Americans should get the first crack at jobs this country creates.

Outstanding. Couldn't have written a better one myself. I used to write letters like this to Diane Feinstein, but she doesn't care. Her office used to write me back telling me I was unemployed because I wasn't smart enough, despite being tech lead on several major commerical software products. And despite having to TRAIN my 3rd world replacements who just got off the plane and who were supposed to be brilliant and smart than I am.

You might also mention something about Title 8, Section 1182 - INADMISSIBLE ALIENS.

"TITLE 8 > CHAPTER 12 > SUBCHAPTER II > Part II > § 1182
§ 1182. Inadmissible aliens

(a) Classes of aliens ineligible for visas or admission
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:

...

(D) Immigrant membership in totalitarian party
(i) In general Any immigrant who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate thereof), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible.

...

(5) Labor certification and qualifications for certain immigrants
Labor certification
(i) In general Any alien who seeks to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor is inadmissible, unless the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General that—
(I) there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified (or equally qualified in the case of an alien described in clause (ii)) and available at the time of application for a visa and admission to the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor, and
(II) the employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed."

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you can find your congress representatives at
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

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you can find your senators at
http://www.senate.gov/
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zip plus 4 lookup: (required if you live in a congressional district that may have different congress reps)
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
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a lot of them have a web form where you can enter your email; so it's just a matter of "cutting and
pasting" the text

Yes, 65K per year sounds small, but not only is it cumulative, it's also meaningless. Many foreigners can get H-1Bs without it being counted against the yearly cap - such as those working for nonprofits and universities. Don't forget the extra 20K per year who can work here just because they got a graduate degree from a US university. Also, for three years after 2000, the yearly cap for regular H-1B employees was raised to 195K. And, they can renew their visas almost indefinitely. Only a few of them ever go home. There could easily be over 3 million of them hanging on here, taking jobs Americans could easily do and would love to have. And our government has no idea how many of them are here.

tunnel rat

love your website, have read every posting
wish there were more websites like this

please ask your readers to join my new linkedin group "End H1B"
I need more group members

wondered if you saw the recent articles about that fake university
in cali where thousands of slumdogs were using the fake university
to take jobs using CPT/OPT, lots of companies are using the CPT/OPT
to get around the H-1B barriers, think it was called "tri-valley"

www.mercurynews.com/.../ci_17151508?nclick_check=1

also, in case you can help out a fellow tech insurgent, I was in QA software
testing over at Alcatel-Lucent (30% slumdogs), if you know of any hiring please
let me know, thanks

Hi,

  This is great; I made a few changes to punch it up a little.  It will probably continue to evolve as others review it:
********************************************************************************
  I encourage you to take steps to reform and reduce the H-1B visa program, which has been widely abused.

The original purpose of the H-1B program was to bring in a limited number of skilled, temporary workers for positions that, in theory, could not be filled by domestic workers. Utilization of specialized talents to improve business and technology initiatives is a positive strategy.

However, there are two problems with this program:
1.  Corporate America has been using H-1B workers as source of cheap labor to displace highly-capable Americans for nearly two decades. These foreign workers often have trumped-up credentials, language and cultural incompatabilities with American corporate environments, and are produce sub-standard work products.  

2.  When an H-1B obtains a green card and/or gets promoted to a managerial position, he/she tends to hire within his/her own culture, thus exacerbating the importation of more H-1B workers.

This program has seriously damaged the American Information Technology sector by displacing qualified workers and discouraging future students from entering technological disciplines.

With unemployment over 9 percent for the last 20 consecutive months, it is unconscionable that businesses are importing foreign workers instead of hiring qualified American workers.

A new study from the GAO admits that no one knows the total number of H-1B workers in the U.S. at any one time. Industry advocates like to mention the 65,000 annual cap because that figure seems small, but they conceal the total number of American jobs displaced by this program.

In addition, we are giving large numbers of foreign nationals access to our information infrastructure, causing potential security issues.

Millions of qualified Americans have lost jobs during this recession. I hope you will support efforts to track the total number of workers who arrive on these visas and stay in this country, as well as efforts to reduce the total number of these visas granted.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
********************************************************************************  

Joshua,

The first thing you can do is to stop supporting that fat fuck Reid Hoffman's site, LinkedIn. He's one of the biggest proponents and employers of H-1B slumdogs, and here you are supporting his website by using it. BOYCOTT IT.

