Visa policy insults American workers
Visa policy insults American workers
By: Ian de Silva | 12/20/11 8:05 PM
OpEd Contributor
If you think we need immigration reform because too many illegal aliens have sneaked in through the back door, then you will be surprised to hear that our system that admits foreigners through the front door -- i.e., legal aliens -- is not much more competent than the watch at the back door. Our legal immigration system is much like an airplane running on autopilot in bad weather with no one in the cockpit to make course corrections. With some 15 million Americans out of work, you would think the government would throttle back on visas to foreign workers. Think again. Uncle Sam keeps giving visas to millions of foreign workers, regardless of the economic turbulence.
In 2010, the government granted admission to more than one million foreign workers. It had done the same thing in 2009. And in 2008. Yet, during those three years, more and more Americans became unemployed.
If the newcomers took particularly unappealing jobs, say, in agriculture, perhaps we could understand (although the idea that American workers are unwilling to do such jobs is debatable).
Instead, most of the work visas go to foreigners coming here for jobs in engineering, technology, management, etc. -- jobs that many qualified but unemployed Americans consider highly desirable.
Lest anyone consider me an anti-immigrant jingoist, I must point out that I am a naturalized American myself. But I am one who believes that it is the moral duty of every American (native or naturalized) to look out for fellow Americans. And if my stance offends the feelings of other immigrants, so be it.
The most common work visas are H and L. The H visa is used by various foreigners, with H1 being the category for engineers, programmers, managers, etc., while the H2 is for semiskilled and unskilled positions. The L1 visa is used by companies to bring foreigners in various positions from corporate branches overseas.
Officially, these visas are "temporary," but they really are not. For instance, a foreigner on an H1 visa can stay here for six years -- not six months, but six years.
In 2010, the State Department, which handles visas at our embassies overseas, issued H1 and H2 visas to 221,000 foreigners, of whom 118,000 were in H1 category, i.e., engineers, programmers, etc. (All numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand.) In addition, 75,000 L1 visas were issued.
As if that was not insulting enough to American workers, the government thought there were not enough American athletes and entertainers -- so it admitted 25,000 foreigners under the P1 visa, one of many work visa categories the government has created.
Believe it or not, it gets far worse. For in addition to allowing all those temporary workers, the government also admitted 1,043,000 foreigners for permanent residence (Green Cards). Of those, 713,000 ranged in age from 20s to 50s -- i.e., working ages.
In other words, despite the massive unemployment among Americans -- especially, young Americans -- the government admitted 713,000 working-age foreigners to be permanent residents, forcing unemployed Americans to compete for jobs with newcomers who settle for lower pay and live here legally.
(The vast majority of work-visa holders and Green-Card bearers are from the Third World.)
All told, with temporary visas and Green Cards, the government admitted over one million foreign workers last year. It is hard to imagine how any government could be more insulting to its own people in an economic crisis.
Nevertheless, the absurdity of our visa policy appears to be lost on Republican candidates for the presidency. In debates so far, none of them have pointed out the excesses of our legal immigration system. Until they do so, none of them can be taken seriously on immigration reform.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinio...#ixzz1hBfnabDJ
