GREENSPAN CALLS FOR LOWER WAGES FOR AMERICA'S SKILLED WORKERS

By Michael Cutler
December 27, 2009
NewsWithViews.com

An article appeared last week on the Kansas City Star website titled: "Work visa program is rife with problems." http://www.kansascity.com/922/v-print/s ... 30974.html This article was brought to my attention by an old friend who had for years, until recently, held a significant position on Capitol Hill.

This article is of great importance for a number of extremely important reasons beginning with national security, although the article never even mentions the issue of national security. As you read the article, please note that the visa fraud discussed in the news report has been allegedly ongoing for a decade. I would remind you that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 occurred more than 8 years ago. I would also remind you that among the findings of the 9/11 Commission, to which I provided testimony, was the fact that the terrorists who savagely attacked our nation engaged in visa fraud and immigration benefit fraud.

Indeed, it has been reported that of some 94 terrorists who had been identified as operating in our country in the decade leading up to the attacks of 9/11, some 59 of those individuals had used immigration fraud and/or visa fraud as a means of entering our country and/or embedding themselves within our country, enabling them to hide in plain sight.

As I have noted in previous commentaries, our nation had suffered two terrorist attacks in 1993: at the entrance to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia when a lone gunman stood outside the entrance to the CIA gates in January of that year and then one month later, on February 26, 1993 the World Trade center was nearly brought down by an explosives-laden truck parked in the underground garage at the World Trade Center complex. That explosion took 6 innocent lives, injured hundreds of other people and inflicted an estimated one half billion dollars to the complex of buildings including the twin towers that had been among the most breathtaking edifices of the New York City skyline.

Those vicious attacks had both been carried out by aliens from the Middle East whose entry and presence in our country was facilitated by visa fraud and immigration fraud.

In May of 1997 I was called upon to testify before the House Immigration Subcommittee on the issue of visa fraud and immigration fraud.

Clearly our nation had opened its doors to those who meant us such harm and yet, even with those lessons behind us, nothing was done to address this serious vulnerability.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 could not and would not have happened had our government kept out the 19 terrorists who also employed visa fraud and immigration benefit fraud as a means of entering our country in preparation for the attacks.

On May 18, 2004 I was contacted by the minority counsel for House Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims. (The "Minority Counsel" refers to the political party not in control of the Congress, hence in 2004, this was the Democratic Party.)

I was told that there was to be a hearing before the subcommittee on the issue of alien smuggling and I replied that if there was concern about smuggling that the hearing must not be limited to the situation to be found on our nation's borders, alone. Certainly the situation at the borders is outrageous, but it is also estimated that some 40% of the illegal aliens in our country did not run our nation's borders but were actually admitted into the United States via the inspections process and then, in one way or another, those aliens we had admitted into our country violated the terms of their admission by overstaying their visas, accepting unlawful employment or committing and then being convicted of committing serious crimes.

I also raised the issue of how easily aliens were able to game the immigration system by gaining visas through fraud.

The Ranking Member of the subcommittee at that time was Sheila Jackson Lee. I was gratified that she came to agree with me on these issues and proposed legislation to create a fraud task force.

The title of that hearing was:

"PUSHING THE BORDER OUT ON ALIEN SMUGGLING: NEW TOOLS AND INTELLIGENCE INITIATIVES"

You can read the transcript of that hearing here. http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/ju ... 716_0f.htm

There is an outrageous video of how an attorney conducts a seminar that instructs other lawyers on how to not find qualified United States citizen workers for H-1B visas for computer programmers and those who are employed in the high tech industries and parallels the madness discussed in the news report on H2-B visas that prompted my commentary. This news article includes the actual covert video made of this seminar that is guaranteed to set your blood boiling.

Please take the time to read the brief article and then watch the brief video. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... .S._worker

As you watch that video I also want you to consider the testimony of Alan Greenspan who, when he testified before the Senate Immigration Subcommittee at the behest of the Chairman of that subcommittee, Senator Charles Schumer, Greenspan called for opening up the H-1B visa program to lower the wages of America's skilled workers! Hard to believe, but true! Here is a direct quote from his testimony at that hearing that was conducted on April 30, 2009 and entitled, "Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?"

