Posted on 04/04/2009 5:40:30 AM PDT by MyTwoCopperCoins
WASHINGTON: In the first-ever indication of its stand on H-1B visas popular among Indian professionals, the Obama administration has informed a court that the US needs this scheme to avoid "competitive disadvantage" the American companies could face otherwise.
A submission in this regard was recently filed by Michael F Hertz, acting assistant attorney general, in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of three US bodies, nine individuals and two students challenging government's decision to extend from one year to 29 months the duration of foreign nationals with engineering, science and other technical degrees who can work in the US on student visas.
This was a policy decision by previous Bush government, which was challenged in a lower court in New Jersey last year and was summarily dismissed. The same petitioners approached the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia last month.
The Obama administration's view point was expressed in its submission before the Philadelphia court on March 23.
"The inability of US employers, particularly in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to obtain H-1B status for highly skilled foreign students and foreign non-immigrant workers has adversely affected the ability of US employers to recruit and retain skilled workers and creates a competitive disadvantage for US companies," the US government argued.
Defending the policy of the Bush administration on extension of work permit to foreign students with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by 17 months, the new government argued that this is necessary to retain these foreign students in America.
Otherwise, it said, they would have no other option but to return or go to other countries for employment. With there being great rush for H-1B visas, extension of work permit to those holding F-1 (student visa) is a justifiable way to retain this talent, it argued.
The extension of time simply allows these students to avoid the hardship of leaving the country to change their status and gives the employers ample time to file H-1B petitions on their behalf in due course.
The Acting Assistant Attorney General noted that had the government not extended the work permit of foreign students in STEM category, some 10,000 students holding H-1B visas for the fiscal 2009 would have had to leave the country within 60 days as required by law or extend their F-1 status by enrolling in another course of study.
"As indicated in the IFR (Interim Final Rule) there is an important economic interest for the United States in keeping STEM graduates from going to other countries that are providing increased opportunities to these students," the US government said in its petition.
"The IFR would help attract STEM students to the United States. Otherwise, United States will lose skilled technical workers in great need by high-tech industries."
“Anything but hire and train Americans. That would be awful. /s”
I don’t know how others feel, but I’m starting to wonder what being ‘an American’ means anymore. I love my country, and have always felt proud to be an American, but anymore I really don’t know what the term means. There are so many people who live here but who have no patriotic pride and seemingly no allegiance to America. The rapid demographic shifts that the left has pursued as a way of gaining and consolidating power have had a very damaging effect on national identity.
You know little about history don’t you? Hoover enacted Smoot-Hawley. Roosevelt actually wanted free trade...not that trade mattered as much back then of course because it was like 6% of GDP. As for all the ideological based opinions like yours about how trade caused the depression blah blah and Roosevelt’s big spending didn’t help, I would point out one fact...most of you say..it was the war that did it-pulled us out of the depression...well maybe. But what was the war but one huge spending spree and governmental jobs program? One could argue with some success that Roosevelt didn’t spend enough to end the depression as he actually believed in balanced budgets (balanced budge and cut spending in 1936 which cause another recession in 1937 and higher unemployment but never as high as 1933) and was forced to spend during the war.
Now for our modern age, look around you take off your ideology blinders...free trade is destroying this country as practiced today. It has lead to the loss of millions of good paying American jobs and will in the end lead to socialism...but the globalists not happy with destroying entire American industries, communities and even states now want to replace the few decent jobs left with outsourcing and insourcing. The are free traitors and are more dangerous to this country than even Al Quada.
You are right...there is a loss of understanding of what it means or used to mean to be an American...there was a time when business cared about this country.
Thanks! Have you heard some of there comments also? I particularly remember one by Erin Burnett.
Yes they do ... I had the privilege of training my replacement at Motorola
I think people who do this are unbalanced to begin with, but one can not argue that desperation due to unemployment is often a factor.
Lovely, one more reason to keep what I have and buy nothing from these scummy American hating companies...let them sell their wares abroad if they can.
I see your point, but these sort of policies that allow this must be changed or we won’t have to worry about generating revenue...because we will all be living in a socialist hell hole.
Your post indicates that you believe in big govt. intervention and tax ‘n spend leftist policies.
Arguing free markets and trade with a big govt. socialist may not be worth the effort :)
I guess you are one of those who thinks that Obama’s spending is too little!!
“But what was the war but one huge spending spree and governmental jobs program?”
This is the fallacy that FDR big govt fans use as their favorite talking point. Read Thomas Woods’ article from earlier today.
That’s part of it, but not really the whole problem at all. Companies do consider wages when making outsourcing decisions, but the other costs of keeping full time employees are the real driver: Facilities, health benefits, incentive packages, 401k matching, insurance, taxes - these are the things that drive companies to outsource. If a company hires Xenoholic, Inc. to provide bodies, the onus shifts to them to provide all of that. The company can then grow or shrink workforce in an almost just-in-time fashion without having to pay unemployment or provide severance.
The advantage we have is that we lead the world in productivity and quality - these are the first things that suffer when a company decides they don’t need American workers anymore. Once quality declines, consumers will either keep buying crappy product and justify the decision, or they will go elsewhere and pay a little more for something better. Recent history suggests that consumers aren’t that bright making outsourcing a really good bet. Now that things are tight, maybe the buying public will be a little more discerning. If so, that’s good news for us.
No way, they have better legs than I do...meow, meow...yes I know it’s catty OK.
Exactly we have to stop the wheels from coming off if we still can.
Ok - I think we both agree that this murderer had a larger emotional problem, wich caused him to commit these crimes - irrespective of his current employment status.
I watch CNBC whenever Erin Burnett is on :)
This requires pitch forks and torches.
Say what? He may have said that, but his policies tell a different story. His attempts at micromanagement of the economy made the situation quite a bit worse. He tried to manipulate the gold market to keep the price (and therefore inflation) down. He finally gave up and took everyone's gold instead. He dumped American products on foreign shores, triggering additional tarriffs and duties on those products and meanwhile making America a net importer of the very commodities it was trying to dump on the world market. Insane.
The problem is that we here in America don’t manufacture our own stuff anymore. If our sources to manufactured goods is interrupted ... especially by war ... we will be in REAL trouble. We beat Japan in WW2 because we could out manufacture them ... could we do that now if we got in a war with China ... especially if the Russians join in on the Chicoms side ?
My post indicates nothing of the sort...it’s not ideological in nature but factual. Spending did get us out of the first depression, but we are in a worse situation now as our manufacturing base has been decimated...also there is no free market...it’s rigged for the employment sector...(import cheap labor) and the financial geniuses have invented fake insurance (CDS) to eliminate risk...this is not free market. You know why the bond holders won’t come to the table in the GM situation? They have credit default swaps for the failure of GM and will be paid 100% on the dollar if GM fails by AIG...using taxpayer money of course...nothing free market about this mess. You just don’t get it...the free market if it was practiced as intended would be a good thing...what we have here is an attempt by the financials to rig the free market for financial gain...not capitalism at all.
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