Immigration by the Numbers

NumbersUSA has a really good video called Immigration by the Numbers that gives a very good sizing perspective of the impact of our current immigration rates in this country. I highly recommend it.

Foreign workers take jobs away from skilled Americans

Gene Nelson has an interesting article on jobs and foreign workers.

The Best Thing Since The Invention of Vitamins

Rob Sanchez over at Job Destruction just mailed out this newsletter. Not only is cheap labor good for companies, its absolutely fabulous for workers. Therefore we really should be bringing in billions of workers and let the riches flow!


"There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore."
Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP). January 7, 2004


In March of this year the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) concluded that every H-1B that comes into the USA creates seven jobs for Americans. Not long after that Bill Gates testified before Congress with a slightly more modest estimate that every H-1B creates four jobs for Americans.

McCain just topped both them -- he said that every H-1B creates ten jobs for Americans!

Even assuming McCain, Bill Gates, and the NFAP were right, why can't the same number of jobs be created by hiring an American instead? Hiring a U.S.
worker should create at least as many jobs as an H-1B -- plus one more.

McCain said that the Department of Labor should determine how many H-1Bs are to be issued instead of having a yearly cap. Bad idea! McCain would probably appoint his campaign chairwoman Carly Fiorina to replace Secretary of Labor Elain Chao. BLECH!

Full Speed Ahead for OPT

Here is one of Norm Matloff's great articles:

As I reported here in June, the Programmers Guild filed a lawsuit against the federal government, seeking an injunction against the Dept.

of Homeland Security decision to extend the Optional Practical Training component of the F-1 student visa. Though the legislative intent of OPT was to give foreign students a chance to acquire practical work experience before returning to their home countries, in recent years the international students have used OPT as a holding pattern while waiting for an H-1B visa. The DHS decided to extend OPT eligibility from the 12 months specified in the statute to 20 months, in order to give the students more chance to become H-1Bs. PG objected that this would bring harm to its members, and that DHS had exceeded its authority. See http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/OPTLawsuit.txt

The judge in the case has now rejected PG's request for an injunction, primarily on the grounds that PG lacks legal standing to sue. This of course is always the easy way out for a judge, as it allows them to avoid addressing serious fundamental issues, in this case the issue of the adverse impact the H-1B program has on American workers. But the judge really went through contortions to rule on the basis of standing, in my view.

In her nine-page written opinion, Judge Hochberg claims that PG "seeks relief that no more directly benefits Plaintiffs than it does the public at large." In other words, the judge is asserting that the H-1B program, about 40% of whose participants work as programmers, doesn't affect U.S. programmers any more than it affects, say, American insurance agents, whose profession is not open to H-1Bs. This is absurd.

Even more absurd is the judge's statement that "even if there was a nexus between Plaintiffs' injury and DHS action, the injury still is not `irreparable' to qualify for injunctive relief because it is economic harm compensable in damages." This is downright bizarre. The judge cites case law in support of her statement, yet that case in question involved a worker who had been fired. The court in that instance refused to grant the worker's request for injunction against his discharge, on the grounds that the worker could sue his employer for monetary damages. Obviously, that is not the situation here, as members of the PG cannot sue DHS for monetary damages, nor can they sue employers of H-1Bs, as H-1B law does not require employers to give hiring priority to Americans. I'm sure some of them wish they could sue this judge.

Norm

Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization

Here is an interesting NYTimes article...

The world economy has become so integrated that shoppers find relatively few T-shirts and sneakers in Wal-Mart and Target carrying a “Made in the U.S.A.” label. But globalization may be losing some of the inexorable economic power it had for much of the past quarter-century, even as it faces fresh challenges as a political ideology.

Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.

The Five Percent

This blog is dedicated to fighting the offshoring of jobs to other countries and the outsourcing of jobs to non-immigrant visa holders (those non-citizen, non-resident workers who come here primarily to get a job).

You would think that workers here, who pay a heavy price in lost jobs and depressed wages, would be very interested in this topic. Some might monitor email lists or groups, occasionally adding their 2-cents. Others might become full blown activists, say starting blogs, websites, or even joining groups.

