Working Americans Hoodwinked Again!

Yesterday was a bad day for working Americans... the Employee Free Choice act failed to pass and cloture was invoked on the very worker unfriendly Immigration Bill...

Yet, things were looking deceptively brighter for working Americans.  The Durbin-Grassley amendments that limited H1-B visa abuses were still in the bill.  In addition, several other amendments would be up for consideration over the next few days:

Could this be too good to be true?  It turns out that it is...

More on the flip.....

The following ammendments were to be considered:

McCaskill-Durbin-Grassley SA 1468

The current bill Language includes up to a two year ban on federal contracts, grants or cooperative agreements to employers who are repeat violators of hiring illegal immigrants. Senator McCaskill believes that the two-year ban is too weak. Her amendment would strengthen that language by banning repeat violators from federal contracts, grants and/or cooperative agreements for a minimum of five years.  The Federal government should not condone the behavior of employers who knowingly violate our immigration laws by doing business with them.

SA 1332 Sanders-GrassleyAmmendment

Prohibits companies that have announced mass lay-offs from receiving any new visas, unless these companies could prove that overall employment at their companies would not be reduced by these lay-offs.

An uneasy peace came over me... Suddenly, this bill seemed almost palatable to working professionals...  That can't be right... while the increase in H1B visas is certainly unacceptable, this bill would have significant restrictions associated with it...  In fact, the tech industry is appalled at the status of the bill:

High-tech companies were surprised and upset by the bill that emerged last month from secret Senate negotiations. E. John Krumholtz, director of federal affairs at Microsoft, said the bill was "worse than the status quo, and the status quo is a disaster."

Anything the tech industry hates so much can't be that bad can it?

But, something was wrong.... things were too good to be true...

There was one amendment missing from the list.... the dreaded Kyl-Cantwell amendment:

Under the Kyl-Cantwell proposal, 20,000 green cards would be set aside each year for immigrants of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers and certain managers and executives of multinational corporations. The original bill would have eliminated the existing preference for such workers.

In addition, the amendment would give employers five years to adjust their hiring practices to the new "merit-based" point system for obtaining green cards.

This summary does not do the proposal justice...  It has many loopholes that allow unlimited exceptions to the visa limits...

So, where was this amendment?  Why wasn't it on the list?

It turns out that the Kyl-Cantwell amendment is being rolled into the Durbin-Grassley ammendments into one big package.

In other words, a vote for H1B protections is now a vote for unlimited H1B expansion!!!!!!!!

IT IS A TROJAN HORSE!!!!

The details are a bit hazy at the moment... these are all back room deals being done behind closed doors and the mainstream media completely ignores the devastating effects of these temporary worker programs on the American Middle Class.  

One thing is for sure, the massive clout of the tech industry is going to present itself somehow, some way into this bill... whether it be by hook or crook...   so, there is only one option left...

CONTACT YOUR SENATORS ASAP AND TELL THEM TO VOTE "NO" ON CLOTURE FOR S. 1639

Call.... Fax... FedEx...  Do whatever you can!!!

THE VOTE IS TOMORROW (Thursday)... DO NOT DELAY!!!!!!

At this point, there seems to be no other choice... The future of America's middle class is in your hands!

Thanks,

Mike

•  Oh Lord Mike

  Read your email I just sent something...

  the amendment has changed to be loaded with the Cantwell amendment.  This is a major disaster to working America.

  (Sanders amendment still aok).

  by BobOak on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:02:23 PM PDT

  •  reworded it...

    is that more accurate?

    Thanks,

    Mike

    by LordMike on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:06:48 PM PDT

  •  oh never mind

    You saw it.  I didn't read the whole thing.

    

    by BobOak on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:07:11 PM PDT

    •  reworded it...

      ...so that the reader knows it's bad news right from the beginning.

      Thanks,

      Mike

      by LordMike on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:13:43 PM PDT

•  Just say no

  There is no other choice here.  We clearly just do not have enough Senators to withstand the onslaught of Corporate America and their hordes of lobbyists with their demands.  Just so everyone knows, I think Durbin has been trying like hell to get reforms passed and unfortunately he just got gutted.  

  So, the only choice is to defeat the entire bill.

  I liken corporate lobbyists destroying our nation to:

  

  by BobOak on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:15:23 PM PDT

•  Good Lord, the terrorists

  don't have to sabotage us...our own government is doing it.  

  by piec on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:19:41 PM PDT

•  Cloture vote tomorrow morning

  Please call your Senators and demand they vote no on cloture to kill this bill.

  The vote is ~10:50am tomorrow morning so the only way to get through is to call and FAX.

