That has the possibility of maybe leading to an interview some time or other.

an unpaid internship, in hope the unpaid work might lead to finding an interview, that might lead to a job offer

hard to see how citizens are harmed in any of this

Bootstraps, they're what's for dinner.

...his tongue was so far in his cheek he was wet-kissing his own ear.

If there are 12 million people out of work and 65000 H-1bs, what of the 12 mil - 65000?

This guy has a professional degree in a science field. What is the unemployment rate for that profession? I'd be interested to know, since the unemployment of the latest rescission really didn't affect professionals much, but sales and especially construction.

Americans out of work.

Nice.

Weird.

anyone limiting themselves to a small non tech area like the DFW metroplex just because they would have to give up their children if they didn't obviously isn't serious about their search

it's selfish for him to think that that thousands of h-1bs issued in DFW had anything to do with it, every single one of them was doing a job that no american could possibly do, even if they were trained by a citizen they replaced

Do you have a link to whomever you are agreeing with?

You seem to be having a sarcastic argument with someone. It's just not clear who that may be.

so yes, he does lose a child if he does

It arises from all kinds of reasons - moving to be nearer extended family for support, etc. People work something out.

I know some who moved to be nearer home. The kids flew out to see their other parent or there other parent flew here. Nothing to do with jobs. Another relative did move to where his ex-spouse moved (luckily got a job there) just to be near the kid.

Your statement is unjustified.

What has happened here?

Doesn't anybody support America's working people?

send it to Boehner and Cantor. Send it to Romney too.

Maybe they'll help him before they help the other 12 million people still looking for work.

but that hardly excuses the democratic role in it

"it is a bi-partisan sellout, to be sure but that hardly excuses the democratic role in it"

...the "Democratic role" in the economic crisis? I mean, maybe the job market is keeping him from getting a job like the other 12 million Americans. I'm sure many of them are highly-educated and skilled professionals.

Clueless in the White House
82 Comments. What's this?TAGS:H-1B, Obama, offshore outsourcing
IT TOPICS:Government & Regulation
Vice President Joe Biden doesn’t know a thing about the H-1B visa.

There is one basic fact about this temporary work visa that everyone in political office, or running for political office, ought to understand and it is this: There’s almost nothing to stop an employer from replacing a U.S. worker with an H-1B visa holder.

U.S. IT workers understand this, especially those who have had to train their visa-holding replacement.

The idea that a visa holder can’t replace a U.S. worker is a widely held fiction with many in elected office, including Biden.

Biden was asked about the H-1B visa by a reporter at KWQC News in Iowa.

The reporter’s question: Are too many H-1B visas given out each year? Are too many highly skilled jobs going to people outside the United States?

Biden’s response: No H-1B visa can be granted to an employee to come to a company unless they can prove there is no American to fill the job. What we have had is a real vacuum in the number of computer engineers and high tech personnel to work in particularly Silicon Valley that's where most of those H-1B visas are going that's why we have made it so attractive and I don't understand why Republicans have opposed us. Three million more kids are able to get to college because of Pell grants we provide for 2500 tax credit off …. (See KWQC transcript for the rest of the answer).


The reporter interviewing Biden, Joe St. George, asked a great question. It tied the H-1B visa to the offshoring of jobs. Even if Biden didn’t know anything about the H-1B visa, he could have discussed the second part of the question, which asked if too many highly skilled jobs were going offshore. Instead, Biden went on about a labor shortage of highly skilled jobs.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/19965/clueless_in_the_white_house

...describing Biden as "Clueless in the White House" is responsible for the economic crisis?

and answering with false information about citizen displacement when asked about it

and the H-1b program displaces citizens because of those who say it doesn't

if everyone told the truth, like Dick Durbin(D-IL) or Charles Grassley(R-IA) or Bernie Sanders (Independent Socialist-VT) that it DOES displace citizens, there would be the will to stop it from doing so

false information is aid and comfort to corporations who displace citizens with cheap labor

With that bill that Sanders, Durbin and Grassley were all working on about this visa problem?

It sounded promising and then I never heard a word about it again.

the same as 'H-1b dependent' requiring them to check for available Americans first

Grassley's bill still exists out there, and he tried to push it to Obama during the incident in the OP. I dont know where Durbin stands on it now, but his 2007 senate floor speech was a great step forward for the truth

How did the financial firms "prove" they tried to hire US citizens first?

