Clinton, McCain and Obama on H-1B visas

Date: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:05 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1824 -- 2/27/2008 >>>>>

Ephraim Schwartz wrote an editorial yesterday bemoaning the fact that 19
debates have gone by without a single question about the H-1B issue. After
last night's debate, that number goes up to 20 debates!

Did you notice that in last night's presidential debate the topic of
immigration was avoided, except for Obama briefly complaining that Clinton's
touch back provision for guest workers wasn't effective? I'm not sure what
Obama had in mind, but presumably he just wants guest workers to stay here
forever until they get amnesty.

In 90 minutes of debate, this is all that was said about the topic of
immigration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/26/us/politics/26text-debate.html?bl&ex=1204261200&en=0667d0ff53b714a8&ei=5087%0A

OBAMA: It turned out that Senator Clinton and I had differences on two votes.
The first was on an immigration issue, where the question was whether guest
workers could come here, work for two years, go back for a year, and then come
back and work for another two years, which meant essentially that you were
going to have illegal immigrants for a year, because they wouldn't go back,
and I thought it was bad policy.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2008/02/the_three_presi.html

Clinton, McCain and Obama on H-1B visas

By Ephraim Schwartz

February 26, 2008

With the deadline for H-1B visa applications fast approaching -- April 1,
2008 for 2009 work permits -- you would think one of the three major
presidential candidates would be talking about this issue.

And, frankly with 19 debates for the Democrats and almost as many for the
Republicans, I don t recall one question from one reporter asking any of these
presidential candidates where they stand on the H-1B visa cap and whether or
not they want to see it increased, decreased or remain the same.

You will also be hard pressed to find any statements pro or con on any of the
three candidates official Web sites on the issue of H-1B. In fact a search
found no comments whatsoever despite the fact that all three have links to
"issues" and where they stand.

So, with the help of Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, I came up
with the following:

A YouTube moment with Hillary Clinton plus two sites, an interview between
Barack Obama and TechCrunch s Michael Arrington, and an eWeek news story by
Roy Mark that quotes McCain.

When you do read the full statements in context you will see that the premise
of all three is based on the belief that there is a skills shortage in the
United States.

None talk about the H-1B visa being used as a tactic to hire workers at wages
lower than the prevailing market. Rather they imply once the skills shortage
of American workers is closed then they would review the H-1B program.

I strongly suggest you go to the sites to get the full import of what they
said lest I be accused of taking their words out of context.

So, without further ado, and as a public service, here are the candidates
statements on H-1B visas.

Hillary Clinton
"I also want to reaffirm my commitment to the H-1B visa program and to
increase the current cap. Foreign skilled workers contribute greatly to our
technological development. That is well understood in Silicon Valley."

John McCain
"I will continue to support H-1B visas, but, I m telling you, the American
peoples priority is, either rightly or wrongly, and we live in a democracy, is
that we secure the borders first."

Barack Obama
"We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry s need
for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will
support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure
until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively."

Newsletter Homepage:
http://www.JobDestruction.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm

Support this Newsletter and www.JobDestruction.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Be removed from this mailing list, reply to this
email with UNSUbSCRIBE in the subject window

Back to archives