We have written extensively about the new H1B Visa and L1 Visa Bill introduced to the US Congress a couple of months back as Senator Durbin and Senator Grassley’s solution to US citizens losing their jobs in the current economy.
Currently this bill has been hiraliously titled S. 887; A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform and reduce fraud and abuse in certain visa programs for aliens working temporarily. I say hilarious given it does no such thing but really just find a scapegoat other than Congress themselves for the problem the economy is in. This bill essentially is trying to kill or mame the H1B visa and L1 visa programs.
Of course we explained fully with actual facts why the US Congress Should Not Pass This Anti-Immigration Bill so won’t re-hash all of that information here. Suffice to say that with over 50% of all Silicon Valley company founders being Immigrants being one of the major arguments against this bill, shows how stupid, opportunistic and borderline xenophobic the Senators are given they are the ones who are really responsible for this mess and not poor immigrants who create a lot of jobs and pay a lot of taxes. All of which support unemployed and unhealthy Americans but not themselves as they have no access to Social Security or Medicare despite paying those taxes and additionally the generous salaries and benefits members of Congress enjoy.
However we thought we would outline briefly one of the most controversial aspects of the law and show how hypocritical members of the US Congress really are and how they only really care about themselves, their own enrichment and future.
The 50/50 clause prohibits companies from obtaining any additional work visas if they have more than 50 U.S. employees and more than 50 percent of their entire U.S. workforce is made up of H-1B or L-1 visa holders.
On the face of it this may seem like OK, this company is based in the US, shouldn’t they have a majority of US workers on staff. OK but if you follow that argument then shouldn’t every company be truly representative of the US population and have 14% hispanic people, 12% african-american people, 51% women, etc.
The US free market enterprise system and laws allow for companies to legally hire the best people to help the company succeed. Now if that is not convincing to you then all those Silicon Valley companies like Google, Yahoo, Intel, eBay, etc. which are all Global powerhouses started by Immigrants to the US, should they have been allowed to start their companies or should they have to pass some sort of quota test of Immigrants starting companies first?
Finally if Senators in Congress are so adament about countries protecting their local population and culture, etc. why for example when Australia and the US were negotiating their Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) back in 2004-5 when the issue of media ownership and local content on TV come up did the US Congress demand Australia drop all regulations.
Australian television networks were regulated to have at least 50% (magic number!!) of locally produced content as part of their programming which the US Congress heavily lobbied and funded via campaign contributions by the US media and entertainment companies demanded be removed as a requirement. Thus allowing more US Content on Australian TV and many Australians working locally in the industry out of work.
The truth is as we have said before Senator Durbin and Senator Grassley ultimately are trying to granstand with this bill and targeting Immigrants who cannot vote and have minimal rights as their target. Let’s hope this bill gets defeated along with the ideology of blame the Immigrant given the United States was built and has prospered from Day 1 to today because of Immigrants.
CJ