Thread: Senator Cornyn Tries to Bring the Skil Bill to the Floor:

Senator Cornyn Tries to Bring the Skil Bill to the Floor:

http://cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=re ... rid=237170

Call Your Congressman and Say You Oppose Importing More Foreign
Workers!!!!
Over two weeks ago, FAIR sent out a warning to our members that certain members of Congress were thinking of using the lame-duck session of
Congress to slip legislation through that would dramatically increase
high-tech H-1B visas and employment-based visas. The fact that over 900 companies had signed and sent a letter saying they desperately needed to import foreign workers was just one sign that the corporate lobby was hard at work. These companies urged Congressional action to increase immigration before the end of the year. It now appears that the day is at hand.

FAIR has learned that Senator Cornyn, author of the Skil Bill, is
trying to bring up his legislation on the floor of the Senate any moment! If
passed, the Skil Bill will nearly double the number of high-tech H-1B
visas and more than double the number of employment-based visas given to foreign workers each year. This is a great threat to U.S. workers, who can only watch as their jobs are given away to cheaper, imported labor. And for those high-skilled U.S. workers whose jobs aren't taken by
foreign workers, their wages are being depressed by the influx of foreign
workers who compete with them. The only one who benefits from increasing these visas is big business, which is able to pay their workers less and profit more.
PLEASE take time this very moment to call your Senator and tell him or her that you oppose importing foreign workers who compete with U.S. workers for high-tech and other skilled jobs!!! THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE!

To find the phone number for your Senator, click here.

Originally Posted by PinestrawGuys

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Tuesday 4:15 p.m. EST

Sen. Cornyn trying to ram SKIL act for huge H-1B boost of foreign tech workers

NOT A MINUTE TO WASTE, FRIENDS,

High inside congressional sources have just informed our Capitol Hill Team that Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) appears to be on the edge of negotiating an agreement to allow him to slip a bill through the Senate (maybe tonight -- maybe tomorrow) that would entail a gigantic increase in 3-year H-1B visas for tech and other skilled foreign workers and more than a doubling of annual permanent employment-based green cards!

Capitol Switchboard
202-224-3121

I warned all of you about this last week. Thanks to all who have been faxing and calling abou this.

ONLY PHONE CALLS CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE AT THIS MOMENT.

I am sending this to only those of you who live in a state of a Senator whom we usually can count on as a friend of American workers, particularly Americans working in the tech and engineering fields.


HERE ARE THE SENATORS WHO NEED CALLS RIGHT NOW TO ASK THEM TO PROTECT US FROM THE CORNYN "SNEAK PASS" (notice that this is a bi-partisan groups of pro-worker stalwarts):

Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Coburn (R-OK)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Grassley (R-IA)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)

WHAT TO SAY

"Sen. XXXX has usually been one of the best friends of American workers against unfair foreign worker competition.

"I urge you to make sure that he/she knows about what Sen. Cornyn is trying to do.

"Can you promise me that Sen. XXXX will watch the floor proceedings and get to the floor in time to block any unanimous consent for any bill this week that would increase the importation of foreign workers?"

Obviously, put this into your own words. Use information from the background provided below.

Be exceedingly courteous. You are talking to an office of a friend. Make it clear that you admire this Senator's past immigration actions to protect American workers.

Hopefully, your Senator will be getting a lot of calls. The purpose is not to harrass but to make sure the staff knows how serious his/her constituents take the threat.

For much more information about this issue go to our page at:

www.numbersusa.com/interests/hightech.html

I know that many of our NumbersUSA members strongly oppose all illegal immigration and basically agree that we should reduce legal immigration but also think the country has a great need for more skilled workers.

It is understandable that some of you would believe that because the tech industry has paid millions of dollars to high-powered public relations firms to plant that view in most of the country's newspapers.

But one federal study after another has failed to find a conclusive need for these foreign workers, while experts like Prof. Norm Matloff of the University of California continue to find that large numbers of trained American tech workers can't find jobs in their fields and the wages for American tech workers and engineers continue to be stagnant. None of this suggests there is a labor shortage requiring mass importation of foreign workers.

For me, the clincher in the debate is that the tech industry has resolutely fought any effort inside Congress to require that their solicitation of foreign workers be entirely public and transparent. If they truly need the workers, then they should not object to posting these jobs on a special internet website so that all Americans would first have the opportunity to apply for the jobs and then for that website to keep a record of each company that ends up hiring foreign workers, the number of workers for each company and a description of the job duties and pay for each. This would expose a lot of the fraud that currently is in the program. But the tech companies want nothing of that kind of good-faith behavior.

The all-purpose message to make in your calls today and all next week while Congress is in town is:

DON'T ADD ANY MORE IMMIGRATION TO OUR COMMUNITIES.

America is already overwhelmed with nearly 50 million foreign workers and their dependents. Enough is enough.

ENFORCE THE LAWS AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

REDUCE LEGAL IMMIGRATION.

