Posted on 12/15/2015 12:41:51 PM PST by conservativejoy
In sharp contrast to the Grassley-Durbin bill calling for some useful modifications of the H-1B program, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) have introduced legislation that would just about terminate the H-1B worker program, as they announced in a press release.
This is the most sweeping anti-H-1B legislation to be introduced into Congress in my memory.
The Cruz-Sessions bill is in harmony with the Texas senator's overall current immigration policy, hailed as "imperfect but a big step forward" by Mark Krikorian in a posting last month.
The Cruz-Sessions legislation, the American Jobs First Act of 2015 (S.2394), would set a minimum wage of $110,000 a year for new H-1Bs, which would seriously dampen employers' interest in the program, as they usually pay much less than that for their H-1B workers, usually young college grads from India and China. (See the bill's text here.)
It would also force employers to observe a 730-day "cooling off" period before they could use the H-1B program to replace laid-off, furloughed, or striking U.S. workers. And it would simply end the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program, another foreign-worker program involving recent alien college grads, a program that often dovetailed with H-1B. (There is no training involved in OPT, it is just a program for inexpensive foreign workers, with their employers being excused from paying payroll taxes when they hire these alien workers.)
The bill would also repeal the Diversity Visa Lottery, which grants green cards to about 50,000 randomly selected people from any country not among the top sending countries. (The top beneficiaries in 2014 were Nepal, Egypt, and Uzbekistan, with more than 3,000 green cards each.)
In contrast to the black-and-white Cruz-Sessions legislation, the Grassley-Durbin legislation is sketched in varying shades of grey, as we outlined in three earlier postings, starting with this one. The Grassley-Durbin proposal would make a series of modest improvements in both the H-1B program and in the somewhat similar L-1 program (for employees of multi-national firms working in the United States).
I have had doubts about Cruz concerning certain immigration issues, largely due to what appear to be contradictory position statements or lack of specificity.
But I like to give credit where credit is due and I applaud both of these fine senators for this bill.
FLip, flop, flip flop, goes little Teddy on H-1B visas. He got on the M2T train seeing how it was unpopular and so he had to mimick Trump. He’s a poor imitation.
Agree
“Say Anything” Ted.”
...and he knows this is going absolutely nowhere. Sessions had better be getting something good out of this.
“And yet we hear no outrage from the Trumpkins concerning all of the positions he has changed over the last two years?!:
AS you well know we hear it ad nauseum from anti Trumpers everyday.
You call Cruz a phony, but you still support Trump who has been a democrat and supported democrats for the last 30 years and only became a republican for this election. Trump’s only conservative position is related to immigration. He is a liberal on all other social and economic polices.
You do realize that this is not a flip-flop, but a change in strategy, right??
You also realize that Trump is the ultimate flip-flopper since he has never been a conservative until this election. He has voted and support democrats for the last 30 years. Even now, his only conservative policy is in regards to immigration. All of his social and economic policies are extremely liberal. Hopefully, he just doesn’t appoint Oprah as his VP...geez
No, it was May, 2013 and your linked article is from a somewhat liberal source.
What he wanted to do was "Sen. Cruz Presents Measure to Strengthen, Improve Legal Immigration."
And he put it right on his website so it is not hard to find.
http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=137
.
Jeff Sessions bump for later...
Unenforceable exercise in turd polishing. H-1B, kill it!
This is why he is disliked, by the way, they feel he has used the Senate only for the purpose of a POTUS run.
Both he and Rubio have awful attendance records.
All ‘Saint Cruz’ has done is flip flop, every time Trump comes out with something, here comes ‘Saint Cruz’ riding on Trumps coattails, if it wasn’t for Heidi, Cruz wouldn’t be smart enough to think of things himself, since she’s the one that covers for him all the time....
And whoever Trump asks to be his V.P. I hope to heck it isn’t ‘Saint Cruz’ it would ruin the Country worse than it already is....
Only a true liberal or liberal lite (aka libertarian) would believe anything that you just stated.
Go ahead and vote for Trump or Hillary. They are the same, except on immigration, but Trump’s position on immigration could change just as quickly as his political affiliation over the last two years. I know I won’t hold my nose and vote for Trump and nobody I’ve talked to in my area of Texas plans to do it this time either.
Go vote for your ‘Saint Cruz’ I’ll be voting for a winner: TRUMP!!!
At least we’ll know who to blame when we have another Obama on our hands.
Yes you do....”Saint Cruz” hope you can live with that if it happens!!!
Cruz wouldn't be smart enough to think of things himself? The guy was at the top of his class at Princeton and then Harvard, where he was a debate champ. He was a Supreme Court clerk. And then he's won numerous cases before the Supreme Court, and countless more before the Texas Supreme Court. Criticize Cruz for his positions all you want (and there's enough there to criticize - TPP, Iran, H1B, etc.), but not smart enough? Couldn't be further from the truth.
It's one thing to support your candidate, but attacking Cruz like this is sure as hell not a good way to attract Cruz supporters over to your side, if and when it comes down to that.
Are you really that blind and naïve???
Cruz is the only conservative in this race. Trump is another Bill Clinton, except less stable. The only difference is that Trump is all about the polls and ratings (based on his own statements) and is a liberal except for his stance on immigration, which is based on poorly thought out, grandiose rhetoric and not on any real policy positions.
Like I said: you can vote for “Saint Cruz” but I’m voting for the winner: TRUMP!!!
I just love to laugh at you people....when people get as desperate as you are, you know your going to lose and I just can't help but laugh....
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