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Tell a FriendJust enter anemail addressvar good;function checkEmailAddress(field) {// the following expression must be all on one line...var goodEmail = field.value.match(/\b(^(\S+@).+((\.com)|(\.net)|(\.us)|(\.biz)|(\.edu)|(\.mil)|(\.gov)|(\.org)|(\..{2,2}))$)\b/gi);if (goodEmail){ good = true} else { alert('Please enter a valid email address.') field.focus() field.select() good = false }}u = "http://www.forthecause.us";m = "Bookmark this link";b = "Forthecause.us offers good coverage of our issues. Their web page is definitely worth a look.";c = "Let me know what you think...";function mailThisUrl(){ good = false checkEmailAddress(document.eMailer.address) if (good){ // the following expression must be all on one line... window.location = "mailto:"+document.eMailer.address.value+"?subject="+m+"&body="+b+" "+c+" "+u; }}  MC CAIN MEETS WITH HISPANIC LEADERSPROMISES COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM  At a recent meeting with Hispanic leaders in Chicago, Republican presidential contender John McCain assured Hispanic leaders he would push through Congress legislation to overhaul federal immigration laws if elected. "He's one John McCain in front of white Republicans. And he's a different John McCain in front of Hispanics," complained Rosanna Pulido, a Hispanic and conservative Republican who attended the meeting. "I'm outraged that he would reach out to me as a Hispanic but not as a conservative."In 2007, McCain's sponsorship of comprehensive immigration reform angered conservatives and very nearly derailed his presidential campaign. At a Republican debate at the Reagan Library in January, McCain was asked by a CNN reporter whether he would still vote for his original measure. "No, I would not ... because we know what the situation is today ... that people want the borders secured first," he said.McCain's critics were reassured, reported CNN. "The original proposal, I opposed. Sen. McCain's new proposal, I support, which is to ensure you have border security before you have any other type of reform," L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said. After the Chicago meeting, the Obama campaign's communications director, Robert Gibbs, charged that McCain was trying to have it both ways. "It's hard for me to understand how you can sit in front of 150 Hispanic leaders in Chicago and leave them with the impression that you support comprehensive immigration reform and have that not directly contradict the fact that sitting in the Reagan Library in the midst of a Republican primary. How you can say that you didn't intend to vote for your own bill," Gibbs said.    The Hill: Senate Panel Adds Immigration Measure to Iraq Supplemental The Senate Appropriations Committee has added to an Iraq spending bill a controversial provision to help pave the way for undocumented agriculture workers to win legal status, a move that may reopen the divisive immigration debate on the Senate floor. The so-called Ag-Jobs amendment, sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Larry Craig (R-ID), would create a process that allows undocumented workers to continue to work on farms. Without the amendment, Feinstein warned that the U.S. would lose $5-9 billion to foreign competition, tens of thousands of farms would shut down and 80,000 workers would be transferred to Mexico. The bill would sunset in five years. "Agriculture needs a consistent workforce," Feinstein said. "Without it, they can't plant, they can't prune, they can't pick and they can't pack. "This is an emergency situation," she added. The amendment was approved by a 17-12 vote with defections from both parties. Critics say the amendment amounts to amnesty for people who entered the country illegally. "No matter how one characterizes it, this enormous amendment still amounts to amnesty," said Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV). "I oppose amnesty. All these immigration issues should be addressed through the regular order." Update: Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has succeeded in getting the amnesty language removed from the Iraq War supplemental funding bill. Sessions, a leading critic of flawed immigration legislation in the Senate, fought the measure, which was added without notice or public debate. Democratic leaders pulled the language on Tuesday night (5/20/08).