  Please call and make sure they know you are a Democrat for it's pretty clear the Corporate lobbyists have taken over this bill and it's a plain disaster for working America.

  by BobOak on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:42:26 PM PDT

•   Bill Number Thursday AM?

  Are we talking about S.1348  or   S.1639?

  by uscitizenvoter on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:50:16 PM PDT

  •  S. 1639

    the other bill is essentially dead... 1639 is the revival of that bill...

    So, I understand....

    Thanks,

    Mike

    by LordMike on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 09:52:33 PM PDT

•  H1-B and L1

  What's wrong with...

  immigrants of extraordinary ability, outstanding professors and researchers and certain managers and executives of multinational corporations

  It seems to me that these people have a lot to offer.

  I've worked side-by-side with literally hundreds of H1-B immigrants these last 7 years. They've been good colleagues. Most of them convert to PR/citizen as soon as they legally can and seem in every way to be upholders of American values.

  I see L1 listed in the tags, though no mention of it in the diary. If it's what I'm thinking of, this is a kind of visa that really is abused.

  I worked as a consultant at one large company that had outsourced a lot of their Information Services to Wipro. What really bothered me was that they had dozens of Wipro employees onsite in the US. These people were working at substantially lower wages and staying for many months (sometimes more than a year) at a time. That certainly seems like an abuse to me.

  by Demi Moaned on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 10:11:59 PM PDT

  •   It's not about being a good colleague

    In the last part of your comments, you are absolutely correct.  The L-1 visa has even more loopholes to exploit.  Mike Emmons, who worked at Siemens, in Florida, is on the record about this.

    I don't care that these foreign nationals "have a lot to offer."  The fact of the matter is these foreign nationals are very frequently brought over by Indian companies, using OUR OWN United States legislated visa programs, consequently driving down the wages of entire high-wage, high-skilled labor markets, i.e., American citizens.  These visa programs, legislated by our own politicians, are being used against American citizens, and are a de facto cheap labor subsidy to American businesses, such as Best Buy (that recently had to "settle a case").  American and Indian consulting firms are, in a cynical and calculated way, driving down the wages of American citizens, and consequently our standard of living; this also is leading to discrimination against American citizens in our own country.  I  thought the civil rights movement and EEOC was about not allowing this.  India would never allow this; certainly also not European governments.  

    I have seen Michael Moore's movie "Sicko".  It was mentioned that in France, the government is afraid of the people.  We need to make our government afraid (vote out the treasonous bums) so that these politicians stop screwing with their fellow American citizens' livelihoods, and start representing American constituents, the way Bernie Sanders, Claire McCaskill, Byron Dorgan, etc. have been doing.

    by uscitizenvoter on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 11:01:16 PM PDT

    •  Do you favor immigration?

      I think the real question is, should it be our policy to encourage immigration to the US? If you say, "No", then that's that. But it seems to me most people around here would say, "Yes".

      If so, then the follow-up question is: Whom should we most encourage to immigrate? It seems to me that there's a large sentiment in favor of agricultural laborers here.

      I don't care that these foreign nationals "have a lot to offer."

      For other countries that encourage immigration (notably Canada and Australia) the skillset of the prospective immigrant is a big factor. Doesn't that make sense for us too.

      Maybe the H1-B is a flawed mechanism. But people with high skillsets will mostly only want to enter legally. If so, what is a good way to handle this?

      by Demi Moaned on Wed Jun 27, 2007 at 11:17:28 PM PDT

      •  If life were only as simplistic

        as this point of view.  People who are opposed to guest workers and H-1B visas are not opposed to immigrants, and you know it.  Your straw man argument is a talking point designed to enflame.   You can conflate what you want, Rove does. Once tactics become the same, other similarities become transparent.    

        by dkmich on Thu Jun 28, 2007 at 02:41:17 AM PDT

        •  You are the one inflaming the discourse

          I posed this as a sincere question.

          I don't pretend to be an expert on the matter. I acknowledged that maybe H1-B was not a good mechanism and asked for alternatives. And then you go and compare me to Rove.

          by Demi Moaned on Thu Jun 28, 2007 at 04:23:54 PM PDT

      •  H1B is not immigration!

        It's a "guest worker" program that is akin to slave labor.

        Thanks,

        Mike

        by LordMike on Thu Jun 28, 2007 at 04:16:06 AM PDT

•  Bad moon rising

  I could think of no better way that to sow seeds of discontent and rebellion than ram this bill through the Senate, despite constituent opposition.  

  It's almost as though our Government wants to create domestic instability.  

  by pkbarbiedoll on Thu Jun 28, 2007 at 05:16:16 AM PDT