The sad truth is that there is only about a 5% response rate to solicitations. That is, if I send out an email or flyer or whatever, talking about this issue, less than 5% will respond. That pitiful amount is further fractured among the spectrum of participation.

Why isn't this 50%? Does anyone care about their future (or their childrens')?

Back In The Saddle!

I'm back from vacation and rarin' to go. Anyone miss me? ;-)

Jobs Loss Tracker

Techs United has a US job loss tracker that shows which major companies are doing the most offshoring.

Hire Americans First Project

The Programmer’s Guild has started a new organization called Hire Americans First Project here. It is focused on trying to alleviate some of the negative impact that insourcing via H1-B that is impacting the job market for citizens and legal residents. Check it out.

Three Interesting Articles on H1-B

(Below is an excerpt from Rob Sanchez's Job Destruction Newsletter)


Another great CIS backgrounder has just been published. John Miano's paper follows the one by Norm Matloff last month.

http://www.cis.org/node/222

H-1B Visa Numbers: No Relationship to Economic Need By John Miano, June, 2008

http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back508.html

H-1Bs: Still Not the Best and the Brightest By Norman Matloff, May 2008

Bill Tucker did a great report on the Lou Dobbs show using material from the Miano paper. You can watch it on youtube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhIPLkKol5Y

Be sure not to miss when Dobbs talks about the lawsuit to stop the DHS extension of Optional Practical Training (OPT). There is somewhat of a disconnect in the report because Miano was interviewed but nobody mentioned that he is one of the lawyers helping with the lawsuit. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 7th. Read the IRLI press release at:

http://www.irli.org/press_release_5292008.html

John Miano, for those of you who don't know, used to be a programmer.

Because of the bad situation in the job market he decided to go to law school. What is about to happen in the courts is truly the revenge of the nerds.

NumbersUSA

Numbers USA got a nice face lift. Seems much more usable. This is a great activist website and makes it extremely easy to contact your congressmen.

McCain Doesn't Always Waffle

(From Rob Sanchez at www.jobdestruction.info)

McCain was one of the original co-sponsors of the H-1B program and since that time in 1990 he has never wavered in his support for more visas. It's one of the few issues besides amnesty that he hasn't flip-flopped on. All of the proposed comprehensive immigration reform bills, including the McCain/Kennedy bill, had H-1B increases, but it's a stretch to say that H-1B would be a top McCain priority. However, McCain left no doubt that he will continue to support an H-1B increase:

"We need a temporary agricultural worker program, we need the H1B

visas, and we need an orderly way for someone to be able to apply

for citizenship in this country, in a process that they can count

on, and trust,"

Cornhead's Days May Be Numbered

In case you didn't know, Senator John Cornyn loves sponsoring H1-B visa increases. His opponent in the upcoming November elections is Rick Noriega. I don't know if Noriega's position on illegal immigration and visas is any different. It'll be worth a look to find out.

Cornyn Sells Out Workers Again

Senator John Cornyn aka Cornhead is selling out workers again by sponsoring three different bills to increase the number of H1-B visas in the US. I'm going to have to go research Rick Noriega to see if he has any sane position on this.

Mexico Shaping US Immigration Policy

Mexico's President Calderon . . .
Is Still Trying to Shape U.S Immigration Policy

Having just completed a 7-city tour of the U.S. in late February to promote amnesty plans by pressuring elected officials in the U.S., he’s back again, meeting with leaders of immigrant groups and more U.S. officials trying to influence U.S. laws and immigration policy in favor of illegal aliens.

This is of course a follow-on from Vicente Fox's efforts. See the article on FAIR (fairus.org)

Maybe Johnnie Can Read Afterall

From Norm Matloff's newsletter on this Nature article:

One of these new points is striking: In absolute numbers, the U.S. has more top-scoring kids in math and science than any other country studied--by far. The authors point out that it is mainly these kids who become the innovators later as adults, and we've got an excellent supply of them. This is completely counter to what one constantly sees in the popular press.

Job Destruction is back up!

www.jobdestruction.info was indeed hacked, but Rob Sanchez got it cleaned up and freed up for Google searches. Way to go, Rob.

Not the Best and Brighest? Say it ain't so, Joe!

