Sen. Cruz Presents Measure to Strengthen, Improve Legal Immigration

SENATOR CRUZ OFFICE ^ | 14 MAY 2013 | SENATOR CRUZ PRESS RELEASE

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Offers amendment to increase H-1B visas to help improve, retain high-skilled labor force

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) today presented an amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill that would improve our nation’s legal immigration system by increasing high-skilled temporary worker visas, called H-1B visas, by 500 percent. The measure would effectively address the needs of our nation’s high-skilled workforce by helping meet the growing demand for workers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. It will also make block grants available to states to promote STEM education efforts and increase domestic STEM professionals. The committee voted against the amendment 4 to 14 with every Democrat voting against it on a party-line vote.

Legal immigration is a fundamental pillar of our nation's heritage, and I was pleased today to offer legislation that would have improved and expanded legal immigration by dramatically increasing the cap for high-tech temporary worker visas. This amendment would not only improve the current system, but would also encourage economic growth and create new jobs in America. There is currently a serious shortage of workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, yet every year we send thousands of high-tech graduate students back to their home countries to start businesses and create jobs. This makes no sense. I’m disappointed in the committee’s vote to reject expanding high-tech immigration. Although the Gang of Eight's bill makes a modest step towards improving high-tech immigration, it does not go nearly far enough. There is no reason to arbitrarily cap high-tech visas at 110,000 when these jobs are going unfilled. We need economic growth here and now.”

Sen. Cruz’s amendment would:

Immediately increase the H-1B cap by 500 percent from 65,000 to 325,000.

• To truly fix our broken immigration system and take into account our nation’s economic needs, we must put more emphasis on increasing employment-based immigration. (EEE's comments in red - No mention of reducing the size, scope, and power of Fedzilla, which would unleash jobs on its own). There is a current shortage of qualified high-skilled workers in the U.S., with an estimated 230,000 advanced-degree STEM jobs going unfilled by 2018. Shortage caused by the feds sticking their grimy paws in the economy and picking winners and losers.

• Additionally, more H-1B workers mean more jobs for American workers – according to a study by the American Enterprise Institute, for every additional 100 H-1B workers, 183 jobs are created for U.S. citizens. How? What was this study based on and who funded it?

Help retain the high-skilled workers that are trained in the U.S. by allowing “dual intent.” What exactly is this?

• This would allow foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities to enter the U.S. on a temporary H-1B visa if they intend to get a Green Card once they complete their studies. This is Roman-style suicide for any nation

• Currently, about 300,000 students come to America annually to be educated, but are required to return home upon completing their education. Why can't they get edumacated in their own crapholes and improve their country's way of life?

Create block grants for states to promote STEM education in their public schools by raising H-1B fees. More borrowing and spending that we can't afford. I thought Cruz was a fiscal conservative?

• These block grants will encourage educating our children in these high demand fields, opening more doors of opportunity to future generations. According to the Joint Economic Committee, between 2010 and 2020, demand for STEM graduates is expected to grow by 17 percent, while employment for those graduates will increase only 14 percent, partly because American graduates are not available or qualified to fill these jobs.

• The block grant program would be funded by raising H-1B fees from $750 to $1,250 for businesses with fewer than 25 employees, and from $1,500 to $2,500 for those with 25 or more employees.

[reasonisfaith]

Legal immigrants are a drop in the bucket. Cruz wants to stop the tidal wave of illegals.

Legal.

Illegal.

Very different.

[alstewartfan]

I think what Ted is doing is positioning. We do NOT need a flood of ANY immigrant population at this time. Virtually every other nation in the world is steeped in socialism, and we cannot survive an fresh onslaught of voters who believe that government is Santa Claus.

[xzins]

A Cisco CCIE+ friend of mine makes over 150 grand. Having watched him get his certification and the volumes of technical data he had to learn, and the systems he has to put together, and the hours he has to be available, there’s no doubt in my mind that he earns every penny, and that he’s in the top 1% of Americans on the ability scale.