No sneaking of immigration provisions into any spending bills.

THANKS,

ROY BECK

I called at a least a dozen Senators this AM.....please everyone, call! This SKIL act is just one more way in which our Congress is caving to the pressure of Microsoft and other globalist companies who want to massively import lower wage tech workers to compete with Americans. They care nothing for the American middle class.

Please take a moment to Call Cornyn's office and let them know how you feel about brining more foreign labor into the US, when we can't even secure our border. Also, remind Mr. Cornyn that half of all illegal aliens were once invited guest workers aka visa holders but they have gone out of status and are now part of the illegal alien population. There is currently no way to track or remove visa holders that decide to overstay their welcome. Until we have the ability to control illegal immigration, we don’t need to enhance the problem. If Cornyn and other members of Congress really feel this increase in visas is necessary, then pass HR4437 or fund the fence first! Otherwise, they are just pulling a fast one on us.

John Cornyn 517 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510
DC (202) 224-2934 Dallas (972)-239-1310, Fax: (972) 239-2110
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/index.asp?f=contact&lid=1

I hope Cornyn gets dumped in 08. The ink wasn't dry on the measure to fund the fence when he said the vote was merely symbolic that the fence would not and should not be built. Despite his rhetoric at heart he is with the OBL.

YOU'VE STOPPED EVERY OTHER IMMIGRATION DISASTER THIS YEAR ...

... NOW STOP THIS LAST ATTEMPT BEFORE CONGRESS GOES HOME

Please phone the congressional leaders listed below and urge them:

"Do NOT entertain debate on Sen. Cornyn's H-1B bill. Oppose all increases in H-1B visas."

Capitol Switchboard
202-224-3121

By the time you wake up later this morning and read this, Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) will be well on his way to ramming through a bill to radically increase foreign workers in the tech, nursing, physical therapy, science and engineering fields.

Believe me, the only way to defeat this last-minute desperation attempt by Robber Baron Tech Corporations to keep wages low is if Senate offices are stunned today by the public outcry against this disreputable maneuver.

A swarm of Microsoft lobbyists -- surely reeking of the musty odor of giant wads of campaign contributions -- buzzed and stang their way through Senate offices Wednesday, demanding that they and others of their ilk be given hundreds of thousands more foreign workers next year.

Will you let them once again get their way at the very last minute of a Congress?

CALL YOUR U.S. SENATORS

I am asking you to call your own Senators on this matter.

(I have sent a separate alert to the membes of our Network who are in the affected fields of work, asking them to phone the leadership in both House and Senate.)

Please call both of your Senators.

If you aren't sure about the identity of the two U.S. Senators, you can find your Senators and Representative by clicking on this link:

http://numbersusa.com/myMembers

Tell your Senators to NOT let Cornyn's bill come up on the floor for any kind of discussion.

in this email:

1. Call your two U.S. Senators

2. A key fact for your call

3. The short story of Sen. Cornyn's perfidy against American workers

4. MORE ARGUING POINTS

actions in brief:

Phone your two U.S. Senators to stop giant increase in foreign skilled workers.

Refer all friends to the NumbersUSA.com website.

Check for your latest free faxes to send to Congress & the Administration at:

NumbersUSA.com/actionbuffet
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plus Americans who use it.

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how to reply:

Please do not click 'Reply' button to respond to this message.

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A KEY FACT FOR YOUR CALL

The United States has lost 700,000 high-tech American jobs in the past 4 years.

The country is awash in American tech workers who are now unemployed or working outside their field. While the tech lobbyists claim the companies face a labor shortage and won't be able to keep providing benefits to the economy without more foreign labor, there are plenty of skilled Americans available.

Same thing goes for nurses and physical therapists. Offer better pay for nursing and underemployed nurses will come out of the woodwork.

Each year, thousands of American students who qualify can't get into Physical Therapy schools because the schools feel no pressure to expand their enrollment while such a large percentage of physical therapy jobs are being filled by foreign therapists.

The message to Congress must be that it should NOT foreclose the future for our own American students who are seeking jobs in these fields.

The Short Story of Sen. Cornyn's Perfidy Against American Skilled Workers

Americans had been assured that the clock had already run out on this kind of sneak-pass play. Congress was supposed to be in town this week just to pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government funded.

But tech industry lobbyists -- desperate to continue to hold down wages with foreign labor -- have stopped the legislative clock.

A near-football team of Microsoft blockers, tackles and fleet-footed lobbyists (10 of them!) roamed the Senate hallways Wednesday looking for a way score on their usual last-minute, rule-breaking, end-of-Congress style.

Many times in recent years, Microsoft and other tech lobbyists have sneaked through major increases in H-1B visas just as Congress was leaving town.

Since being publicly embarrassed in the late 1990s by debating the merits of this kind of legislation publicly, Congress has declined to pass these H-1B visa increases in the true light of day, with standard debate and using normal procedures.