(Shamelessly stolen from Norm Matloff, but I don't think he'd mind...)

To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter

CIS has just published a new article by me, titled "H-1Bs: Still Not the Best and the Brightest." The title alludes to an earlier article I wrote for CIS, in which I had done some preliminary statistical work showing that most H-1Bs are ordinary people doing ordinary work, not the geniuses claimed by the industry lobbyists. In the present article, I present much more direct statistical analysis along these lines.

Here I use a market-based approach to show that:

1. The vast majority of H-1Bs are not of outstanding talent.

2. This is also true when the data are broken down by occupation.

3. This is also true for almost all prominent tech firms that were analyzed.

4. Contrary to the constant hyperbole in the press that “Johnnie can’t do math” in comparison with kids in Asia, the workers from Western European countries tend to be more talented than those of their Asian counterparts.

Please note the the implications of my article applies just as much (actually more) to the employer-based green card system as to H-1B itself. This is a crucial point, as there are proposals in Congress (rumored to be considered seriously by Congress in May) to expand both the H-1B and green card programs--both of which expansions would adversely impact job opportunities and wages for U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

You can read the article at

http://www.cis.org/articles/2008/back508.html

Norm

JobDestruction blacklisted by Google

Rob Sanchez's great site Job Destruction got blacklisted by Google. It was obviously a mistake but it will be slow to undo and the damage to the website traffic will be considerable. Way to go Google. I thought your mantra was to do no evil in the world.

Sigh.

OPTing out of the American Dream

Rob Sanchez has a good article on how the government is scamming Americans out of jobs by bringing in cheap labor without congress.

The OPT program is the worst of breed of backroom deals.

More on Microsoft

The third video in the series...

Bill Gates and the H-1B Visa, Chapter 3

Microsoft's Duplicity

So we know that Microsoft cannot get enough H1-B visas. We know that Bill lobbies Congress regularly for an unlimited number of visas. If you listen to him as our Congressmen do, you'd think that our high tech industry is going to come crumbling down around our heads because we Americans (and residents) are just too damn dumb, unlike those whipper snapper smarties that live in all the other countries.

If you want the truth, check out these videos on Youtube:

Bill Gates' addition to visas (part 1)
Bill Gates addiction to visas (part 2)

We must be dumb as rocks

Microsoft has apparently begun arguing that having American citizens and legal residents lose their jobs due to displacement by labor imported via visas is good for us - so good that it creates more jobs that it takes!

This is an incredible statement. Bill must think that we are dumb as rocks to believe that one. There isn't a shred of evidence that this is true and there is a lot of evidence that there is nothing but a net job loss for Americans. Following this logic, we only need to import maybe another 200,000 foreigners to take jobs, then the resulting jobs explosion will employ everyone (trading engineering jobs for MacDonalds at best).

See an article on this at the Job Destruction Newsletter.

Way to go, Bill. Way to show thankfulness to the economy and workers that made you the richest person in the world. I bet your Democratic parents are proud of you.

Reasons why the H-1B visa cap will increase

1. H-1B opponents have no clout
2. The Gates effect
3. There is grass root support for the H-1B visa
4. The H-1B lottery is a big problem for tech firms
5. Congressional support for visa

The above five reasons come from Patrick Thibodou here.

1. Congress won't see through Bill Gates' misleading testimony.
2. Congress doesn't want to know these truths anyway, as they don't want to jeopardize the lavish campaign contributions Congress receives from the tech industry.
3. The Programmers Guild and many other critics of the H-1B program are diluting whatever influence they have (which Thibodeau correctly points out is limited compared to the huge clout wielded by the tech industry) by focusing on the second-sourcing issue (in which a firm hires H-1Bs and then rents them out to other firms).

The remainder come from Professor Norm Matloff here.

The Welch Way

Re: The Welch Way – Immigration: A Reality Check of Feb 14, 2008

Mr. Welch, also known as the ¾ billion-dollar-man, has a lot of nerve trying to dictate what reality is and how we workers should accept illegal immigration. He lives behind gated community; his children attend only the best schools; he lives in the top of the upper crust of society. He makes no personal sacrifice on the issue of illegal immigration. It costs him no job, it does not adversely affect his wages, it has no impact on whether he can afford health insurance.

