Thread: Another new H-1B increase bill - John Cornyn (TX)

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€

Apparently Sen. Cornyn hadn't heard the news that the US economy lost 80,000 jobs last month. Good thinkin' Cornyn
(trans. "duh!")

He just wont give this up.

Dixie

"It is frustrating in that you have an outstanding candidate who you want to hire, they want to come to work, and they can bring a lot of the company. It is frustrating on both ends," Williams said

It's frustrating when AMERICANS can't find work because CHEAP businesses are hiring CHEAP labor.

What about all the talented, skilled Americans laid off in recent years.
AMD in Austin just announced 1000 layoffs. H/P let 15,000 go after swallowing Compaq.
The problem is not worker availability or skill level. The problem is that companies do not want to give current employees raises or benefits, when they can hire less demanding foreigners and lay off anyone coming close to retirement age.

It's cheeper to hire a HB1

Dixie

And McCaul has been doing so good. I'll be giving his office a call on monday, and give them an ear full.

Technology jobs are a big topic here in Seattle. The big myth is that H1B is used to fill jobs that Americans are not quilaified to fill. However, they are mostly used to fill entry level tech support style jobs. In all cases there are qualified Americans to fill the positions, but they must pay them market value or liveable wages. They can easily manipulate foreigners, especially CS students who do not want to return to their home country, into taking substandard positions. But in the end, the argument that there are not qualified Americans for these positions is absurdist at best.

Micro$oft already temp hires individuals for limited ltenure to avoid giving them benefits. I have many friends who work in development who have worked for a certain amount of time, then are forbidden to work for a period of time, then re-hired. H1B is an insulting subversion of our system.

John Cornyn? Holy crap, this is my State Senator. I guess he is going to get a call tomorrow.

[quote="ceelynn"]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
*******

Let me see if I understand Bill Gates of Microsoft and others on why they need foreign technical workers so badly:

Their argument goes something like this: If the United States does not bring in all the skilled technical workers it can from all over the world---mostly from China and India--- like computer workers, the United States will suffer so much that it will cease to exist as a nation.

That is, if the United States
depended solely on American citizens as a source of technical workers, then, according to Bill Gates and others, the United States might eventually cease to exist as a nation, because it will be overwhelmed by the ever-expanded advanced
technical expertise of places like China and India.

I say this to Bill Gates and others: You are so crazy.

Why do you want to destroy the United States so that you can save
your company Microsoft with workers from foreign countries, workers mostly of Chinese and Indian from India backgrounds?

Suggestion: Let's stop the HB program for, say, 10 years, and let's give our young people the hope and opportunity to succeed in the technical field.

Bill Gates of Microsoft and others might be surprised how smart American young people are.

As I recall, Bill Gates himself used to be a smart, young American technical person in his other life. mirse