"Greatly expanding our quotas for the highly skilled would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled. Skill shortages in America exist because we are shielding our skilled labor force from world competition. Quotas have been substituted for the wage pricing mechanism. In the process, we have created a privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high levels by immigration quotas on skilled professionals. Eliminating such restrictions would reduce at least some of our income inequality."

When you read the news article I want you pay special attention to read the passages I put in quotes above, but I would urge you to read the entire news report. http://www.kansascity.com/922/v-print/s ... 30974.html

Here is a link to Greenspan's testimony (don't take my word for what he said- read it yourself!) http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/te ... it_id=7848

Please pay special attention to the fact that the "leaders" at the United States Department of Labor indicated that they did not know if they had the authority to investigate fraud in the applications that they processed!

This is about as sensible as a traffic cop on duty saying he didn't know if he could issue summonses to drivers who run red lights!

What is the process of adjudicating applications for anything if the people adjudicating the applications don't think they can look for fraud?

Why bother adjudicating the applications at all? Why not just have applicants self-file and be done with it?!

It is interesting that prior to the Second World War, the United States Department of Labor was in charge of administering the immigration laws of the United States because back then, when apparently commonsense prevailed, the concern was that foreign workers might undercut American and lawful immigrant workers.

(How far we have gone in precisely the opposite direction since then!)

Finally I am compelled to make a point I have made on so many previous occasions- With all of this rampant fraud that permeates the entire immigration system- how in blazes would our inept government even begin to make certain that any sort of "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" program would have any integrity whatsoever?

This is, of course, a rhetorical question. It is the equivalent of asking if a frail and elderly hospital patient clinging to life on a respirator would be able to run the New York City Marathon!

The news article exposes, yet again the massive failures of our government to create an immigration system that has even a shred of integrity.

The price for this is being paid each and every day by citizens and lawful residents of our nation who are being swindled out of jobs.

The price is also being paid by aliens who are being forced into virtual indentured servitude through a dehumanizing and exploitive program.

Finally, these vulnerabilities in the system also provide easy access to our nation to those who would do us grave harm.

The question is, when will this change? Apparently this will not change until we the people change the people who we send to Washington!

Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job. Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors Comprehensive Immigration Reform should be shown the door at the next election!

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same.

Next year each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. Next year more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!

However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.

I implore you to get involved!

Any American who has lost his job certainly has enough time on his (her) hands to get involved!

Any American who fears the loss of his job must make effective use of his spare time to make certain he keeps his job! (Remember, the job save may be your own!)

If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional "Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation! You need to politely but pointedly, demand to know what they are doing to protect our nation. You need to ask them how they are protecting you and your families. You can also forward this commentary to them.

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

Michael W. Cutler graduated from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1971 with a B.A. in Communications Arts and Sciences. Mr. Cutler began working for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in October 1971 when he entered on duty as an Immigration Inspector assigned to John F. Kennedy International Airport. In August 1975 he became a Criminal Investigator (Special Agent) for the INS at NYC.

He rotated through virtually every squad in the Investigations Branch. From 1988 until 1991 he was assigned as the INS representative to the Unified Intelligence Division (UID) of the DEA in New York. In 1991 he was promoted to the position of Senior Special Agent and was assigned to the Organized Crime, Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) which required that he work with members of other law enforcement agencies including the FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Customs and local and state police as well as law enforcement organizations of other countries including Israel, Canada, Great Britain and Japan, to conduct investigations of aliens involved in major drug trafficking organizations. He retired from the INS in February 2002, after a career that spanned some 30 years.

Finally, Michael Cutler has appeared on numerous television and radio programs including Lou Dobbs, Fox News, MSNBC and many other television and radio news-oriented programs to discuss the enforcement of immigration laws.

E-Mail: mcutler007@aol.com

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