“The American people have been clear that they want us to restore the rule of law to our immigration system before legalization programs are considered, but I guess this Congress didn’t get the message,” Sessions said. “I am pleased Democratic leaders realized there would be significant opposition to these controversial provisions. Stripping it was the right thing to do.”The provisions, referred to as Ag-JOBS, would have provided 1.35 million agricultural workers and an additional 1.62 million related family members with a 5-year visa to live and work in the United States. Among the provisions removed from the war funding bill was a special path to citizenship for four subgroups of agriculture workers: goat herders, sheep herders, dairy workers, and horse workers. It is unclear why the groups were selected for special treatment. ABC News: Race Staggers Toward Finish Line And Clinton Looks All But Finished On the night that Clinton needed a resounding victory, it was Sen. Barack Obama who emerged on top and, by bouncing back from the biggest challenge to his candidacy, went a long way toward answering the questions that had left him battered and bruised. Clinton lost precious ground in delegates, votes, and momentum with margins that all-but wiped out her pick-ups from Pennsylvania two weeks ago. They both won a state, but Obama's was bigger, and was called far earlier; under the Wright-infused circumstances (and given the Clinton Campaign's intense late efforts) his margin in North Carolina was jaw-dropping, while hers in Indiana was jaw-clenching. Obama now needs only about 37 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination and he holds a 164-delegate edge before the superdelegate movement we can almost certainly expect the day after his biggest campaign night in months. "This nomination fight is over," ABC's George Stephanopoulos said on "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "More superdelegates will come out today for Barack Obama - they will come three, four, five at a time, and this nomination will be locked up. . . . People close to her say that she's more likely to stay in if she feels cornered in by the party leaders." ABC News confirmed that Clinton made three new loans totaling nearly $6.5 million to her campaign over the last month, two of them following her win in Pennsylvania. ComputerWorld: DOJ Settles H-1B Job Ad Case for $45,000 A Pittsburgh-based computer consulting company that advertised for H-1B visa holders only is paying $45,000 in civil penalties to settle allegations that it discriminated against U.S. citizens, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said. The company, iGate Mastech Inc., placed 30 job announcements between May and June of 2006 "for computer programmers that expressly favored H-1B visa holders to the exclusion of U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and other legal U.S. workers," the DOJ said in a statement. A complaint against iGate Mastech was filed by the Programmers Guild in 2006. It was one of dozens of complaints lodged by the Summit, NJ-based organization against various companies. John Miano, who founded the Guild, said in a statement that the DOJ's announcement was "is probably the most visible result" of the guild's campaign against companies that discriminate against U.S. workers "in favor of cheap H-1B workers." One job advertisement by iGate Mastech for a Java developer on Dice Holdings Inc.'s job board said "Only H-1s apply, and should be willing to transfer H-1B." "The problem of companies only looking for H-1B workers is a serious one," said Miano. "We are only scratching the surface right now with the companies that are brazen enough to put out ads like these." Center for Immigration Studies: Are H-1Bs the Best and Brightest? New Report Shows That Most Are Not A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies demonstrates that most H-1Bs are ordinary people doing ordinary work, not the geniuses claimed by industry lobbyists. Those arguing for an increase in the number of H-1B visas (ostensibly temporary visas for 'specialty occupations,' many of them in the computer industry) claim that continued U.S. leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics hinges on our ability to import the world’s best engineers and scientists. But this new data analysis shows that the vast majority of H-1B workers – including those at most major tech firms – are not the innovators industry portrays them to be. The new report, entitled H-1Bs: Still Not the Best and the Brightest, is authored by Dr. Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Davis. The analysis is based on the simple fact that in a market economy, if workers are indeed outstanding talents, they will be paid accordingly. This can be determined by computing the ratio of the foreign worker’s salary to the prevailing wage figure stated by the employer. Among the report's findings: Most foreign workers work at or near entry level, described by the Department of Labor in terms akin to apprenticeship. This counters the industry’s claim that they hire the workers as key innovators.  