I did find this on Durbin, which is from 2010:

Senator Schumer: H-1B use undercuts pay, discourages tech enrollments

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180646/Senator_Schumer_H_1B_use_undercuts_pay_discourages_tech_enrollments

I did find this to be rather disturbing:

Senate's H-1B foes begin new attack


Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- With the cap on H-1B visas reached last week, proponents have renewed calls for a higher cap. But two leading critics of the program may be getting ready to seek new restrictions on the use of foreign labor.

U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter Monday to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano that outlined their concerns with the H-1B program. They were responding to a Government Accountability Office report this month that recommends reforms to the visa program.

Among the changes the GAO is seeking is better accounting of H-1B use. The government doesn't know how many H-1B workers there are in the U.S. or how many stay after their visas expire, the watchdog agency said.

The the senators wrote, "We are deeply troubled that DHS has no idea how many H-1B visa holders are working in the United States at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9207458/Senate_s_H_1B_foes_begin_new_attack

"Biden has been in congress or VP since 1972"

...what does that have to do with causing the economic crisis and this person being out of a job?

I'm fairly certain that if the Obama administration sees an opening to protect U.S. workers, they will take it.

but i think defending the administration's role in the H-1b program, or the program itself, is a losing position


?w=480

That person will happily tell you that:

1. Immigrants are the cause of our jobs issues
2. It is the Democrats' and President Obama's fault that we have immigration issues
3. There is no bigotry towards blacks or women
4. White males are the ones who suffer the lions share of discrimination.

That paints a picture of someone who really doesnt belong on this site, but we'll see how long it lasts.

And it is noted that you defend this kind of poster. Anti-immigrant, arguing that racism against white men is the most prevalent, etc. Hope you are happy being noted for defending those things.

There's a conservative board called Yet Another Politics Board which is hosted on Yuku forums. (A person has to register at Yuku to read that board but it's easy)

Right wing men post the exactly same thoughts as I've read here. There's some think tank site where they get talking points. I can't recall the name.

And of course we all know that Presidents are utterly powerless Masters of Ceremony that are only for hosting dinners and ribbon cuttings at strip malls.

Oh wait, it could be worse...

Maybe he should go back to community college and get training in something else... I hear McD and Walmart are hiring.

Ya know, everybody has to lower their standard of living a bit, so the rest of the world can increase theirs!

He should've told his wife, "Go easy on that 'dance a jig for me' thing you're planning on doing. We both hate Obama because he's a Kenyan Marxist, but lie a little bit. Don't show your true colors. We're republicans, we lie all the time."

the guy might be a total asshole during an interview, have a poor employment history, or crappy hygiene for all we know. The 'dance a jig' request from his wife was certainly telling though.

She seems to take more initiative, than her husband.

..and it's gotten to the point I will no longer look at that account because I feel I'm being job spammed.

Even if 25% on a daily bases are DFW legit it's still 2 a day minimum.

Recruiters could care less if you're active looking, they'll call you during a meeting and not introduce via vmail to get a call back.

I've been working with Java since 1999....

I don't like the way the H1\L1 program is being implemented but if they're having THIS much trouble in DFW he either doesn't have the correct skill sets or isn't looking very hard.

IT has been blowing up for open source and MS skills

if it's really that easy, and you're going to weigh in on his situation

sounds like it would be no skin off your nose, you're being spammed, right?

A semiconductor engineer is plug compatible with a java developer.

Maybe IT has been blowing up in DFW, but not here in DC.

It appears that the man did get some "action" soon after the resume was sent, but the president cannot create a job for him..

Wonder how the interviews went. Thought for certain, given more opportunities, he would've been hired by someone by now.

He apparently did have some nibbles.

There are a lot of well-qualified people who see their opportunities dry up, but cannot make a switch to something else, for whatever reason.

It sucks, but sometimes people have to do that

My son was a crane operator at a steel mill in Seattle, and when his $70K job went away (the mill cut two whole shifts out), he was working at $17 an hour at a recycling facility. He hated it, but it was a job.

Recently they packed up all their stuff and moved with two cars & a 15 yr old cat, to TEXAS.. just in time for tornado season.

It took them a week to get there and then they had to camp out in a friend's basement for 3 weeks, but there was a job offer and he took it.

with it's eerily similar geographic relocation, family separation, downward mobility and temporary accomodations/employment?

I thought we elected Democrats to STOP that?!?

