing his position or admitting that something he supported in the past was wrong.
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Senator Ted Cruz 2016 : ABANDON the Political SUICIDE of Increasing H1B Visas (An Open Letter)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3355516/posts
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That's the Chamber of Commerce's line. So it's not surprising that - as a Senator - that's what he keeps hearing from lobbyists and advisors alike, over and over again.
Donald J. Trump✓@realDonaldTrump I want talented people to come into this country -- to work hard and to become citizens. Silicon Valley needs engineers, etc.
1:42 PM - 18 Aug 2015
True. Admitting he was wrong or even asking God for forgiveness are not something Donald does.
Engineers in the computing and telecommunications industries have seen this for a couple of decades and have been raising hell about it for that long. And Cruz is just noticing this now?
Sorry. Abuse of the program hasn't increased over the last six months. If Ted was unaware of how the program has always worked he had no business advocating an increase in the number of visas.
Amen
CRUZ is just blabbing away again. WONT SAY HE WAS WRONG....in fact says he STILL IS IN FAVOR OF H1B VISAS.
Go back to Canada. Stop supporting the stealing of American’s best jobs and giving them away to foreigners. We are a nation of 300 million, we have all the talent we need....unless you want to pay them peanuts.
It wasn’t the world that put 10 men and 2 jeeps on the moon 1/3 of a century ago, IT WAS AMERICANS. .....AND THE REST OF THE WORLD ALL TOGETHER HASN’T PUT ONE MOUSE UP THERE YET.
stop all H1B VISAS AND INVEST IN AMERICA’S YOUTH
The reforms he’s put forth sound good, but it’s difficult to trust someone who has always been in favor of H1B. The problems with H1B have existed for a very long time, and other work visas are a problem, too.
There is no way Cruz can undo his previous position. He gave himself away , that he believes the lobbyists. It is
wrong and dirty for the government to single out one trade or occupation and bring in foreign workers to compete with American workers who have studied and worked and studied continually to keep up with advancing technology.
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