Post #123,157
10/28/03 9:54:06 PM
8/21/07 5:44:52 AM
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In his own words
Transcript of his speech on the 7th - sounds like he gets it. [link|http://www.hireamericancitizens.org/tancredospeechh1b.html|http://www.hireameri...edospeechh1b.html]
H1B is a visa category that allows people to come into the United States, about 160,000 a year, by the way. And they can stay here for up to 6 years to work in jobs that, quote, "no one else will take." Jobs like computer programmer at some of the most prestigious companies in America in terms of technology. These really rotten jobs that no one else will take, computer programmer, analyst.
\ufffd We were told by the mavens of industry that in this particular arena, technology, that we could not hire enough people. They could not hire enough people, qualified people, here in the United States. So we had to grant H1B visa status to 165,000, at least, every single year. Let them stay for 6 years. So we now accumulated several million, 4 or 5 million people here in the United States on that status, H1B visa status.
\ufffd Now, unless it has escaped us, Mr. Speaker, and I do not believe it has, there has been a change in the economy over the last year. Starting with the last quarter of the Clinton administration, the economy has begun a slow but steady decent into what is now undeniably a recession. Yesterday, I believe it was, unemployment figures came out; and the figures were frighteningly high, higher than they have been in well over a decade. Especially frightening in the area of high-tech jobs where hundreds of thousands of people have been laid off.
\ufffd Mr. Speaker, in America today there are factually millions of people looking for work, people who can operate in this capacity as a computer programmer or whatever and people with various other skills who are looking for work.
\ufffd I suggest, Mr. Speaker, that it is time for us in this body to revisit the whole idea, the whole issue of H-1B, and I have, in fact, introduced a bill to abolish H-1B visas. I think, Mr. Speaker, we do not need them anymore. I do not think we needed them when we passed them. I think we did it as a favor to some large corporations in the United States because they could get people to come to the United States and work for less than they could hire an American worker to do the same job.
\ufffd And I say that with the recognition that there are people in the United States who I know today are unemployed and unemployed because an H-1B visa holder took his or her job, took a job that those people would be qualified for and would be doing except, of course, they asked for more money.
In Java, you can't escape the creepy feeling.
--James Gosling
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Post #123,176
10/28/03 10:56:04 PM
8/21/07 5:45:43 AM
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I wrote him a thank you note
Dear Tom,
I'm not a Republican and I'm not sure why you are either as I don't see anything in common between you and that power hungry cadre of weasels and their Animal House reject leader in the White House.
I want to thank and applaud you for your stand on the H1B Visa issue. I am a software engineer skilled in a wide variety of technologies. I don't need training, I need a level playing field. I have been fairly and highly paid throughout my career. Except for this year. This year I'll be reporting about $20k to the IRS. I've exhausted my savings and am going to be tapping into my IRA to maintain my house payments.
My wife, a skilled software tester, has been unable to reenter the workforce since the birth of our daughter in 2001. Her inability has nothing to do with child care issues - she is simply not seeing the opportunities. As you so astutely note - there is no shortage of American technical talent. We are simply unable to compete on price with people who come from cultures with lower costs of living.
Thanks again. -Todd Blanchard
In Java, you can't escape the creepy feeling.
--James Gosling
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Post #123,298
10/29/03 2:10:37 PM
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Good letter except
for the party slam at the beginning. That could cause the letter to end up in the "circular file".
"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."
1 Peter 1:24-25
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Post #123,299
10/29/03 2:18:42 PM
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Not in Colorado
That guy sounds like a Goldwater Republican, so he'll probably get a kick out of it.
[link|http://www.house.gov/tancredo/|http://www.house.gov/tancredo/]
His district is South Denver.
Notice that the first thing on his page is a popup question about pissing away 20 bil on lust in the dust.
-drl
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Post #123,304
10/29/03 2:38:54 PM
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I don't think that the lower cost is just a culture thing
I strongly suspect that a lot of it is the fact that the employer winds up in a very strong bargaining position with the employee. It's a case of, You do everything I say for whatever I say or you are kicked out of the country. Even if you are willing to be paid less, you aren't as easy to order around. (Of course the H1B workers are more likely to accept subpar wages.)
If the employers didn't have this bargaining advantage, I believe that employers would be less enthused about H1Bs.
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #123,307
10/29/03 2:44:53 PM
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interesting point! never considered
-drl
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Post #123,386
10/30/03 3:24:32 AM
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As with prostitution and slavery,
Aren't you just describing another degree? Clearly, what a Full-'Libertarian' Employer (unfettered by all those stupid humane laws and such) wants is:
ownership of the commodity bodies.
It's just bizness; what's wrong with that?
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Post #123,441
10/30/03 12:37:18 PM
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Xactly. Human Resources, I want to OWN & USE them ALL!
bcnu,
Mikem
The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice and always has been...We have thrown away the most valuable asset we had-- the individual's right to oppose both flag and country when he (just he, by himself) believed them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it all that was really respectable about that grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism.
- Mark Twain, "Monarchical and Republican Patriotism"
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