Until naive Americans understand that we have to hit corporate America where it hurts - in their bottom line, things will never improve. Wake up.

James

lets relax here, we are on the same side
lets not insult and fight each other, it only gives the other side more

i understand your feelings on linkedin, but for me
the same problem exists if you use a cellphone or laptop
I dont remember anytime a boycott has really accomplished anything
plus these companies have long been looking outside the US anyway for customers

best idea is for us to remain civil, present our ideas
clearly and precisely and try to get the word out to mainstreamers
thats why I like washtech.org, its not too off-centre for garnering
a larger support voice

i support your choice to boycott regardless
but the best way for us to forward our issue is to remain calm
relaxed and civil, and try not to go too racist, this will
alienate the mainstream, I for one have no problem with any race,
i would be against the H-1B program if it was fully Dubliners, Londoners,
Australians, or Canadians who were using it
I have been outsourced and out of work for 2.2 years so I understand
your anger, but lets not lose site of our goals here, ok

take care

They are pouring in through Texas now too. It's like a plague of locusts.

www.latimes.com/.../...ns-20110206,0,3295315.story

Thousands from India have entered Texas illegally from Mexico in the last year. Most are Sikhs who claim religious persecution
Reporting from Harlingen, Texas — Thousands of immigrants from India have crossed into the United States illegally at the southern tip of Texas in the last year, part of a mysterious and rapidly growing human-smuggling pipeline that is backing up court dockets, filling detention centers and triggering investigations.

The immigrants, mostly young men from poor villages, say they are fleeing religious and political persecution. More than 1,600 Indians have been caught since the influx began here early last year, while an undetermined number, perhaps thousands, are believed to have sneaked through undetected, according to U.S. border authorities.

Hundreds have been released on their own recognizance or after posting bond. They catch buses or go to local Indian-run motels before flying north for the final leg of their months-long journeys.

"It was long … dangerous, very dangerous," said one young man wearing a turban outside the bus station in the Rio Grande Valley town of Harlingen.

The Indian migration in some ways mirrors the journeys of previous waves of immigrants from far-flung places, such as China and Brazil, who have illegally crossed the U.S. border here. But the suddenness and still-undetermined cause of the Indian migration baffles many border authorities and judges.

The trend has caught the attention of anti-terrorism officials because of the pipeline's efficiency in delivering to America's doorstep large numbers of people from a troubled region. Authorities interview the immigrants, most of whom arrive with no documents, to ensure that people from neighboring Pakistan or Middle Eastern countries are not slipping through.

There is no evidence that terrorists are using the smuggling pipeline, FBI and Department of Homeland Security officials said.

The influx shows signs of accelerating: About 650 Indians were arrested in southern Texas in the last three months of 2010 alone. Indians are now the largest group of immigrants other than Latin Americans being caught at the Southwest border.

The migration is the "most significant" human-smuggling trend being tracked by U.S. authorities, said Kumar Kibble, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. In 2009, the Border Patrol arrested only 99 Indians along the entire Southwest border.

"It's a dramatic increase," Kibble said. "We do want to monitor these pipelines and shut them down because it is a vulnerability. They could either knowingly or unknowingly smuggle people into the U.S. that pose a national security threat."

Most of the immigrants say they are from the Punjab or Gujarat states. They are largely Sikhs who say they face religious persecution, or members of the Bharatiya Janata Party who say they are targeted for beatings by members of the National Congress Party.

But analysts and human rights monitors say political conditions in India don't explain the migration. There is no evidence of the kind of persecution that would prompt a mass exodus, they say, and Sikhs haven't been targets since the 1980s. The prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh, is a Sikh.

"There is no reason to believe these claims have any truth to them," said Sumit Ganguly, a political science professor and director of the India Studies Program at Indiana University.

Some authorities think the immigrants are simply seeking economic opportunities and are willing to pay $12,000 to $20,000 to groups that smuggle them to staging grounds in northern Mexico. Kibble said smugglers may have shifted to the Southwest after ICE dismantled visa fraud rings that brought Indians to the Northeast.

Many Indians begin their journey by flying from Mumbai to Dubai, then to South American countries such as Ecuador or Venezuela, according to authorities and immigration attorneys. Guatemala has emerged as the key transit hub into Mexico, they said. The roundabout journeys are necessary because Mexico requires visas for Indians.

They sneak across the dangerous Guatemala-Mexico border and take buses or private vehicles to the closest U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican organized crime groups are suspected of being involved either in running the operations or in charging groups tolls to pass through their territory.