The Seattle Times: On temporary Visas, Skilled Workers Are Putting Down Real Roots The American Dream can sneak up on people. Take Naresh Bhatt and his wife, Bansri, who moved to the United States from India 15 years ago under a government visa program for highly skilled and sought-after workers. Like thousands of Indian immigrants with computer skills who've taken advantage of the "H-1B" program, they came as temporary workers in the Seattle area's burgeoning high-tech sector... As bitter debate swirls over what do to about millions of undocumented foreign workers who often live in the shadows of American society, it's easy to forget that we are in the midst of a whole other, legal, mass migration.The H-1B visa was not designed to turn temporary foreign workers into permanent residents, at least not directly. The visa is reserved for well-educated foreign nationals with specialty skills like accounting, computer engineering and medicine, and it's intended for U.S. companies that cannot find citizens of this country to fill those jobs. H-1B workers are, in many ways, at the mercy of their employer-sponsors. If they are fired or choose to quit, they must return to their native countries. They can't switch jobs unless the old and new employers agree. Among the benefits of the visa, however, is that it allows workers to apply for a green card to gain permanent residency in the United States.[Our take: When the H-1B visa issue is discussed at congressional hearings, politicians are careful to stress three things: Employers must give preference to American workers; foreign workers come to work here temporarily; and when their visa expires, they go home. These things are said only for the benefit of anyone who may be watching CSPAN. The reality is that skilled American workers are being ignored in favor of foreign workers who are willing to be paid less. Foreign workers do not have to go home upon expiration of their visa because there is no enforcement mechanism in place to make sure they leave. And during the term of the visa, foreign workers put down roots that make it extremely difficult to return home. Their H-1B visa makes them eligible to obtain a green card which allows them to remain as permanent residents. This scheme undermines our education system, makes it difficult for our young people to select a career, destroys future job opportunities for American citizens, and puts the middle class at further risk.] CNN Lou Dobbs - video: Fence, No Fence, Fence, No Fence... The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Benny Thompson, and 13 of his fellow Congressmen are now trying to block the construction of that fence along our border with Mexico. Chairman Thompson and his Congressional colleagues are arguing the Department of Homeland Security is breaking the law by building a fence to stop illegal aliens and drug smugglers from entering this country. DHS is waiving more than two dozen environmental and other laws to speed up fence construction on the southern border. The Republican control of the Congress granted that authority in 2005. Now 14 members of the current Democratic majority, including Homeland Security Committee Chairman Benny Thompson, are joining environmental groups in asking the Supreme Court to force Homeland Security to obey the laws. Other Democrats are also fighting the fence. At a Senate hearing, Ted Kennedy claimed fence construction waivers, not drug and alien smugglers, promote lawlessness: "These new waivers create sweeping zones of lawlessness along the entire U.S./Mexico border." DHS says it is roughly halfway to its goal of building 670 miles of fencing by year's end. [Our take: The intellectual dishonesty of our elected officials is boundless. Not only has the border environment degraded over the past two decades because of rampant illegal immigration, but our elected representative now want to see immigration enforcement stopped out of concern for protecting that environment! And political baffoon Ted Kennedy now claims failure to enforce environmental laws will create "zones of lawlessness" along the border, as if completely oblivious to the violent lawlessness already in full swing because of lax immigration enforcement. These politicians are really very clever... They know the vast majority of American voters do not care enough to protest. Given that these deceitful political hacks are still around after all these years, we think they're right -- big time! Americans are simply sheep, content to be fleeced again and again and again.] CNN Lou Dobbs - video: Outrage Over Vodka Advertisement Depicting Mexico's Ownership of the Southwest United States There is outrage over a vodka ad in Mexico that depicts much of the United States as a part of Mexico. The ad for Absolut Vodka shows California, Texas and other states as still belonging to Mexico. Some activist groups claim the land is rightfully part of Mexico even now. But a number of consumers in this country apparently were offended by the ad and are calling for a