Posted on 06/23/2007 8:29:04 AM PDT by USconvoy.com
PITTSBURGH — What started as a simple marketing video for local law firm has resulted in an Internet firestorm encompassing tens of thousands of YouTube viewers, Lou Dobbs and the U.S. Secretary of Labor. The video features portions of law firm Cohen & Grigsby’s "Seventh Annual Immigration Law Update," held May 15 at a Pittsburgh hotel. The segment of the video drawing all the attention is one in which lawyers from Cohen & Grigsby’s highly regarded immigration practice advocate methods to comply with a law requiring employers prove that they have tried to find qualified American workers before applying for a green card for a foreign worker. The lawyers urge the audience, in so many words, to do exactly the opposite. "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said partner Lawrence Lebowitz on the video. "And, you know, that in a sense that sounds funny, but it’s what we’re trying to do here." When Kim Berry, president of an organization called the Programmers Guild that opposes the issuance of visas to foreign workers, watched the video clip after he received it in an e-mail on Saturday, he thought it was anything but funny. Berry shortened the video from the version that he received, adding subtitles and music for emphasis. "I grabbed the two masters and edited it down, just to make it more convenient for the few hundred people I thought might want to watch it," he said. "I didn’t expect it to get 44,000 hits in three days." By the end of the weekend, political blogs of all stripes -- from DailyKos to National Review’s The Corner -- had linked to the video, which just so happened to play nicely into issues raised in the immigration bill that the U.S. Senate is debating this week. Thursday Cohen & Grigsby put out a statement that while the firm stands by the substance of the seminar, "we regret the choice of words that was used during a small segment of the seminar. It is unfortunate that these statements have been commandeered and misused, which runs contrary to our intent." The firm already removed its version of the video after a Monday article in the online publication Information Week detailed the controversy. See The Lou Dobbs Report here: USconvoy.com
No matter what the law firm advises, the requirement that a search is conducted for US workers is a joke in and of itself, as there is nearly NO enforcement. My former employer hired 2 foreign nationals to do jobs that a ridiculously large number of Americans are qualified to do after engaging in a cursory "search" for Americans. It was never questioned by anyone at INS or any other enforcement agency. It's a sham.
It’s time to request that our lawmakers (if any of them are listening to us anymore) take steps to close this loophole. I have seen any number of ads in the local paper and wondered it they are sham searches.
The lawyers urge the audience, in so many words, to do exactly the opposite. "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said partner Lawrence Lebowitz on the video.
"First we kill all the lawyers."
© William Shakespeare
lol... why outsource when you can insource? Scum. Luckily Apu and Qi Chang will eat them alive in the long run. They’ll take their knowledge home, start their own companies and bankrupt the American slime that brought them over in the first place.
When the HR people that sanctioned this are crying to congress about unfair competition 10 years from now I’m going to laugh.
I worked for a defense contractor in the early 1980s.
They were pushing out well qualified citizens and replacing them with H1B visa holders even then.
One guy hired in from England had 2 PhD’s, numerous mechanical engineering patents, served in both the US and British air forces, etc. They hired him in at less than I was making, and I was only a trainee technical editor at the time.
"First we kill all the lawyers."Why don't we just import Lawyers from India and China? I bet they will be honest and hardworking than his lazy ungrateful counterparts. After all, being a lawyer is a job that "American's don't want to do".
The lawyers didn’t create the loophole.
Those lawyers didn't; the lawyers who wrote the law did. Not much difference, in my opinion.
Translation:
"We regret that we were not more obfuscatory in our presentation. It is unfortunate for us & our clients that these statements were commandered by patriots, and are being used against us. It is antithecal to our intent of hiding these practices from the peasantry."
Translation:
“We regret that we got caught”.
“lupoles?”
More like “loupe holes” the way this reads.
Much too straight forward; too many people, including judges, could understand that doesn’t leave any wiggle-room to weasle out of it.
This news is not anymore. Utube is mainstream and featured on MSM since they think the Press is news in itself.
That's lawyer speak for "dammit, we got caught".
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