House Judiciary Hearing on H-1B 3/31/2011
03/31/2011
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The House Judiciary is having a hearing on H-1B Thursday, 3/31/2011. The subject line of the hearing is: "Visas: Designing a Program to Meet the Needs of the U.S. Economy and U.S. Workers".

Details about who will be attending the meeting was only made available this week. The witness list includes the following people:

Donald Neufeld, Associate Director of Service Center Operations, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Neufeld is known because of an infamous memo he wrote that is often referred to as the "Neufeld Memo". His memo generated lots of hype from H-1B opponents who thought it was a silver bullet to reign in bodyshops who they erroneously blame as the major source of the H-1B problem and its abuses. The memo also received plenty of flak from bodyshops that don't want any tampering with their H-1B fix. Lobbyists from high tech and the medical industry moved quickly to squelch the memo with heavy duty lobbying — they were even granted their own hearings which they used to maintain their honey pot of cheap labor. Many H-1B opponents think that Neufeld is a friend of American workers but that is probably wishful thinking. Most likely he is a government bureaucrat who will advocate for the enforcement of any regulation, which is helpful and what a bureaucrat should be doing, but enforcement of the H-1B regulations does little good because the law is so full of loopholes.

Bo Cooper, attorney at Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP. Cooper is an industry lobbyist and another pitiful example of Washington DC's revolving door. He used to be a General Counsel at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) but now shills for the cheap labor lobby. This quote from a 2006 Congressional Testimony says it all: "The primary problem relating to H-1B visas is that demand for those visas far outweighs the supply."

Bruce A. Morrison, Chairman, Morrison Public Affairs Group. In 1989 Rep. Bruce Morrison (D-Conn) was one of the architects of H-1B. If you want to know who to blame for H-1B, Morrison and his media spin doctor Paul Donnelly are two of the top villains. Unfortunately both of them are coming out of the graveyard to lobby for immigration policies that put the screws to American workers. Morrison has managed to infiltrate organizations like the IEEE and the hospital industry, which helps to explain why there is no viable opposition to the H-1B visa program.

Ron Hira, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Rochester Institute of Technology. Ron Hira makes a lot of sense on H-1B and he is a media darling whenever a TV show or newspaper wants an opinion on H-1B. Many H-1B opponents think of Hira as a hero because they only listen to his arguments on H-1B and because of his obvious ethnicity. Unfortunately Hira supports instant green cards and refuses to acknowledge the age discrimination factor as it relates to H-1B visas.

So, what is this hearing REALLY all about?

Expect all of the witnesses to list the evils of the H-1B program, especially its negative effect on foreigners who want nothing more than to live and work in the USA (while stealing your jobs). The only ones that might mention the harm H-1B does to American workers would be Neufeld or Hira. After the anti H-1B talk listen carefully for their pitches in favor of instant green cards because if there is a hidden agenda of the hearing it will be for instant green cards for business owners or college graduates (maybe one of them will even call for stapling green cards on diplomas!). Norm Matloff and I have been warning all of you that there is a new push for instant green cards so this may be the bottle breaking ceremony across the bow of the Titanic.

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