NoSlaves.com

Next week, the Defense Appropriations bill is going to be attacked with multiple amendments to try to increase H-1B guest worker Visas.

These amendments are basically the SKIL act and or the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill. Corporate lobbyist written, we are constantly bombarded with this special interest labor arbitrage agenda in every bill that is a must pass such as the Defense bill.

Call the Senate switchboard at: 202-224-3121
Click here to find your Senators

Please call both of your Senators and demand they vote no on any guest worker Visa increases..

Talking Points to Prevent Attaching Provisions of the SKIL Act

• Increase the annual cap for temporary nonimmigrant visas from 65,000 to 115,000. But that’s just the first year. There is a 20% automatic escalator or increase per year with a final ceiling of 180,000 per year, which makes any ceiling virtually meaningless. As it is, approximately two-thirds of all current H-1Bs have been exempted, i.e. not counted. Instead of capturing unused EB visas from previous years, adds new EB visas by an amount coinciding with the number not issued in those years

• As with the H-1B provisions described above, establishes additional exemptions to the annual EB visa cap that do nothing but make it easier for U.S. employers to import cheap labor rather than hiring American workers.
• Expedites and streamlines the processing of millions of new applications and requisite background checks for temporary workers and for LPR status, which, to an agency, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, has shown itself to be unable to adequately implement current immigration laws, is both untenable and reckless
• Authorizes employers to propose a prevailing wage of their own choosing if the Labor Department is too swamped with labor certification applications to respond within 20 calendar days, thus allowing existing wage stagnation in high-tech fields to become further entrenched
• Allows greater abuse of the L-1 intracompany transferee/specialized knowledge visa, which, unlike the H-1B, may be issued without numerical limitation and without the employer being required to pay the alien employee the prevailing wage, or meet other labor condition requirements, and they are valid for longer periods of time
• Puts L-1 nonimmigrants in line for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, which, for all intents and purposes, would make their employment permanent and would take yet more jobs away from U.S. workers
• Expands eligibility for F student visas – shown to be an effective method for terrorist elements to lawfully enter, and then remain in, the United States – to aliens wanting to study in high-tech fields and, in concert with other high-tech-related provisions, affords them the opportunity to be fast-tracked toward LPR status and permanent placement in the job market as more cheap, foreign labor

Talking Points to Stop Expansion of Visas for Seasonal Workers

• H-2B visas are for temporary or seasonal non-agricultural, unskilled workers. Employers who want to hire H-2B workers must obtain a labor certification from the Department of Labor stating that qualified American workers are not available to fill the jobs. Unfortunately, the certification process is less certification and more rubber stamp, since DoL is not permitted even to verify the truthfulness of the information on petitions. If the employer filled in all the blanks, DoL approves the petition.
• H-2B visas were created so that employers could fill temporary labor shortages until U.S. workers can be found. Employers of H-2Bs are required to look for American workers first, but the requirements for advertising job openings are minimal. At the least, employers should be required to post job openings on an internet-based system like DoL’s America’s Job Bank.
• Since H-2B visas are renewable for up to three years and family members are allowed to accompany the workers, these visas often end up providing semi-permanent residency. After three years, the foreign worker and his family must go home for six months before returning for up to three more years.
• The United States economy is not facing a shortage of unskilled workers; in fact, it has an oversupply
• 14 million Americans are unable to find full-time jobs in the current economy (Bureau of Labor Statistics—BLS)
• The unemployment rate among the 12 million American adults who do not have a high school diploma is almost 9 percent (BLS)
• An astonishing 40 percent of working-age African-American men are unemployed (BLS)
• The percentage of 16- to 19-year-olds holding jobs in the United States is the lowest it has been since the government began tracking statistics in 1948 - Prof. Andrew Sum, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University.
• At least 40 percent of the illegal immigrant population came to the United States on a temporary visa, like the H-2B, and then overstayed after the visa expired. Congress should not even consider increasing the numbers of temporary visas until DHS has fully implemented an entry-exit system, based on biometric identifiers, to ensure that visa holders leave the United States when their visa expires. Otherwise, Congress will simply be facilitating illegal immigration.

I will update this as more information becomes available, but please call your Senators. The billions of special interest money, corporate money is the reason this is so hard to defeat, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it means the death of the American engineer.