Bernie Sanders: A loophole in immigration law is costing thousands of American jobs

[Playinghardball]

By: Michael Hiltzik

Los Angeles Times

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Imagine getting a layoff notice, then being ordered to train your replacement.

That's what has happened to hundreds of information technology employees at Southern California Edison. Since last summer, Edison, which serves nearly 14 million customers, has been firing its domestic IT workers and replacing them with outsourced employees from India.

In doing so, the utility is exploiting a gaping loophole in immigration law, which Congress has failed to close despite years of warnings that it's costing thousands of American jobs.

The Indian workers are brought in on H-1B visas, which are temporary work permits for "specialty occupations" — those requiring "highly specialized knowledge" and a bachelor's degree.

The purpose is to allow employers to fill slots for which adequately trained Americans aren't available, not to replace existing workers with cheap foreign labor. That's why employers such as Google and Microsoft, which say they're short of highly trained software engineers, have lobbied hard to expand the program beyond the 65,000 visas available annually. These high-tech companies say they can't meet their needs from the pool of U.S. graduates in STEM specialties — science, technology, engineering and math.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/must-read/a-loophole-in-immigration-law-is-costing-thousands-of-american-jobs

[Smithryee]

1. I'm in IT.

Been looking for a job for 10 years....

Fortunately I get by with my own business, and would love to have this unique opportunity to get a real IT job to go along with my business.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. My son graduated in Dec. with a Computer Science degree and still doesn't have

a job. Hundreds of resumes and applications and just a single nibble that looks like it may peter out.

[cascadiance]

3. Basically our government is saying it is more important to keep the rich happy...

... than it is to have Americans stay in the lead of the tech world that they helped build to start with.

They are F'ING us in the tech industry. It has become a contract job world for many of us, that makes it hard for any of us to build on a career and decent expertise in certain areas, when we are moving in and out of jobs temporarily, living off of unemployment and our savings. It's a nightmare for many of us to be out of work now during tax time again and to have to pay the tons of money we owe for IRAs that we've cached in on last year in taxes and penalties.

It's amazing that there are still kids getting out of school with huge debt that want to enter this field any more here in this country with the system so rigged against them to make a decent living to pay them off for the hard work they have to put in to be a part of it. If our government wonders why there is a "shortage" of people entering this work force that supposedly is the reason to expand such programs, they should look at themselves for rigging the system against those that might really want to be a part of it!

There are other industries for smart kids these days to get in to that don't outsource their talents as much, even if these industries such as Wall Street and law, don't really build a product like the tech sector has that is something that can be used to build our national wealth in the future instead of just exploiting things like gambling and problems brought on by legislation going crazy that has people need legal protection. We're on a spin downward, and it is time our lawmakers realize that they shouldn't be living off of corruption money any more!

[closeupready]

4. As a pro-immigration Democrat, I say shut down the H1-B visa program NOW.

Until these loopholes are plugged.

[appalachiablue]

5. +10. It's not just CA Edison doing this, employers have been laying off & making people train

replacement workers in STEM for years. I've seen documentaries on FSTV where they speak about it, and here among a number of DUers, qualified tech workers who obtained degrees and employment then to find themselves replaced by cheaper, mobile foreign H1-B workers. I'm also a pro-immigration Democrat but this policy is really hurting the US. The heck with politicians doing favors for big business that wants cheap labor.

There's a buy-partisan group of legislators currently working now to EXPAND the H1-B VISA program.
*Part of the scam that, 'there are no US workers for the job' is that there aren't domestic applicants to work for the LOWER SALARY posted with the jobs !- that's the catch that's left out. It's near impossible in the US with any kind of decent standard of living.

Young people majoring in computer science/IT better be ware- but don't count on them or their families learning this from M$M, the corporate news, or US colleges and schools. Kudos to Sen. Sanders for being practically the sole voice of truth about this issue and many others!

[woo me with science]

6. K&R

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. Does this train of thought have any application to the jobs lost in blue-collar occupations?

C'mon Bernie, you're almost there.