"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"
Posted on 11/02/2005 1:15:40 PM PST by 3AngelaD
The panel's proposed 46 percent increase sets the stage for a battle with immigration foes and pro-union lawmakers. By Anne C. Mulkern Denver Post Staff Writer Washington - Setting off a battle with anti-immigration and pro-union lawmakers, a Senate committee wants to increase by 46 percent the number of highly skilled foreign workers U.S. companies can hire.
The proposal is deep inside a larger piece of legislation cutting federal spending and raising revenue.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration law, proposed raising the fees companies pay for visas for highly skilled workers. As a concession to businesses, senators also agreed to allow companies to hire more of those workers.
They most often are hired by high-tech companies and the health-care industry.
The Senate is selling the visas to big business and increasing overall legal U.S. immigration by one-third, charged Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.
"The committee did this in the dark of the night, without hearings and without public comment, because that's the only way they can get away with it," Tancredo said. "When this plan is brought to the light of day, the American people will be outraged."
Yet businesses say the increase in skilled worker limits still falls far short of what's needed.
The current cap on visas for highly skilled workers is 65,000 a year. Because of waiting lists, it's met before the year even starts. The proposed change would allow an additional 30,000 a year for the next five years.
The Senate committee originally proposed increasing the number of visas by 60,000 a year. Because organized labor objected, that number was cut in half.
"Employers are using temporary visa programs ... to turn permanent, well-paying jobs with benefits into temporary jobs that pay reduced wages and offer no benefits," Will Samuel with the AFL-CIO wrote in a letter to the Judiciary Committee chairman, Arlen Specter, R-Pa., objecting to the proposal.
The number of such workers allowed in the U.S. previously was much higher. In 1991, there was no limit, and in 2003, it was capped at 195,000 a year.
The Senate proposal is based on the idea that in those earlier years, many of the visas that were allowed were not actually used.
As part of the Judiciary Committee's package of changes, there is also a proposal to raise the number of green cards given to highly skilled workers by 90,000 a year. Those are for workers who stay at least six years. Fees on those visas also would rise.
The full Senate is expected to vote on the proposal Thursday. If it passes, it will have to be merged with a House proposal to cut and offset federal spending. The House proposal raised fees for the visas but did not raise the caps.
Angelo Amador of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said he believes there's a good chance House Republicans, who traditionally are pro-business, will allow the Senate proposal to stay in the combined Senate-House measure.
Hillary should have a field day with this.
They always say this. Always the tech labor shortage, we hear. What that means is that there aren't so many applicants for the jobs that exist that they can be bid down to burger-flippin' salaries. That is, unless they can bring the burger-flippers in from overseas.
We should look into outsourcing the Senate. We'd probably get better legislation, and we'd be spared the embarrassing spectacle of Harry Reid and his public meltdown.
It is time for a new Senate.
Why don't we hear more from the union thugs on this issue? They're always there when we don't need them. Guess they're more comfortable beating up U.S. citizens.
Well, isn't that just special? I wonder when U.S. workers will get some consideration by the Congress?
Ahh, but I forgot...the one true God is "lower prices to consumers".
All kneel and worship now! Be sure to keep repeating the free traitor's prayer - "Lower prices to consumers!".
The following from NumbersUSA will explain this, but Sen. Byrd is trying to stop this nonsense along with Jeff Sessions and Durbin. He was to be heard on the floor of the Senate at 2pm eastern.
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Sen. Byrd: It is painful to watch the Senate work its way through this budget reconciliation process.
Senators are forced to consider, within a mere twenty hours, a massive spending bill that would cut tens of billions of dollars from federal programs that affect millions of Americans. This omnibus reconciliation measure is comprised of eight bills from eight Senate committees. At 817 pages, the Senate, on average, will devote about one-and-a-half minutes to each page of this bill.