[SoConPubbie]

Why don’t you refute the FACT that Cruz supports unrestricted legal immigration and soft amnesty?

Because I don't have to.

There are a very few set of things I don't agree with Cruz on. Increasing the H1B is one of them, and his ONE AND ONLY statement, along time ago, about legalizing those already here. That's it.

Now, I dare you to stack up that paltry list against the list of things conservatives disagree with the other potential POTUS candidates, INCLUDING Scott Walker.

Ted Cruz is STILL Head and Shoulders above every single one of them with the possible exception of Gov. Palin.

[Jarhead9297]

This solves nada but ensuring the IT field continues a decline in wages through the importation of cheap labor masked as “legal” immigration.

[Dr. Sivana]

Being in IT, I have seen the lies and abuses of H1-Bs. It is all about lowering the amount paid to IT workers, both U.S. and immigrant.

Cruz is terribly wrong on this.

It is not enough to shake my support of him. He’s got the big picture right.

[familyop]

Immigration should not be about herding in tens of millions of anti-American foreign slaves and keeping them in dread fear to abuse and make them even more anti-American. It should not be about letting in millions of the highest bidding corrupt foreign political classes, either.

Our nation is already saturated with foreign-minded corruption in high places on all sides. Most politicians and boss constituents behave as though they recently arrived from Europe (see Mafia, IRA and the like).

Go nonpolitical. Become more technically able and self-sufficient. Starve the B. Then get political after she no longer has money or time for politics. It’s the only way.

[Oldhunk]

I posted here a long time ago that Cruz was a squish on immigration. I got hammered pretty hard.

What this position tells us is that Cruz is another crony capitalist who is beholden to the GOP corporate masters that want the cheap labor.

Unfortunately, I don’t think any of the potential candidates are good on the immigration issue. Zero, nada.

Jeff Sessions, where are you?

[xzins]

But it is on the LEGAL side. That means it has to be debated, written, voted on, passed, etc.

Now, I don’t want any increased legal immigration, but at least we’re talking about the legal side of the equation and not how we can stuff it down America’s throat by executive fiat.

There is nothing morally wrong with favoring LEGAL immigration. I think it is bad policy right now, but the Constitution permits legal immigration that is duly enacted by Congress, of which Senator Cruz is a part.

[SoConPubbie]

I never trusted Cruz. We do not need more immigrants now.

Here is a list of what Ted Cruz supports with respect to Illegal Immigration and Border Issues from NumbersUSA.com. This is a list of his official positions:

1. Oppose Amnesty - OPPOSE offering the officially estimated 11 million people illegally in the U.S. long-term work permits and/or a path to citizenship (whether through a blanket amnesty or an "earned legalization" or other form)

2. Attrition through Enforcement - fund an Attrition Through Enforcement campaign to cause illegal aliens to self-repatriate back to their home countries over time

3. Mandate E-Verify - jobs held by illegal aliens be opened up for unemployed Americans and legal immigrants already here by requiring all businesses to use the Federal automated, rapid-response internet system (E-Verify) to screen out illegal foreign workers

4. Assist Local Police - federal government be required to cooperate with local officials and pick up all illegal aliens detained by local law enforcement

5. Defund Sanctuary Cities - reduce funding to state and local governments that adopt sanctuary policies and other rewards for illegal foreign workers and the companies that hire them

6. Fund Entry/Exit System - fully fund the completion of the entry/exit system at all borders and points of entry in which every person entering and leaving the U.S. is logged into a database which would notify law enforcement, businesses and others when a foreign tourist, student, worker or other fails to leave on-time? *(US-VISIT was approved by Congress in 1996 and has never been sufficiently funded and is largely incomplete.)

7. Border Security - fund and provide oversight for the full implementation of border security measures already signed into law

8. End Birthright Citizenship - move the U.S. in line with most other nations and stop the policy of giving automatic citizenship at birth to children when both parents are illegal aliens?