The issue is why are we still flooding the job market, and that hasnt been answered

The macro, unfortunately, is left to the politicians, who almost always disappoint us

Luckily for our son, they were renters and have no kids, so a move made sense to them.

In MY life, we have had to move many times for a job.

1970---Kansas to Indiana
1977---Indiana back to Kansas
1979--- Kansas to Colorado
1979---Colorado to New Mexico
1980--- New Mexico to California


all with ONE company, but we were hostage to the medical coverage for a handicapped child, so they jerked us around royally.. They knew we HAD to go wherever/whenever.

From 1979 we were moving with two cars/ 3 kids under 6, a dog & a cat.. It's (luckily) all a blur now, but it was most unpleasant at the time

why the job market is being flooded in a recession

you're supposed to be able to ask a party of working people questions like that

this is, a site about politics and policy

The President absolutely is responsible for that engineer not finding the job he wants where he wants it.

It's not enough that the President helped generate the publicity that directed tons of interest in the engineer's direction.

The President should have gone on the interviews on behalf of the engineer. Then again, I am sure OP would still have an issue if Obama had done that. For a visual, see the picture of the dog that the OP himself posted upthread.

I guess he was too busy on that guy's case! Drat the President!

in him *not* getting a job.

The way she spoke to the President it was more important for her to validate her opinion and disparage him than actually asking for help.

"We didn't do the interview with the president to get a job. We did it to get a voice for so many Americans who, like my husband, are in the very same situation."

claiming that the unemployed 'dont want to work'?

isnt that what they always say?

she was just there to make a political point.

I'm no psychologist I can't explain the motivations of every single Republican in detail, but it's no secret that many of them have an emotional investment in seeing America fail.

on the surface, he looked like a guy who had to train his foreign replacement, became despondent and shot himself in his car.

but i think you may be correct, that he was a secret republican operative, doing it to make America fail, and therefore, make the Democratic party look bad

congrats on your insight, you should have been a psychologist, you could have exposed his motivations and perhaps stopped him from doing it, and hurting our nation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Flanagan

Kevin Flanagan was a computer programmer who worked for The Bank of America in Concord, California, USA.

Flanagan shot himself to death in the parking lot of Bank of America's Concord Technology Center (which has been put up for sale by BofA in 2011)[1] after he and colleagues were laid off in April 2003.[citation needed] The lay-offs were due to the company replacing many IT employees with guest-workers who could do the job for less pay. This change included informing the laid-off employees that the remainder of their tenure was to be spent training their replacements

and Republicans in general not about people looking for work in general.

The reality is, we're both making political points and neither of us knows the exact circumstances of the interviews and this guy's skills etc.

Look at 'Joe the Plumber', he decided to lie about his job and taxes because that fitted his political world view. People are like that, sometimes they have more investment in supporting their worldview than actually knuckling down, telling the truth and trying to improve things.

totally unrelated to the case i cited

this is a BI-PARTISAN sellout

meaning the republicans cant bring up the issue either, because they're in on it too

Why not post your blog link about Biden for the 20th time. That would be absurd.

non se·qui·tur noun \ˈnän-ˈse-kwə-tər also -ˌtu̇r\
Definition of NON SEQUITUR
1: an inference that does not follow from the premises; specifically : a fallacy resulting from a simple conversion of a universal affirmative proposition or from the transposition of a condition and its consequent
2: a statement (as a response) that does not follow logically from or is not clearly related to anything previously said

OP shows up in any discussion about privilege arguing against the idea there is white privilege or male privilege and suggesting that people who say such things exist hate white men.

Perhaps she do a "jig" and pray her husband gets a job.

One off examples are always great for speaking to the broader economy dontchaknow, particularly with extremely specialized jobs and prospective employees who dont live in the best regions for those jobs.

