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  1. #1
    Senior Member Brian503a's Avatar
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    Caltrans is losing foreign engineers over green cards

    http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib ... trans.html

    Caltrans is losing foreign engineers over green cards

    Immigration laws affect hiring rules


    By Susan Ferriss and Mehul Srivastava
    THE SACRAMENTO BEE

    September 10, 2006

    SACRAMENTO – Foreign engineers have been vital to the construction of California's complex and mammoth highway system, but they're being pushed out of jobs with the state Department of Transportation because of a conflict between state hiring rules and federal immigration laws.

    Dozens of foreign engineers during the last decade have left Caltrans because their temporary work visas were going to expire, according to the union that represents Caltrans engineers. Ninety-eight Caltrans employees – 75 of them engineers – are currently on H-1B work visas that last six years at a maximum.

    These engineers will be forced to leave Caltrans unless the agency can sponsor them for green cards, the permit that grants them legal permanent residency.

    Caltrans values the engineers, wants to hire them permanently and says it's a colossal waste of money to let veteran professionals go after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in training and costs to process their temporary visas.

    Caltrans Director Will Kempton first raised the issue with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office two years ago, pointing out that losses of experienced foreign engineers have jeopardized Caltrans' goals.

    The governor's office told Caltrans to research what could be done. The agency's conclusion: A tangle of state and federal laws prevent it from even trying to sponsor them.

    “There's a great shortage of skilled engineers in the country,” said Bruce Blanning, executive assistant for the Professional Engineers in California Government, the union that represents Caltrans engineers and supports green cards for the engineers.

    Blanning is skeptical of Caltrans' conclusion. He believes the agency could make a good case to federal labor and immigration authorities that California needs these engineers and they should be given legal permanent residency.

    “These guys don't just do gutters and street corners,” he said. “They do the big jobs.”

    Canadian native D'Arcy McLeod has been a Caltrans engineer for six years, during which the agency has spent thousands of dollars to keep him current on training, just as it does with all of its engineers.

    Supervisors were so pleased with his performance, they asked McLeod if he knew any skilled classmates in Canada who would like jobs here, too.

    He recruited seven.

    Today, six of McLeod's former Canadian classmates have already come and gone because Caltrans did not sponsor them for green cards.

    “It perplexes me that the state would invest in individuals who are legally working here, and then not allow them to stay. You're losing historical knowledge, you're losing that investment,” said McLeod, who has been responsible for making key freeway arteries safer. He has only two years left on his second H-1B visa, a permit that is good for three years and can be renewed only once.

    Caltrans is the nation's largest state transportation department, with about 8,500 engineers, but it is currently short 500 engineers, even before an expected expansion of projects.

    If a $19.9 billion transportation bond passes in November, demand for skilled engineers will dramatically increase. Competition for competent engineers is so stiff that foreign engineers are often offered jobs in the private sector that pay more than public agencies like Caltrans and eventually lead to green cards.

    At least three former Caltrans foreign engineers have gone to work for private firms that sponsored them for green cards and – ironically – put the engineers back to work on Caltrans projects as contract employees, according to the Professional Engineers in California Government.

    Each private engineer who works on a Caltrans project costs about $75,000 a year more than a Caltrans employee – costs that could escalate as the shortage prompts Caltrans to hire more consultants.
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  2. #2
    Senior Member millere's Avatar
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    "Caltrans values the engineers, wants to hire them permanently and says it's a colossal waste of money to let veteran professionals go after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in training and costs to process their temporary visas. "

    Simple solution:

    HIRE AMERICANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  3. #3

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    “There's a great shortage of skilled engineers in the country,” said Bruce Blanning, executive assistant for the Professional Engineers in California Government, the union that represents Caltrans engineers and supports green cards for the engineers.
    I suppose this is another job that Americans won't do??? If the problem is indeed a shortage of qualified engineers in the country, maybe the state and federal governments should be figuring out what is wrong with a public education system that does not produce students qualified to pursue engineering and high tech degrees. Maybe if our elementary and secondary schools concentrated more on science and math education and less on bilingual and multicultural indoctrination, American students would be better prepared to pursue engineering degrees in college.

  4. #4
    Senior Member moosetracks's Avatar
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    “It perplexes me that the state would invest in individuals who are legally working here, and then not allow them to stay.


    Well, it perplexes me that they lay off Americans and hire foreigners!

    There are Americans out there that can do these jobs..they let them go, years ago! Now they are driving trucks, cabs and doing other things...put out a call, and see who shows up!
    Do not vote for Party this year, vote for America and American workers!

  5. #5
    Senior Member WavTek's Avatar
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    Canadian native D'Arcy McLeod has been a Caltrans engineer for six years, during which the agency has spent thousands of dollars to keep him current on training, just as it does with all of its engineers.
    Why don't they invest all that money and resources in recruiting and training American engineering students?
    REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!

  6. #6
    Senior Member CountFloyd's Avatar
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    Caltrans values the engineers, wants to hire them permanently and says it's a colossal waste of money to let veteran professionals go after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in training and costs to process their temporary visas.
    No, the colossal waste was hiring them in the first place.

    What kind of idiot invests hundreds of thousands of dollars on temporary workers? What part of the word "temporary" didn't they understand?

    Hire American citizens at decent wages, and the problem goes away.
    It's like hell vomited and the Bush administration appeared.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Coto's Avatar
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    I can find them dozens of American-citizen engineers for every vacancy they have - and I'm NOT EVEN A RECRUITER! One small catch, in some cases, they have to be willing to hire personnel over 40 years old.

    What part of "We don't owe our jobs to India" are you unable to understand, Senator?

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