Month: April 2010

Hi Gang:

The news article I have attached below was forwarded to me by one of the many folks on my e-mail distribution list and is one that I think is of extreme importance.

I am an advocate for legal immigration system but the problem is that even the legal system is a disaster that often enables aliens to circumvent the immigration laws or on all too many occasions victimizes foreign nationals and United States citizens at the same time.

The news report below which appeared online this morning, addresses a situation in which a California-based company, Universal Placement International bilked school teachers from the Filipines out of thousands of dollars in illegal fees to find them teaching jobs in the United States- specifically in Louisiana.  Clearly these teachers were exploited.  It is my hope that those who are ultimately found responsible for this outrage will face severe consequences- to punish them and to send a message to the many others who are, no doubt, engaging in comparable malfeasance even as you read my commentary.

What is also extremely vexing is that at the present time, thousands of school teachers in California have been given “pink slips” and are facing the loss of their jobs because of the budget crisis confronting the most populace state of our nation.  (I have attached a news report, published last month, about this situation below the news report about the Louisiana law suit that the foreign teachers won.)

Here is the question that no one seems to be willing to ask, including the American Federation of Teachers Union President Randi Weingarten whose labor union provided the legal muscle to pursue that law suit in Louisiana- Why would the United States Department of State, in conjunction with the United States Department of Labor be issuing H1b visas for foreign nationals seeking to teach in the United States when so many American teachers (and not just in California) are losing their jobs because of the economic woes that are hammering communities and states across this nation?

Of course the Labor Department may issue temporary work visas if the community in which the jobs are to be carried out do not have qualified workers, but under the present situation, would it not make sense for school boards across the nation who have the need and the financial resources to hire teachers to offer employment to American teachers first?

What is not generally known by most Americans is that prior to the Second World War, the enforcement and administration of the immigration laws was the responsibility of the United States Labor Department.  The concern, back then, was that an influx of foreign workers might do harm to American and lawful immigrant workers who needed their jobs in order to support themselves and their families.  (Imagine that- the government of the United States being concerned about the well-being of its own citizens!  What a concept!)

During the Second World War, the responsibility for the enforcement and administration of this nation’s immigration laws were transferred to the United States Department of Justice because our nation’s leaders, back then, understood that our nation could not defend itself if it did not secure its borders against unlawful entry of aliens and/or provided lawful status to those who would do harm to our nation!  (Another one of those concepts that- pardon the pun- is apparently alien to all too many of our nation’s “leaders” today!)

While I am angered by the exploitation of the teachers from the Filipines who were apparently swindled in the scam that, according to the article was deemed illegal by the courts, I am at a loss to understand why these teachers may now qualify for visas to enable them remain in the United States.  It would seem that our nation’s politicians, with a very few notable exceptions, will use uncharacteristic creativity to devise all sorts of visas for foreign nationals while being unable to figure out how to look out for the best interests of our nation or our nation’s citizens!

In June of last year I wrote a commentary about the H1B Visa program and included a couple of important links to videos I think every citizen of our nation should see.

Here is an excerpt from that commentary that I would very much like you to take the time to read.  I also urge you to check out the links that I included in that commentary about how the HiB Visa program represents in ever so many instances, a betrayal of American workers and their families by the government that is supposed to represent them and their best interests:

Let us start out by considering the issue of the economics of the H1B visa program.

Virtually everyone is familiar with landscapers and construction companies that hire illegal aliens.

These industries as well as, farms, meat processing plants and restaurants are known for hiring illegal aliens.  What many folks don’t realize is that even “legal” immigration is fraught with fraud and abuses.

The high tech industries don’t generally hire illegal aliens.  They hire temporary workers who have the education that makes them desirable as employees of many high tech industries.  These foreign workers also have another valuable trait:  they will accept significantly lower salaries than their American counterparts.  Often, immigration law firms, not unlike salesmen who want to close a deal, do whatever they can to get employers to hire foreign workers.  For the law firms, their livelihood depends on this and so they are very motivated to make certain that foreign workers take priority over American workers.

If you don’t believe me, check out this video of a segment of Lou Dobbs Tonight that aired on November 15, 2007 and dealt with the issue of H1B visas and made it clear that there is no shortage of American engineers, computer programmers and others with graduate degrees in the high tech industries.

Here is the link to that segment that runs about 5 minutes:

http://programmersguild.blogspot.com/2007/11/lou-dobbs-challenges-bill-gates-to.html

What will really infuriate you is the video of an immigration lawyers’ conference in which lawyers were being coached to “not find qualified U.S. workers!”  The lecturer who is instructing the attorneys is a guy by the name of Lawrence M. Lebowitz, the Vice President of Marketing for the firm of Cohen & Grigsby.  This video was posted on You Tube by the Programmer Guild, an organization that is comprised of computer programmers.

This video runs for roughly 4 minutes and 30 seconds and I urge you to watch this video that was, I believe, made clandestinely.  This is the link to that video:

I want you to now consider that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) is that all-inclusive body of laws that regulates the entry of aliens into the United States and also their presence in the United States.  It deals with immigration benefits and the grounds under which an alien might be removed (deported) from the United States.

Under the INA, the law…”

“…excludes aliens seeking to immigrate “for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor,” except that such aliens may be eligible for a visa if:

the Secretary of Labor has determined that (A) there are not sufficient United States workers who are able, willing, qualified and available at the time of application for a visa and admission into the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform the work, and (B) the employment of the alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of the United States workers similarly employed.”