9. End Chain Migration - implement the bi-partisan, national Jordan Commission recommendation to limit family-based immigration to the nuclear family of spouse and minor children, thus eliminating the "chain migration" categories of extended family that are the key reason immigration has quadrupled since the 1960s

10. End Visa Lotteries - institute safeguards that will prevent importation of foreign workers any time they would threaten the jobs or depress the wages of American workers

11. Reduce Total Immigration - Until 1976, U.S. immigration tradition was an average of around 250,000 a year; since new legislation in 1990, it has averaged 1,000,000 a year. More than 38 million foreign workers and dependents now live in the U.S. At current rates, immigration will add more than 100 million additional people to the U.S. population by 2060. This government-forced rapid population expansion will require huge increases in energy, roads and other infrastructure and services.

[Varsity Flight]

As we’ve said before all part of crime operation of Exaction, eventually taken, as always, under the cover of “ bi-partisan” exaction plan.

They’re out to get as many as possible into the WorkCamp with socailized-security-numbers.

Exempt Gang. Extortion Banking-Insurance Lobby, Bureaus, and Agencies, all making the decisions now.

[SoConPubbie]

I posted here a long time ago that Cruz was a squish on immigration. I got hammered pretty hard.

See post #70 for Cruz's stated positions on Immigration issues.

I wonder what positions you'd have to have to not be a SQUISh in your eyes.

[onyx]

I’ve tried to read this news release from Senaotr Cruz’s office twice. In my severely depressed state, I guess I’m not able to completely comprehend.

Personally, I don’t want any immigration. I want our borders sealed and immigration halted for a few years.

I can’t see Senator Cruz being in favor of anything that would harm our country. Just the opposite in fact.

[Jarhead9297]

I’m with you there and I too make a nice living managing a database team. However after 15 years there has been a decline in wages through the importation of cheap labor driven by greed. What Cruz proposes exacerbates this problem even more ensuring more big corporations will continue not hiring skilled Americans and again driving wages further south. This proposal is piss in a bucket of a much larger issue.

[xzins]

It is important to note that Sen. Cruz is talking her about legal immigration and not illegal immigration. He is not advocating that something illegal should be winked at and allowed to stand.

He is talking about legal immigration, and even though I disagree with him, I don’t want to confuse it with support for illegal immigration which is what I’m afraid people will see if they don’t bother to read it.

If the labor participation rate were higher, and we actually needed workers, I wouldn’t object to legal immigration. I don’t think that we need more legal immigration at this time.

I would be better about this if he at least agreed that there should be no increase in the immigration quotas with his changes, but that we’d just take his numbers out of the legal quotas that are already being allowed to enter the country.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Greed ridden US companies are forcing through shortages because they refuse to pay the rates demanded by those such as myself what the market should bear.

It comes down to this - they are no longer going to even consider paying you $100K/year to do a job they consider on a par with janitorial services - necessary but not part of the core business.

They might pay an Indian $35K to do it if they can get him over here.

Otherwise, they will simply offshore the work for $10K/year and put up with the communication problems.

[Oldhunk]

Jeff Sessions’ views on immigration would do nicely.

[Jarhead9297]

I agree with your points on executive fiat and this legally being discussed. I don’t think however running out an idea with Americans who have no clue who Cruz is saying hey we should increase H1B quotas by 500% will sit well with a majority of Mericans struggling in a bad economy.

It sure doesn’t sit well here. Bad timing

[xzins]

I’ve seen some of the foreign help. They can’t speak English to communicate technical information, they simply aren’t as well trained, and they end up being dead weight.

Why Gates and others wants these so-called technicians really puzzles me.

[xzins]

It sure doesn’t sit well here. Bad timing

There is a bit of a disconnect if you check the article. Notice that it is actually from mid-2013. We are now in 2015.

So, this is not just coming out. It's a very old article.

Also, Cruz was a very junior senator at that time, and he was still getting his feet on the ground in a lot of ways. If elected in 2012, then he didn't take office until Jan 2013, so he had only 5 months under his belt when he came up with this idea.

I suspect he would view it differently now. Sessions hates the idea, and Cruz now supports just about everything Sessions says on immigration.