Big Surprise: Express-News Supports More Skilled Immigrants

[Nbadan]

I'm still not sure how letting in more skilled immigrants to take high paying American jobs helps our national interests, but if the Express-News says it, it must be true...

Editorial: Raising the H1-B quota serves national interest
Web Posted: 07/10/2006 12:01 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News

While the debate about illegal immigration has careened off the political tracks, an equally important discussion about legal immigration has actually generated some progress in Washington.

Both the Senate and the House have advanced bipartisan legislation that would raise the quota on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers.

The top three categories for H-1B applicants are information system analysts and programmers, computer-related occupations and college professors and researchers. H-1B visas allow U.S. businesses, universities and other research ins utions to draw on an international talent pool of the best and the brightest.

But H-1B visas are now capped at an unrealistically low level. In 2004, Congress reimposed a limit of 65,000 H-1B visas annually.

For fiscal year 2006, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it had received enough applications to meet the quota more than a month before the year began. For fiscal year 2007, which begins Oct. 1, USCIS received enough applications to fill the allotment last month.

The legislation under consideration in Congress would lift the cap from 65,000 to 115,000 H1-B visas annually. That's a very modest increase of only 50,000 skilled job seekers in an economy that employs nearly 150 million. But those immigrants are critical for keeping the nation's compe ive edge in science, technology and medical research.

Creating rational policies for legal immigration is one part of a solution to the illegal immigration problem. Raising the H1-B quota serves the national interest and is the unimaginably — for this Congress — pragmatic thing to do.

Editorial, Express-News

Most of these skilled immigrants live 10 to an apartment until they can get on their feet and they send a great deal of their money back to their home countries, thus draining local and state economies of future taxes. Besides, if we really wanted to keep our National compe ive edge we would support things like stem cell research and the government would be looking for ways to make American automobiles more reliable and fuel efficient, like Japan did for decades with it's auto industry.

The U.S. has one of the highest per capita degree and graduate degree ratios in the world, so bringing in foreign workers just to save a few dollars benefits mostly the employer's bottom-line, but it also undermines the potential earning capability of all higher wage earners in the U.S. because of the monetary multiplication effect that we lose when dollars leave the U.S. system.

[boutons_]

When the H1-B visas were big news a few years ago, and the corps were fighting to get the quota raised while ing about the shortage of US engineers and scientists, the US engineering/science community showed clearly that the problem was not a lack of US talent as the US companies claimed, but really an abundance of $40K/year foreign talent who overworked 80 hours/week available to replace $85K/year US talent who overworked only 60 hours/week.

The real shortage was US talent that was willing to work for peanuts and low/no benefits.

[xrayzebra]

And then you have a new law being considered in England. Of course the government
is drawing the wrath of business, but unlike our government, if they want the law
it will become law. And will be enforced.



The Sunday Times July 16, 2006

Directors to be struck off for hiring illegal migrants
David Cracknell and David Leppard

COMPANY directors could be struck off and their firm’s assets seized if they are caught employing illegal workers, under proposals being drawn up by the home secretary.

John Reid’s measures are designed to tackle the estimated 570,000 illegal immigrants, many of whom are believed to work in the construction industry, the rag trade, in pubs or as le and fruit pickers.

However, Reid’s plans will cover any company that is caught employing illicit entrants, and the effects may also be felt by large firms such as the supermarket chains.

Under the proposed new laws being discussed by the Home Office, there will be a “two strikes and you’re out” rule, under which the board of a company could potentially be dismissed if two or more breaches of the law are discovered.

The new laws would also allow police to seize the assets or profits of a company that are proved to have been made through work carried out by illegal workers. The rules would also apply if illegal workers were employed by any sub-contractors used by the firm.

Reid plans a big increase in fines for businesses that break the law. His proposals are designed to counter Tory criticism by taking a hard line on illegal immigration.

Reid’s plans have raised concern at the Department for Trade and Industry that the powers are too draconian, and the Confederation of British Industry says they place too much of a burden on businesses.

Officials are still working out how far prosecutors would have to go in establishing whether companies knowingly employed illegal immigrants who might have fake do ents.

Ministers admit their estimate of 570,000 illegal immigrants is uncertain. The pressure group Migration Watch claims it could be up to 1.5m.

Reid faced embarrassment when it emerged, a few weeks into his new role, that illegal immigrants from Nigeria were working as cleaners at the Immigration Directorate in London.

Under other changes to be announced by Reid this week, police are to be given powers to impose control orders on organised gangsters to try to thwart their criminal activity.

Police will be able to apply to High Court judges for civil orders to put suspected drug traffickers, people smugglers and other crime bosses under virtual house arrest.

The orders will ban suspects from travelling to certain areas and subject them to other curbs such as use of bank accounts, telephones and the internet.

Whitehall officials say that the orders, dubbed “superAsbos”, are designed to target individuals suspected by police of involvement in serious crime, but where there is not enough evidence to prosecute them. The idea has the backing of Tony Blair, who floated the plan this year.

The new powers will be given to the Serious Organised Crime Agency set up earlier this year.

=-================================================== ========

Talk about tough law. Wonder if we could get such a law to be even proposed
in our Congress.........LOl