Try again? That profession is declining due to automation at semiconductor factories.

you said "Try again? That profession is declining due to automation at semiconductor factories."


but Obama says differently

"After learning that Darin Wedel is a semiconductor engineer, Obama said that "the word we're getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away"

are you disputing the word he's getting? you seem to know a lot about this, more than the rest of us. what's your source?

from

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223975/Engineer_s_wife_ferocious_in_Obama_Q_A_on_H_1Bs

so which is it?

and why is Durbin 'in cahoots' with those who claim H-1b displaces citizen workers? is he uninformed? is he just trying to make democrats look bad? is he really a 'racist? which is it?

http://blog.noslaves.com/senator-durbin-on-h-1b-abuse-outsourcing-and-trading-people-2

from above link, he stated on the senate floor

" recent expose in the International Herald Tribune disclosed that 8 of the top 10 H-1B visa applicants last year were outsourcing firms with major operations in one country–India. So in many cases it wasn’t the American high tech company using the H-1B visa that was given this opportunity but, rather, a firm, more likely in India than any other country, that was given the authority to use H-1B visas to send workers into the United States. The Herald Tribune concluded:

As Indian outsourcing companies have become the leading consumers of the visa, they have used to it further their primary mission, which is to gain the expertise necessary to take on critical tasks performed by companies in the United States and perform them in India at a fraction of the cost.

According to this report, the Indian Government has been lobbying hard for the United States Government to increase the number of H-1B visas.

Kamal Nath, the Indian Commerce Minister, was very blunt when he said recently that the H-1B visa “has become the outsourcing visa.” He concluded: “If at one point you had X amount of outsourcing and now you have a much higher quantum of outsourcing, you need that many more visas.”

That is a very candid statement by this commerce minister in India. It should give us pause as we think about this program, what it was designed to do and what it is actually doing.

In other words, the Indian Government wants more H-1B visas so Indian companies can outsource more American jobs to India."

charged with finding this guy a job? Is it because it wouldn't be politically advantageous to put Perry on the spot?

Now ya done it!

the whole "dance me a jig" line, but the president is so much more tolerant and patient than I. I know this particular o.p. has issues with H1's, but there seems to be some intolerance toward immigrants in his posting history as well. Don't quite know what to make of it.

I heard a panel on NPR, the other day, discussing this topic and a couple of them mentioned that some of these folks (IT) have been out of the labor force, or working outside their field, since 2007 and their skillsets are sorely lacking. I'm all for training and/or retraining the long term unemployed, but employers don't seem to want to wait for that to happen, so what's the president supposed to do about that? He's routinely slammed on this board for being in the pocket of big business for even talking to them, but his critics then turn around and slam him for not being able to pull jobs out of his arse. How do you deal with that kind irrationality?

Don't you think ANY president would want to leave office with the kind of job creation that Bill Clinton enjoyed? But no American president can force a company to hire me. Isn't that what "freedom" is all about?

It says right in the article why he can't get work, despite numerous offers. He has a custody agreement which prevents him from relocating where the work in his field is. There has been absolutely NO evidence presented that he's being displaced because of the immigration law. NONE. All we get is the claim from his wife and articles which haven't come close to proving he's displaced by any foreigner.

Moreover, these foreign workers can leave their home countries to come to America for work. You'd think this man could at least find a way to accept one of the offers that came in, including several in Texas, according to the article.

Holding up the 'jig' woman and her curiously idle husband as an example of the negative effects of this law is a joke. Is he willing to take a job outside of his field? I know I would, before expecting my wife to carry the load while I waited around and used a custody agreement as an excuse.

what do you think made him go over to the dark side of the force?

shouldnt he have checked with you before he said this?

http://blog.noslaves.com/senator-durbin-on-h-1b-abuse-outsourcing-and-trading-people-2

from above link, Durbin said on the Senate floor

" recent expose in the International Herald Tribune disclosed that 8 of the top 10 H-1B visa applicants last year were outsourcing firms with major operations in one country–India. So in many cases it wasn’t the American high tech company using the H-1B visa that was given this opportunity but, rather, a firm, more likely in India than any other country, that was given the authority to use H-1B visas to send workers into the United States. The Herald Tribune concluded:

As Indian outsourcing companies have become the leading consumers of the visa, they have used to it further their primary mission, which is to gain the expertise necessary to take on critical tasks performed by companies in the United States and perform them in India at a fraction of the cost.

According to this report, the Indian Government has been lobbying hard for the United States Government to increase the number of H-1B visas.

Kamal Nath, the Indian Commerce Minister, was very blunt when he said recently that the H-1B visa “has become the outsourcing visa.” He concluded: “If at one point you had X amount of outsourcing and now you have a much higher quantum of outsourcing, you need that many more visas.”

That is a very candid statement by this commerce minister in India. It should give us pause as we think about this program, what it was designed to do and what it is actually doing.

In other words, the Indian Government wants more H-1B visas so Indian companies can outsource more American jobs to India."