The Indians usually wade across the Rio Grande, and then are shuttled from stash houses to transportation rings that take them north. David Aguilar, deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, said he believed a high percentage were caught as soon as they crossed the river.

"We very intensely interview, look at their backgrounds, check them against any watch list," Aguilar said, adding that although India is not considered a "special interest" source country for terrorists, the undocumented immigrants are scrutinized as if it were.

The detainees eventually claim asylum. In January, immigration court calendars at the area's two main detention facilities were full of the common Indian surnames Patel and Singh, and attorneys and judges struggled to keep up. Some attorneys had failed to file the necessary forms; interpreters were not always available. Judge Keith Hunsucker said more immigration judges would soon be assigned to handle the increased workload.

Many detained immigrants clear the first hurdle toward a full asylum hearing by convincing asylum officers they have a "credible fear" of persecution if they return to India. They can then post a bond and move anywhere in the United States as long as they agree to appear for their next court date.

Not all show up, however. "That's why I won't take their cases anymore," said Cathy Potter, a local immigration attorney who helped about 20 Indians get freed on bond last year. "It undermines my credibility. I don't want anything to do with this."

It is not clear how many Indians have been granted asylum or deported; immigration officials did not fulfill requests for that information. Judges and attorneys appear to be toughening up, however. Bond amounts have risen sharply in recent months, and attorneys say asylum claims are increasingly being rejected.

Judge William Peterson raised doubts during a recent hearing when a 27-year-old Punjabi woman said she had been beaten and raped, her sari ripped off by several attackers. The petite woman, her long hair in a ponytail, said she was targeted because her husband was a driver for National Congress Party officials.

"I haven't heard you tell me anything that you did on behalf of the party that would irritate these people," Peterson said at the hearing held by video conference.

"We used to give help to the poor. They did not like that," she said. Peterson rejected her claim for a finding of "credible fear," deeming her story inconsistent with statements she had made to an asylum officer. "They're going to kill me. They're going to rape me," she pleaded, wiping away a tear.

But hundreds of immigrants have persuaded asylum officers and judges to grant credible-fear findings, clearing the way for bond hearings.

Hunsucker, an immigration judge at the Port Isabel Detention Center near Brownsville, set bond amounts ranging from $15,000 to $40,000 for 10 Indians one recent morning.

Most said they had relatives or friends in the U.S. willing to sponsor them, though the judge raised concerns about some. In one case, a young man said his sponsor was his cousin, a woman. But the faxed identification document of the cousin showed a picture of a man with a beard. The bond was set at $15,000.

Once released, the immigrants are transported to the Greyhound bus station in downtown Harlingen. One recent evening, 10 Indians crowded around pay telephones and the bus counter, struggling with limited English skills to arrange travel.

One young man paid for a $204, two-day bus ride to New York City. When the clerk asked his name, he handed over his detention center ID wristband.

A young man wearing a turban asked the clerk for information on the next bus to Indiana. He spoke broken English and later tried to provide details about his journey, but other immigrants nudged him to keep quiet. The trip was worth it, he said, adding, "I'm happy, because it's safe" in the U.S.

Outside, motel operators offered to shuttle the men to their nearby quarters. Shoving matches between motel operators have broken out in recent weeks as they compete to fill their $44-per-night rooms with immigrants.

The Indians are largely unseen in the towns along the Rio Grande Valley, where they disappear into detention centers, stash houses or motel rooms. Some Sikhs have been confronted by locals alarmed by the sight of people wearing turbans, motel workers say.

Federal agents investigating human-smuggling rings have visited at least one motel, America's Best Value Inn in Raymondville, workers said. General Manager Kevin Patel denied any wrongdoing.

He houses about 20 Indians per week, he said, shuttling them to and from the bus station and printing out airline boarding passes. He serves them meals in his motel apartment, often the first Indian food they've had in months, he said.

One recent guest, Bharat Panchal, 37, said he was released from detention in late January after friends posted his $20,000 bond. India had become dangerous, he said, because of political unrest in his home state of Gujarat. He was flying later that day to Los Angeles to live with a friend, he said.

Patel said the sudden appearance of Indian immigrants in southern Texas baffled him.

"When they first showed up, I scratched my head a little bit," Patel said. But he has opened his doors and makes the immigrants feel at home.

"They need a place to stay," he said. "They need food. They speak my language, so of course, as a human being, I can help them out."