But nearly all inside staffers told us they had received assurances from congressional leaders that no sneak play would be allowed this year.

On Tuesday, Senate staffers were stunned to see Sen. Cornyn suddenly emerge as the person willing to bring shame on himself by carrying the Robber Barons' water and force his pet project ahead of all others.

We sent an email to all our members last Friday, asking for steady pressure on Senators to make sure they knew public sentiment in case something like this happened.

Then Tuesday afternoon, we got word that Cornyn was trying to ram his bill onto the Senate floor. We went to all of our members in about a dozen states with Senators who often fight for American workers against foreign labor importation. We stirred up a flurry of phone calls.

We were pleased that by late Tuesday, many of those Senators had placed "holds" on Cornyn's bill. But those holds tend to have power to only slow the process down for awhile and can be overcome if Senate leadership decides to do so. The word we had late Wednesday was that the "holds" were breaking as Microsoft's lobbyists gathered more support.

You are calling the congressional leaders just stop the bill from moving to the floor and to concentrate instead on spending bills.

MORE ARGUING POINTS

Prof. Norm Matloff of the University of California has given this advice to tech professionals and engineers:

"Ask to speak to someone who handles immigration issues. Do NOT be long-winded. Keep it down to two or three sentences, something like 'I OPPOSE any increase to the H-1B program. The program is just used as cheap labor. Thank you.' If you are asked to elaborate ("Isn't it true that our schools aren't producing enough programmers and engineers?"), then do so, but otherwise keep it SHORT AND SIMPLE. And make sure they understand that you OPPOSE the H-1B increase (some of the staffers get it wrong)."

Dr. Matloff has done many papers showing that there is no shortage of programmers and engineers.

For much more information about this issue go to our page at:

www.numbersusa.com/interests/hightech.html

For me, the clincher in the debate is that the tech industry has resolutely fought any effort inside Congress to require that their solicitation of foreign workers be entirely public and transparent. If they truly need the workers, then they should not object to posting these jobs on a special internet website so that all Americans would first have the opportunity to apply for the jobs and then for that website to keep a record of each company that ends up hiring foreign workers, the number of workers for each company and a description of the
job duties and pay for each. This would expose a lot of the fraud that currently is in the program. But the tech companies want nothing of that kind of good-faith behavior.

THANKS,

-- ROY

I just tried calling Cornyn's office in DC at 10:00 AM. They have the answering maching on. Guess they don't want to hear from us!!!

Well I guess we'll have to fax or e-mail them or both!

You can find their home page e-mail forms and contact info by going to:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Thursday 7DEC06 10:30 a.m. EST


What to do if nobody answers phone in Senate -- Stop the Cornyn doubling of foreign workers

UPDATE ON TODAY'S CRITICAL BATTLE

No. 1:Many of you are telling us that nobody is answering the phone when you call Senators this morning.

That is a wonderful sign. It means that NumbersUSA Network members are keeping all the staff busy so they can't answer every phone call that comes in.

If nobody answers the phone in the DC office, then look up the Senator's home state offices and start calling some of them.
http://www.numbersusa.com/congressinfo/

The point will be to cause every state office staff person to understand that this issue is THE BIG ISSUE of the week for their constituents. Believe me, somebody from those offices will be getting in touch with the Washington office about the uproar.

No. 2: Just keep all phones busy -- DC and home state -- but make your calls short so others can get through.

No. 3: Those of you who will be directly affected if Cornyn succeeds -- those in tech, engineering, physical therapy, science, nursing fields -- need to keep calling DC and home state offices of the leadership list I sent you in the middle of the night.

No. 4: We will likely be changing the information on our home page at least once an hour today to reflect any changes in the situation here. Keep up to date at:
www.NumbersUSA.com

No. 5: We may send out several Action Alerts today. If you don't want to be kept that informed and receive so many emails, make sure you are registered for MODERATE ACTIVISM on this page:
http://www.numbersusa.com/user

If you want ALL of our Action Alerts, make sure you are registered for TOTAL ACTIVISM.

No. 6: Be assured that your NumbersUSA Capitol Hill Team -- though nothing of the size of the swarm of Microsoft lobbyists -- is making contacts throughout the Senate this morning (as it has the last two weeks) trying to avert this disaster.

Their reports to me in the last 15 minutes indicate that either almost nobody has any idea what leadership is about to do on the Cornyn bill or they are in a conspiracy of silence.

Our best friends in the Senate and the House were telling us late last night that they feared they were not going to be able to hold back the Microsoft lobbying surge. No change in that information this morning.

Originally Posted by andyt

I hope Cornyn gets dumped in 08. The ink wasn't dry on the measure to fund the fence when he said the vote was merely symbolic that the fence would not and should not be built. Despite his rhetoric at heart he is with the OBL.

We need to dump him in the primaries, or else we'll just end up with an open borders Dem in his place.