You haven't shown ANY evidence that this man's unemployment is due to Durbin's complaint. That's makes this article and this post a fraud for purporting to represent the issue of the visas.

. . . more evidence that his personal situation with his child is preventing him from locating in his state where the jobs in his field are. She can say whatever she wants, but they got offers and he apparently turned them down.

If you want to promote a case against the visas, you certainly have enough ammunition to do so, but to link all of that to this woman's UNSUPPORTED claims is just ignorant and a fraud.

Is is just an oversight that there hasn't been ONE SCRAP of proof that the jobs in his field in his area are all taken up by foreign workers?

Keep dancing . . .

'Is is just an oversight that there hasn't been ONE SCRAP of proof that the jobs in his field in his area are all taken up by foreign workers? '

he mentioned motorola

I'm calling YOU a fraud for using Sen. Sanders to support this woman's argument about her husband.

You're just deflecting from the fact that you can't show ONE SCRAP of evidence that this man was prevented from working in his field because of displacement by foreign workers. Not ONE!

Until you (or this woman) can show evidence of that linkage between the visas and THEIR job situation, it's just nonsense to hold them up as poster children for your new pet cause.

Keep dancing for this woman. I hope she appreciates it. But using her and her curiously idle husband as examples just discredits any argument you're trying to make. Keep dancing . . .

what do you gather from his testimony to lead you to believe it would NOT affect the job market in N Texas?

Where's the evidence that THIS man has been prevented from working in his field because of a foreign worker? Obviously you have no intention of proving that (neither does she, apparently).

Keep dancing . . .

so neither of us can really be sure of what they have or have not been up to

but i will note that you seem to have a great deal of venom on this issue, taking the same side as Bill Gates

and against the positions of Durbin and Sanders

just curious, what's your interest in this?

. . . that you've demonstrated with your representation of this article in your op.

I've made NO comment on the facts behind the immigration law, other than to say that this woman and those who are using her and her husband as examples of visa abuse haven't shown ONE SPECK of proof that ANY foreigner is preventing him from finding work in his field in his state. Not ONE bit of proof.

I've said NOTHING about the merits of the immigration law.

Keep dancing . . .

mine is simple, i feel (rightly or wrongly) that i was displaced by this issue, and that the current administration is indifferent to it

no worse than Bush, no worse that McCain would have been, or Romney would be

But still really no better - and this IS supposed to be the party of working people vs the party of big corporations

that it - my cards on the table

care to show yours? where are you coming from, that brought out such passion?

and this 'keep dancing' 'still dancing' stuff is very juvenile, i cant believe you're winning over fair minded people with that kind of stuff

My advice? You want a good discussion here at DU about the visa law? Start an new thread and leave this woman and her husband out of it.

but it seems to be all you have

(and you are still declining to mention your interest in this issue, that drives you to profanity)

This board isn't here for you to fuck with people. That's what I think you're doing here. It's sick and transparently dishonest.

Do you have any idea how many men and women cannot find jobs these days? Have you no compassion?

and the moralizing is just ridiculous. Do you really believe that people arguing here don't care about unemployed? get real. this is a bullshit article about an unsupported claim by this woman and her husband who don't seem to be able to take yes for an answer where their employment is concerned. Go lecture someone else.

'I lost my job and cant find one'

'YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU'RE A RACIST!'

. . . doesn't make her claims about her husband true.

he doesnt know as much about his as you do

Quit using the case he's making for your little fraud (unless you can show that this man in Texas has actually been displaced by one of these workers.

Keep dancing . . .

in north texas?

sounded pretty nationwide, to me

are you saying that ALL the jobs nationwide are filled by foreign workers and that NO Americans can find a job in that field? Sounds like it. Ridiculous argument.

Keep dancing . . .

I guess you weren't paying attention when Bill Gates and his buddies got what they wanted.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88154016

Why don't you start a separate thread on that if you feel so strongly about it? This woman and her husband can only be representative of that issue if you believe her unsupported claims. I don't, and I'm not going to be distracted by whatever labor issue you can mash together with this woman's tiresome and unproven claim about the immigration law and her husband's inability to accept work offered in his state.

Did you also alert on yourself?

Sid

. . . preventing this man from finding work.

One ignorant, dishonest defense after another. Keep dancing . . .

what regions did he include, or exclude from his testimony?

and how does his testimony really differ from her question

"My question for you," said Wedel to Obama, "is why does the government continue to issue and extend H1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?" "