Please consider what the law states and then consider the entire issue of foreign workers.

The immigration laws that in the mind of Nancy Pelosi and other “leaders” of our nation are egregious were promulgated with the clear intention of protecting the United States and the citizens of our nation.  One of the really important issues that the INA addresses is the issue of protecting the American worker.  Yet, Pelosi had the unmitigated chutzpah to declare that it was “Un-American” to arrest illegal aliens!

You have members of Congress doing everything in their power to expand the number of Hi1B visas to facilitate the entry of foreign workers into the United States to undercut Americans attempting to support their families!

It is clear that there is no shortage of Americans with the high-tech skills, only a shortage of political leaders who have integrity and who are actually willing to represent their constituents.

Again, I want to make another point that is important to remember.

Our government has mortgaged the future of our grandchildren with the “Economic Stimulus Package.”  They claimed that it was vital to dump billions of our dollars into the economy to prime the economic pump and get our nation’s economy moving.  If, indeed, this is what they had in mind, why did they not make E-Verify a part of the program to make certain that reasonable steps were being taken to help prevent illegal aliens from getting jobs?  Why are they not opposed to increasing the number of H1B visas as well?

If you wonder why I am linking the E-Verify program to the H1B Visas the answer is simple and straightforward.  But in order to answer the question, I will pose a rhetorical question:  “What do illegal aliens and aliens on “temporary” work visas such as the H1B visa have in common?”

The answer is that they are all foreign workers and as such, their goal is to take the money they earn and send as much of it back to their families in their home countries.  Each year between 100 billion and 200 billion dollars leaves our nation’s economy for foreign countries.  This is money that is not earned by American citizens or resident aliens.  This is money that is not spent in the United States of America.  This is money that is not invested in the United States of America.  This money that is utterly lost to the economy to the United States of America!

By not discouraging foreign workers from coming to the United States and working and then sending money back home, our politicians make as much sense as the person who turns on the faucets on his bathtub in preparation for taking a bath but fails to close the drain.  He then comes back to the tub some time later and finds that all of the hot water he had planned to bathe in had disappeared down the drain!

At the same time, those politicians are undercutting their fellow American citizens and resident aliens who should expect the government to look out for their best interests.

It is also important to understand that the utter lack of resources dedicated to enforcing our immigration laws from within the interior of the United States means that all of these various immigration programs and categories of visas are virtually not policed.  I have, on occasion quipped that the only reason that aliens who enter the United States on various nonimmigrant or “temporary” visas are indeed only present in our country on a temporary basis because no one lives forever!

It has been estimated that some 40% of the illegal aliens who are present in our country did not run our nation’s borders but actually were admitted into the United States and then, in one way or another, violated the terms of their admission into our country.  This was, in fact, the situation with the 19 terrorists who so savagely attacked the United States on September 11, 2001.

On May 11, 2006 I was called upon to testify before House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on International Relations on the topic:

“VISA OVERSTAYS:

CAN WE BAR THE TERRORIST DOOR?”

You can read the transcript of that hearing, in its entirety at:

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa27480.000/hfa27480_0f.htm

The bottom line is that the time has well passed for our nation’s “leaders” to secure our nation’s borders and create an immigration system that has real integrity.  This has always been important for our nation and our citizens, but it is especially true in this era in which average Americans are finding their sliver of the “American Dream” to be ever more elusive and while our nation’s survival is being threatened by transnational gangs and drug trafficking organizations as well as terrorists who clearly have our nation and our citizens in their sights.

If our country is to survive and if our children and their children are to get their share of the “American Dream” the citizens of this nation must take their citizenship seriously!

We the People must be the best citizens we can be, citizens who are worthy of the gallantry demonstrated by our valiant men and women in the military, law enforcement and firefighters, who routinely go in harm’s way in defense of this nation and our citizens.

My goal in writing this and other commentaries is to point out our nations many failings before more victims pay the ultimate price for the incompetence and ineptitude of our government.

The first step in problem-solving is to first identify the problems and vulnerabilities and then devise strategies to overcome them.

Any politician who refuses to work to secure our borders and create an immigration system that has integrity is either corrupt or too dumb to keep his (her) job.  Any politician, irrespective of party affiliation who favors Comprehensive Immigration Reform and the outrageous betrayal that this would represent given the national security implications that this program would have, should be shown the door at the next election!

If you find yourself to be in agreement with this commentary, I ask that you forward it to as many of your friends and family members as possible and encourage them to do the same.

Later this year, each and every member of the House of Representatives is up for reelection. Later this year more than one third of the members of the United States Senate will have to face their constituents. They need to be reminded that they work for us, We the People!

However, the practice of good citizenship does not end in the voting booth, it only begins there.

The large scale apathy demonstrated by citizens of this nation has emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups. There is much that we cannot do but there is one thing that We the People absolutely must do- we must stop sitting on the sidelines!

The collective failure of We the People to get involved in make our concerns known to our politicians have nearly made the concerns of the great majority of the citizens of this nation all but irrelevant to the politicians.I implore you to get involved!

If this situation concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!

All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!

We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.

This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!

You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!

Lead, follow or get out of the way!

-michael cutler-