Michael Chertoff, per Bill Gates and George Bush’s demands, bypassed Congress and increased foreign guest workers through a ruling and executive order. No input from US workers, no votes, nothing. Even worse, Bill Gates claims a weakened America is a good thing!
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released today an interim final rule extending the period of Optional Practical Training (OPT) from 12 to 29 months for qualified F-1 non-immigrant students. The extension will be available to F-1 students with a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics who are employed by businesses enrolled in the E-Verify program
One small problem. Students graduating in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics majors are about three times the total number of new jobs created in the United States for these majors. So now, to make matters worse, DHS increases the ability to hire foreigners, insuring more Americans cannot get a job! UI
PAUL ALAMEDA, President AFL-CIO, DPE
The projection is the growth in this industry is about 120,000 jobs per year and this is in the high tech meaning math and science degrees. And we’re graduating in excess of 300,000 with bachelors, masters and PhD’s from United States universities
The below Lou Dobbs segment goes into more detail:
There are a series of action items you need to do:
- Click here to express your outrage on this ruling. This link will create an email for you to send a comment to DHS. This is the official comment period for the interim ruling. The email format has to be exact and has been formatted for you in this link.
- Call your Congressional representatives and express outrage over this bypass of Congressional oversight by DHS, Michael Chertoff and the Bush administration to increase foreign guest workers and thus deny American graduates those jobs.
- Comment in every news story you see which has a comment section and express your outrage. Here are some comment areas for you:
- CNET blog comment area
- Networked World blog article
- Blog about this and post links to this story or any information that is for US workers and American students.
- Join a group! Email us to further organize! US working Professionals are under attack by special interests. Multinational corporations are hell bent on destroying the United States middle class and their career opportunities. Stand up for your career and economic interests and get active!
To read the actual ruling, DHS F-1 ruling (pdf).
From page 23 of the ruling:
III. REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS
A. Administrative Procedure Act
To avoid a loss of skilled students through the next round of H-1B filings in April 2008, DHS is implementing this initiative as an interim final rule without first providing notice and the opportunity for public comment under the “good cause” exception found under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) at 5 U.S.C. 553@). The APA provides that an agency may dispense with notice and comment rulemaking procedures when an agency, for “good cause,” finds that those procedures are “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” See 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). The exception excuses notice and comment, however, in emergency situations, or where “the delay created by the notice and comment requirements would result in serious damage to important interests.” Woods Psychiatric Institute v. United States, 20 C1. Ct. 324,333 (1990), &9&25 F.2Id 1454 (Fed. Cir. 1991); see also National Fed’n of Fed. Employees v . National Treasury Employees Union, 671 F.2d 607, 611 D.C. Cir. 1982).Currently, DHS estimates, through data collected by SEVP’s Student and Visitor Exchange Information System (SEVIS), that there are approximately 70,000 F-1 students on OPT in the United States. About one-third have earned a degree in a STEM field. Many of these students currently are in the United States under a valid post-completion OPT period that was granted immediately prim to the conclusion of their studies last year. Those students soon will be concluding the end of their post-completion OPT and will need to leave the United States
There is no STEM worker shortage and therefore this ruling change is probably illegal. This ruling can be claimed to damage the national interest, working America’s interests, so this action is opposite what the legal requirement is to bypass Congressional authority. There is no emergency in the United States under which this rule could be changed.
Obviously STEM professionals are being targeted for wage arbitrage. Those jobs should be going to American graduates, US citizens. When there is absolutely no worker shortage and entry level positions are hard to come by, why would any US citizen tolerate denying those opportunities to Americans for jobs in their own country!
The telephone number for DHS is (202) 514-8693. Many thanks to Lou Dobbs for their investigative journalism and staying on this story. Their website has the above information on how to submit a comment to DHS as well.
Great summary!
“without first providing notice and the opportunity for public comment under the “good cause” exception”
Sure this is a national emergency deserving of this ruling. Do we have a lobbyist in the house?
I have made my calls & emails - everyone ought to do the same asap otherwise the dam breaks.
Great post. First of all, what the Executive branch is doing is illegal. But that doesn’t seem to stop the Bush administration. If they want to do something, and the law doesn’t permit it, they do it anyway and declare a dire emergency to justify it.
Take for instance wiretapping phone calls of US citizens without first getting a warrant. Or declaring the presence of WMDs in Iraq. BLS concealed reports in order to get CAFTA passed … This administration seems to despise the working class and labor rights.
It is not a NATIONAL EMERGENCY for some college students to graduate and need to return to their home country.
This ruling is sure to have negative effects on new college graduates, Americans that have been displaced from tech and are trying desperately to get back into the workforce, Americans deciding whether to pursue a tech career, and even existing H-1Bs that wish to get their visa renewed.
http://newsmine.org/archive/cabal-elite/globalization/trade/labor-dept-concealed-report-on-free-trade-labor.txt
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/politics/16program.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math workers, you need to organize or be steam rolled by corporate interests.
Think your skills are so great you can survive on your own? Think again.
Companies like Microsoft, Intel, and Oracle - huge powerful global corporations - actually have their own “unions” like the ITAA (Information Technology Association of America), and SIIA (Software Information Industry Association).
Bitter enemies like Microsoft and IBM are SMART ENOUGH to realize that they will be more effective if they band together for their common interest. No single employee can stand up to just one of these corporations much less standing up against an entire industry UNION. That is why you need to organize. That is why you need to call your senators and representatives and stand up for your rights.
Do you see the hypocrisy when it’s ok for Microsoft, IBM, Sun, … to organize into industry unions but they don’t believe their employees have any right to organize and collectively bargain? But that is exactly what the ITAA does when they lobby (collectively bargain with) Congress for subsidies in the form of increased H-1B visas.
You work hard for these companies. You’ve worked hard your whole career. You deserve to be treated fairly. You should not stand for your own elected representatives undermining your hard fought careers.
Thanks for helping to raise awareness and more importantly action on this issue.
For a sample letter readers can pass along to DHS or Congress, please see the above link. For more information on th two proposed bills on the H-1B cap, please link to:
HR 5642 Will Triple Not Double the H-1B Cap
Track the H-1B Cap Bills
H-1B Cap Bills and Job Creation
Why is food science not in the STEM? I am an International student with PhD in food science and have worked on a interdisciplinary research for 4 years. My research uses the concepts of chemical engineering and food science but my degree is in food science. I do not know the logic behind not including food science in the list of STEM majors. Food Science majors are in great demand in the industry and the DHS should do a research before leaving it. I hope they will realise the mistake and will include Food Science in the STEM majors.
Because most of the activity is corporate lobbyist driven. They are not sifting through patents, intellectual property and so forth to ensure those who truly are doing unique research are encouraged to stay in the US versus those who are simply increasing the labor supply and thus lowering wages.
If you have patents or some breakthrough, plain make a comment to DHS. I would also suggest supporting a top down priority queue on approving H-1B guest worker Visas versus a lottery, based on salary, patents, critical scientific breakthroughs.
Differentiating between the goal to labor arbitrage US citizens versus enabling international talent in R&D in the US really needs to be amplified.
But, this ruling was really per Bill Gates and his cheap labor agenda demands.
article on illegality of ruling.
[…] post: DHS Illegally Changes Rule to Increase Foreign Guest Workers (7) […]
Government and Business leaders worker 24/7 to Keep Americans Away from High Tech Jobs is a post I wrote about this also.
Thanks to to Rob Sanchez’ Newsletters and Bob Oak’s No Slaves site for providing much of the information regarding the OPT extension.