Thread: Senator Hatch (R-UT) sees hope for tech immigration bill in new year

Senator Hatch sees hope for tech immigration bill in new year

By Roberta Rampton 2 hours ago

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U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) greets people during the public ceremonial inauguration on the West Front …

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior Republican in the U.S. Senate plans to revive legislation early in 2015 that would raise the cap for temporary work visas for programmers, engineers and high-skilled workers.

Utah Senator Orrin Hatch said his tech-focused bill could be a way for lawmakers to start to make progress on the polarizing issue of immigration reform.

Hatch's Immigration Innovation Act, I-Squared for short, would address chronic shortages of temporary visas used by the technology industry to fill jobs that they argue go unfilled because of a lack of qualified Americans.

"If we can do I-Squared, I think it would open the door to real, decent, honorable immigration reform itself," Hatch said in a telephone interview.

Republicans were enraged when President Barack Obama used his executive powers last month to lift the threat of deportation for as many as 4.7 million undocumented immigrants.

Obama said he was forced to act because Congress had failed to pass comprehensive immigration reforms.

Republicans will control both the Senate and House of Representatives in the new year. They have said they will try to undo some of Obama's measures.

But Hatch said he saw common ground between Republicans and Democrats for moving ahead on reforms for high-skilled visas, a more targeted approach than the broad comprehensive bill that the Senate passed last year, but the House failed to adopt.

"For too long, we've said 'Comprehensive or nothing,'" Hatch said in a telephone interview.

Hatch represents the tech-rich "Silicon Slopes" state of Utah, and regularly talks to tech moguls. This month, for instance, he met with Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Hatch's bill was first introduced last year with Republican Marco Rubio and Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Chris Coons. The measures became part of the Senate's comprehensive bill.

Tech companies have been strong supporters of the comprehensive approach. But if they threw their heft behind his stand-alone bill, Hatch said it would pass.

"I think they need to call in the chips and say, 'OK: you said you're for us.

Now prove it,'" Hatch said.

The path in the Senate will not be easy. The bill would need to attract enough support from Democrats to pass the 60-vote threshold.

Hatch said he expects his bill would face amendments from both sides of the aisle, but ultimately would pass.

"I think virtually every Republican would vote for this, and I suspect that we'll get a considerable number of Democrats too," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/senator-hatch-...-business.html

We don't need any more "high-tech" visas any more than we need 20 million illegal aliens on welfare and stealing American jobs. Hire Americans, you DimWits, bankrupting our country with your phony fabricated dishonest claims about "labor needs" is a lot of crap and no one with 2 live brain cells is buying into it, except for the ones you bought. So take your "heft" and go do something useful like supporting the FairTax and designing a new home car cash system that won't contaminate our storm sewers and waterways.

I am so tired of this same song and dance. We do not need any internationals coming, stealing jobs from the citizens of this nation. We have plenty of experienced developers as well as graduates from our many, many colleges, etc. all over this country. There have been studies that have shown that the American developers, I/T workers that are just a good if not better since they understand the culture in which they work and live.

It is time that citizens of this nation to realized that these requests for foreign workers are simply an attempt to replace the working class here for workers who will accept cheaper wages, to long hours and be used to replace Americans citizens. Me must stop the stereotypes, We are smart, we must stop them from abusing us, treating us as if we are TO STUPID to see what they are doing to us. We need to work together to end the division they use against us and which gives them the ability to remove us from our jobs or to keep our wages down as they have since 2000.

WAKE UP AMERICANS WAKE UP, take a stand or you are all going to face this situation if it is allowed to happen here...they will come for you next !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Non-citizens should not be allowed to work in any industry in the U.S. until every American who wants a job in that industry has a job.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Non-citizens should not be allowed to work in any industry in the U.S. until every American who wants a job in that industry has a job.

Yep. We have to start preserving American jobs and the quality of American life.
**************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for american workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Non-citizens should not be allowed to work in any industry in the U.S. until every American who wants a job in that industry has a job.

Absolutely!

by Tony Lee 12 Dec 2014, 6:49 PM PDT

Top Republican leaders in the House and Senate are gearing up to push legislation in the next Congress that would increase the number of foreign guest-workers even in industries that do not need them. They are hoping such legislation would "open the door" to a broader comprehensive immigration bill.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who chairs the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, wants to push his Immigration Innovation Act (I-Squared) that would increase the number of high-tech visas, even though there is no evidence that there is a shortage of American high-tech workers. Tech industry lobbies, like Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us, have spent millions trying to secure massive increases in guest-worker visas that would give them an endless supply of cheap foreign labor even as companies like Microsoft are laying off 18,000 American workers.

"If we can do I-Squared, I think it would open the door to real, decent, honorable immigration reform itself," Hatch told Reuters.

As Reuters notes, "Hatch represents the tech-rich 'Silicon Slopes' state of Utah, and regularly talks to tech moguls." He has met with Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella and Apple CEO Tim Cook, and he recently told a gathering at Overstock.com headquarters that "there is agreement on reforming the rules governing high-tech visas, known as H-1b visas" and it could "help pave the way for additional and more far reaching reforms.”

Hatch, whose "bill was first introduced last year with Republican Marco Rubio and Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Chris Coons" and ended up in the Senate's "Gang of Eight" comprehensive amnesty bill, reportedly said, "I think virtually every Republican would vote for this, and I suspect that we'll get a considerable number of Democrats too."

In the House, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the Judiciary Committee Chairman, told The Hill that House Republican leaders are looking at "legislation dealing with reforming our legal immigration programs, particularly for high-skilled workers and for agricultural workers." He said, “I think that we are going to look at moving those early in a new Congress.”

Last year, Goodlatte hosted a Silicon Valley fundraiser in which donors gave between $10,000 and $40,000. One guest, venture capitalist Rob Conway, said that before he wrote his check to Goodlatte, he "wanted some assurances that Bob Goodlatte would be prepared to discuss immigration reform and what the timetable is for immigration reform, because we’re coming down the wire here with the [midterm] elections [approaching] and we need accountability."

As Breitbart News has thoroughly documented, "despite evidence to the contrary, the tech industry has spent millions trying to get massive increases in the number of H-1b guest-worker visas, claiming that they 'can't find' Americans to do various tech jobs" even though there is a proven surplus of America high-tech workers.

Even President Barack Obama, though he still supports massive increases in guest-worker permits, has said he is "skeptical" of claims from companies—like those in the high-tech industry—that they cannot find enough Americans to fill open jobs.

"I'm generally skeptical when you hear employers say, 'oh we just can't find any Americans to do the job,'" Obama said this week at an immigration event in Nashville. "A lot of times what they really mean is that it's a lot cheaper to potentially hire somebody who has just come here before they know better..."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...for-Foreigners