boycott of Absolut. The marketing campaign is called "In An Absolut World" and the ad appeared in the Mexican celebrity lifestyle magazine "Quien" owned by CNN's parent company, Time Warner, and on billboards in Mexico. The image shows Mexico's approximate borders before the Mexican-American War. Though the United States won and paid Mexico for what became the American Southwest, some Mexicans say it rightfully belongs to them. According to Professor George Grayson at the College of William & Mary, "That's an extremely prevalent idea; 58 percent of Mexicans say that they have every right to return to the Southwest of the United States and that they don't need documents. It's really stolen territory." Although the ad has been pulled, a poll on the "Los Angeles Times" Web site found nearly two-thirds of the respondents said the ad was an affront to Americans and they would boycott the product. [ A boycott of Absolut Vodka is now in progress: visit www.boycottabsolut.com. ] Center for Immigration Studies: No Coyote Needed - New Paper Examines Visa Overstays Visa overstays account for between one-quarter to one-half of the illegal-alien population, and fencing, unmanned aerial vehicles, National Guard patrols, etc., are irrelevant to controlling this part of the immigration problem. To shine some light on this neglected weakness, the Center for Immigration Studies has published a new paper, No Coyote Needed: U.S. Visas Still an Easy Ticket in Developing Countries, written by former State Department official David Seminara, examining the systemic problems in our “nonimmigrant” (i.e., temporary) visa system. U.S. law places the burden of proof on the visa applicant to demonstrate that he won’t remain in the United States as an illegal alien after his permission to remain has expired. Despite the law’s tough language, 74 percent of nonimmigrant applications are granted, mostly from countries with much lower standards of living than the United States, where few residents should truly be able to qualify. CNN Lou Dobbs - video: Gates Wants More Foreign Workers, Immigration Reform, Permanent Residency Microsoft's Bill Gates claimed that American firms need more foreign worker visas even though Indian firms are the largest users of H-1B visas. And Gates even criticized U.S. immigration policy in Congress itself. Gates said the failure to pass immigration reform has in his words, "forced companies such as Microsoft to locate jobs outside the United States." But fawning members of Congress showed little desire to challenge Gates to hire more American workers. They didn't really want to disturb a genius at work. With no other witnesses to contest his testimony, Bill Gates told Congress that Microsoft and companies like his could be even more successful if the United States would only let more foreign workers in. Standing in the way, the current annual limit of 65,000 in the H-1B visa program for highly-skilled individuals sought by employers like Microsoft. Representing the rank and file, the Programmers Guild charges that's not Microsoft's main concern - Kim Berry said: "The biggest problem we have with the global economy isn't our skills, it's our wages. So yes, when we say this is necessary to increase global competitiveness, it means this is a way of lowering American wages." Meanwhile, thousands of H-1B visas are going to Indian based outsourcing companies, like Infosys Technologies, nailing down close to 5,000. Wipro Technologies with 2,500. Satyam Computer Services with 1,400. Microsoft received 959 H-1Bs last year. [Download a copy of 20-page testimony of Bill Gates.] Washington Post: Gates Repeats Request for More H-1B Visas Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates called on Congress to increase the H-1B cap. He also asked lawmakers to extend the 12-month period foreign students can stay in the U.S. after they graduate without obtaining a new visa. He asked Congress to allow immigrant workers to more easily become permanent U.S. residents, and he called on Congress to do away with country caps on the green-card employment visa program, which has a total cap of 140,000 workers per year. Gates also encouraged lawmakers to focus on improving high school education in the U.S., to pump more funding into government research and to approve a permanent research and development tax credit. "I believe this country stands at a crossroads," he said. "Economic progress depends more than ever on innovation. If we do not implement policies like those I have outlined today, the center of progress will shift to other nations that are more committed to the pursuit of technical excellence."   Subscribe to OurBRIGADE E-List!It's New and It's Free!Click Here....      - Smethport, Pennsylvania - www.forthecause.us© 1995-2008 For The Cause |
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