Foreign H-1B Visa Holders Taking U.S. Jobs In Droves
Large corporations in the United States are laying off American workers by the thousands and replacing them with foreigners who have been assigned an H-1B non-immigrant visa. According to authorities, these visas can usually be obtained quicker than a U.S. Green Card since it is the company that must make application.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Large corporations in the United States are laying off American workers by the thousands and replacing them with foreigners who have been assigned an H-1B non-immigrant visa. According to authorities, these visas can usually be obtained quicker than a U.S. Green Card since it is the company that must make application.
A website featuring Donna Conroy, a grassroots lobbyist and executive director of BrightFutureJobs.com, contains details about how companies are dismissing U.S. citizens from their jobs in record numbers to replace them with H-1B foreign workers and how a movement has begun to stop the legislation that allows it:
<http://www.brightfuturejobs.com/more/index.cfm?Fuseaction=more_8094>
Conroy reported earlier this week that, for instance, Goldman Sachs increased use of the H-1B program by 12 percent in 2009, just after laying off 3,200 workers in the fourth quarter of 2008.
She notes that America now has an over-abundance of experienced tech professionals and an oversupply of new science and technology graduates whom Americans have paid dearly to educate; but companies are bypassing this U.S. talent — and even displacing Americans from their jobs in favor of foreign citizens.
According to the the Department of Labor’s “Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2006-2011 (pg. 35)”: “…H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker.”
“We even have ‘H-1B Only’ want ads all over the internet!” she notes. “Here’s one outside of Chicago advertising for a SAS programmer that boldly states, ‘H-1b Holders Only.’ Another is advertising for an entry level job. A third advertises ‘Walk-in Interviews’ for a job opening in New Jersey — but you gotta go to Pune, India to interview! They’re even recruiting abroad for K-12 teachers.”
Conroy says that these want ads burst the myth that American companies seek local talent first before going abroad for their top-dollar, white collar job openings.
To stop the bypass and displacement, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) have introduced S. 2804, the Employ America Act. It will deny companies the use of corporate visa programs once they have conducted mass layoffs and will require employers to certify that they won’t conduct future layoffs. The proposed bill is aimed at effectively stopping companies from displacing Americans from their jobs in favor of foreign citizens
Likewise Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Grassley have introduced S. 887: America’s Jobs Bill (H-1B & L-1 Reform Act), which is designed to end the legal discrimination against U.S. workers and force the integration of IT companies that have half of their staff on visas.
Said Conroy, “It will stop the outsourcing of American jobs and will stop the humiliating corporate practice of training our foreign replacements. All of S. 887’s provisions are included in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, introduced in the House.”
Conroy says that one reason she suspects that American corporations prefer foreigners over Americans is to “crush our expectation of landing permanent jobs with career mobility.” She says that salaries for these jobs range between $65,000 and $150,000 and that Americans need a chance to compete for them.
She says that Businesweek recently released a list of the top 25 companies receiving initial H-1B visas for foreign citizens, valid for October 2009 to September 2012. Some of those companies, she noted, included Microsoft, Intel, IBM India, Ernst & Young LLP, Deloitte Consulting, Qualcomm, Cisco, KPMG LLP, Rite-Aid, Goldman Sachs, and Google.
As the debate on H-1B workers has heated up, a judge in New Jersey recently ordered the shutdown of three websites whose bloggers voiced opposition to H-1B, including ITgrunt.com, Endh1b.com, and Guestworkerfraud.com. Also ordered disabled was ITgrunt’s page on Facebook, which, according to Conroy, threatens all Americans’ free speech on the Internet.
“The action has labor rights activists, free speech activists, and even some beneficiaries of the H1-B visa program united in voicing opposition to the court decision,” according to an editorial in the Oakland Journal, a local New Jersey paper.
Conroy explained that BrightFutureJobs.com is helping with the solution by supporting S. 2804, Employ America Act, whose important language is: “The Secretary of Homeland Security may not approve a petition by an employer for any visa authorizing employment in the United States unless the employer has provided written certification, under penalty of perjury, to the Secretary of Labor that—(1) the employer has not provided a notice of a mass layoff pursuant to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.) during the 12-month period immediately preceding the date on which the alien is scheduled to be hired.”
<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-2804>
“A firestorm of controversy has erupted over this just-discovered video, <http://programmersguild.blogspot.com/2007/06/youtube-gate-cohen-grigsby-train-how-to.html> that proves, beyond the shadow of a doubt, what happens behind the iron job curtain where qualified Americans are constantly dismissed in preference for foreign nationals,” noted Conroy. “We lift the curtain by exposing this YouTube by a national immigration law firm that conducted the training seminar to an eager corporate audience. Listen well. They actually state ‘the goal is NOT to find a qualified American worker.’ They are teaching corporations strategies to go through the motions of EEO (required for green cards) of how to pretend that they’re trying to recruit American workers—while they, in fact, hire cheaper foreign workers. To see this five minute video will anger every patriotic American.”
“An information technology staffing firm based in Rolling Meadows, Ill., posted an advertisement for a technical writer that warned that an “arrogant American” would not flourish in the position,” she said.
“Exelon is looking to provide these proposals to Chinese businesses, so someone who is respectful and understands Chinese culture is preferred. An arrogant American will not work well in this role,” the listing read.
Said Conroy, “This company is insulting jobless Americans at a time when we’re down on our knees. They have contemptously recruited abroad for their U.S. job openings — and we have the want ad to prove it! (see #8) <http://www.brightfuturejobs.com/more/index.cfm?Fuseaction=more_8094>.
“While Americans were bleeding jobs, they posted want ads in August of 2008, specifically targeting foreign citizens for their U.S. job openings that wouldn’t ‘go live’ until the 4th quarter 2009,” she said. “Their smugness comes from knowing the secret: these companies can bypass U.S. talent legally. Their arrogance is only overcome by their stupidity. The Senate has to put their big boy pants on and pass S. 887. That’s the only way these companies will go to EEO rehab.”