Soon, the vote-a-rama will begin, where Senators are forced to vote on amendments with the benefit of only one minute of debate on each side, and, in many cases, without even having seen an amendment before casting their vote. A series of amendments will be considered in this manner, hour after hour, with roll call votes occurring every twenty minutes or so. Unlike budget resolutions, where the legislation being amended is not binding, this bill would become law. These are real policy decisions being made without the benefit of deliberative or thoughtful debate.
It is painful to watch, and it reflects very, very poorly upon the Senate and its members.
It is within this context of limited debate and amendment that a provision has been included in the omnibus bill that would authorize the U.S. Government to issue up to 350,000 additional immigrant visas each year to foreign labor seeking to live and work permanently in the United States.
On pages 810 through 815, separate from the deficit reduction provisions related to L-1 visa fees, are provisions that would raise the annual cap on employment-based visas and exempt the spouses and children of employment-based immigrants from that cap. In addition, those pages include provisions to increase temporary H-1B visas for high-tech workers by 30,000 each year.
These are massive and destabilizing immigration increases, and they are hitching a free ride on this reconciliation bill.
It's bad enough that so many American jobs are moving overseas, and wages and benefits here at home are being curtailed to compete with third-world labor and unfair trade practices. Now, these provisions would make it more likely that working Americans will find themselves in competition with foreign labor for work in their own country. And it is being done through this reconciliation process, where the immigration increase is clouded by budget provisions, and where debate and amendments are severely limited.
We are told that an immense immigration reform debate will take place early next year. Senators are casting themselves as tough on enforcement and wanting to protect American jobs. Well, that pronouncement stands in stark, stark contrast to this effort, under the cover of procedural protections and the guise of deficit reduction, to increase the number of immigrants authorized to work in the United States by an astonishing 350,000 immigrants per year.
These immigration provisions are not necessary for the Judiciary Committee to comply with its reconciliation instructions, nor are they necessary to achieve the spending cuts embraced by the Congressional budget. The House Judiciary Committee reported legislation to increase the L-1 visa fee for multi-national corporations by $1,500, and that savings more than satisfies the budget’s reconciliation instructions.
I hope that Senators will join me in striking these unrelated immigration increases, and limiting the Judiciary portion of this bill solely to an increase in the L-1 visa fee. The amendment I will send to the desk is identical to the House language, and would raise the L-1 visa fee to $1,500 per application. Again, this amendment simply strikes the unrelated immigration provisions, and would still allow the Senate bill to meet its reconciliation targets.
Mr. President, my amendment has the support of the AFL-CIO, as well as immigration enforcement groups like Numbers USA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Also, I ask that Senators Sessions and Durbin be added as cosponsors to my amendment.
I send the amendment to the desk, and ask Senators for their support.
-- Sen. Robert Byrd
Next, they'll ban Americans from working in America.
...and one day Big Business will wonder why the "poor" American workers can no longer aford their product/goods.
The U.S. takes in more legal citizens on an annual basis than all of Europe combined. This nation has accepted and welcomed immigrants for decades, more so than any other nation on earth.
bttt
Look, I hate illegal immigration and our current mess as much as anybody. You should be blaming the elitists in both parties for their greed and corruption. My point is, we are still more welcoming than almost every other nation in the world, we just have our priorities in the wrong order.
>>These are real policy decisions being made without the benefit of deliberative or thoughtful debate.<<
I think it has been so long since we have had any patriots in the Senate that senators are no longer capable of the type of deliberative or thoughtful debate that America actually requires to remain independent and great in this world.
Tolerance, submission and appeasement seem to be the goals of the current group. It is time for a cleaning from top to bottom, even the chaplain needs to be replaced with a true christian. Of course this is just my opinion, which is nothing important.
"we just have our priorities in the wrong order." according to the UN Charter which is what we seem to be using for direction.
I find your opinion informed and important.
Vote 'em out in '06, '08 is too late!
"Secondly, subtract out the visas for foreign workers, and we do not welcome all that many."
Add in "undocumented" workers and we have a million coming in each year. It all depends on how fully you want to examine the problem. Either you want the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth or you want a sloppy feel good story.
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