In the Senate, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other lawmakers reintroduced a measure this week that would give companies access to 150,000 previously unused H-1B visas. They would be distributed over a three-year period.

The economy is entering a recession, and Cornyn (along with other politicians) wants to flood in more foreigner without regard to qualified, experienced Americans who need these jobs.

Please take the time to phone his staff and ask for a list of jobs that are unfilled, and all evidence they have of a "labor shortage."

Ask how many Americans were displaced the last time the cap was raised in 2001-2003. Ask whether the Senate represents U.S. workers or multi-national corporations.

Wasington DC: 202-224-2934
Houston: 713-572-3337


Cornyn's bill is mentioned in following articles:

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/us/11 ... ref=slogin


Many Visas Are Sought for Skilled Immigrants

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: April 11, 2008

Federal immigration authorities received about 163,000 petitions for temporary work visas for highly skilled immigrants for the year starting Oct. 1, officials said Thursday, nearly twice as many as the number of visas available.

The government each year offers 65,000 visas, known as H-1Bs, for highly educated foreign workers, and 20,000 visas for immigrants with a master’s degree or doctorate from an American college or university. Citizenship and Immigration Services closed the application period Tuesday after it had been open for the five-day minimum.

Although petitions for the 2009 fiscal year increased by about 23 percent over 2008, immigration officials said they had expected an even higher number. A new rule penalizing employers who presented more than one petition for the same worker helped keep down the numbers, said Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for the immigration agency.

Sometime next week, the agency will conduct an electronic lottery to select 85,000 immigrants to receive the H-1B visas, which are valid for three years and can be renewed for another three.

The visa announcement brought renewed calls from American technology companies to raise the annual limits. On Thursday, senators led by John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, introduced a bill that would raise the H-1B cap to 145,000 visas each year through 2011. It would also allow businesses to use, over a three-year period, some 150,000 visas that were available in past years but were never issued.

The bill also includes measures to address the rapidly expanding use of H-1B visas by major Indian companies to bring workers for short-term jobs as part of technology outsourcing contracts. It would seek to bar this practice by requiring companies to employ H-1B workers only at their own offices in the United States.

Labor organizations say that H-1B immigrants have depressed wages for American technology workers. Some employers have protested that they were crowded out of the visa pool by the Indian outsourcing companies.

A Web site was started in January by American technology workers who said they had been driven from jobs by H-1B immigrants. About 150 members have posted their stories on the site, hireamericansfirst.org.

“It’s not that you can’t find Americans,â€