Mr. Welch is so far from the reality that we all face daily, he really is on another planet. The thought of this tycoon of industry lecturing to workers is absurd. Go back to your country club, Mr. Welch, and discuss leveraged buyouts and PE ratios with your buddies.

(name withheld)
Austin, TX

Engineers Looking for Work

Here is a Letter to the Editor for the Austin American Statesman that made a very good point (worth repeating here):

Re: Feb. 10 letter “Filling the job market.”

The letter writer said ” thousands of jobs that require technical expertise go unfilled everyday. We require foreign workers on visas to fill them.” In my career as an engineer, I can emphatically say that this is not true and never has been. It is a myth propagated by corporations to allow the importation of tens of thousands of foreign engineers on work visas, which puts downward pressure on salaries and benefits of U.S. engineers and decreases their job opportunities. That situation became much worse in the last 10 years due to the widespread outsourcing of engineering and scientific jobs to India and China and Eastern European countries. There are thousands of U.S. engineers and scientists who are looking for work or are underemployed.

Improving healthcare in Mexico at US taxpayers expense

Craig Nelson has an article on The Amnesty Man himself, yes that John McCain, showing McCain's (and Obama's) eagerness to help everyone but American (and resident) workers here is this country. No wonder conservatives are having trouble drinking this very bitter brew:

Most of us agree that it's simply not right that so many Americans, sincerely trying their best to provide for their families, are at the mercy of a phalanx of greedy insurance companies, medical malpractice lawyers, health care corporations, and other profiteers that have used decades of influence in Washington to institutionalize their chomp hold on the public jugular.
What would Americans think, then, of a member of Congress who introduced legislation, not to improve health care in the United States, but to improve health care in Mexico?
Insane? Drunk? Unworthy of public office?

Read the rest here (the blog entry is for February 6, 2008)

The McCain Hoodwink

The Washington Post/ABC News poll this weekend asked likely Republican voters which candidate, "regardless of who you may support," do you "trust most to handle immigration issues." The answer will shock you:

47% McCain
22% Romney
10% Huckabee
5% Paul

This is incredible. Mr. McCain has pushed hard for legalizing all illegal immigrants in the US. He was the primary sponsor of the McCain-Kennedy Act to achieve this. If voters do not wise up, he will have pulled off the biggest hoodwink in recent memory.

TechsUnited

Looks like the TechsUnited group is going to expand with local chapters across the country. I heard last week that they are looking to start an Austin chapter.

Our Mixed Up President

Border Security and Guest Workers Lumped Together for theBenefit of Special Interests in President Bush’s State of Union Address

January 28, 2008

(Washington DC) In Monday’s State of the Union Address, President Bush demonstrated his continued willingness to have U.S. immigration policy dictated by special interests instead of the American people. Stating “we will never fully secure our border until we create a lawful way for foreign workers to come here and support our economy,” President Bush mixed together two distinct elements of immigration policy border security and guest worker programs in what appears to be a deliberate effort to obfuscate a sensible approach to both. Indeed, the President’s statement implies that the government’s only option is to surrender to big business special interests and their big appetites for more cheap foreign workers if we ever hope to attain true border security.

Click here for the full article (originally via FAIR).

The Real John McCain

The Open Source Activist has a good article here that captures the way a lot of people feel about amnesty and John McCain’s disregard for what the American voters want…

Everyone here in Washington knows that, when it comes to infuriating the electorate, nothing works like a proposal to reward millions of foreign nationals—whose very presence in the United States demonstrates disrespect for the laws that underpin our republic—with the gift of citizenship and the consequent right to have a say in determining those laws.

One Definition of Globalization

(A humorous take sent to me with a grain of truth to it)
Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization ?
Answer: Princess Diana's death.
Question: How come?
Answer : An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whisky, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines.

This is sent to you by an American, using Bill Gates's technology, and you're probably reading this on your computer, that uses Taiwanese chips, and a Korean monitor, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by Indian lorry-drivers, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, and trucked to you by Mexican illegals.

That, my friends, is Globalization!

There Never Was a Shortage

You heard it here first!  ;-)

 

Read it here.