Glenn Jackson's Article

Go Home,

We’ll Call You If We REALLY Need You.

By Glenn R. Jackson

I am stunned by some new proposals that are floating around Capitol Hill these days. It is bad enough that the President of the United States continues to advocate a sell-out of Americans with his push to reward illegal aliens with "guest" worker status and Social Security benefits. However, to find that many are willing to accept "guest" workers as a foregone conclusion of American life and are stampeding all over themselves to see who can come up with the newest "guest" worker proposal is too much. Congress and their campaign contributors are already preparing for their happy defeat at the hands of the cheap labor lobby in Washington.

While I may be new to the immigration battleground, I am a veteran combatant of many big government power grabs. All citizens should recognize by now that once you go down a particular path, once even a tiny portion of a big government program is accepted, the remainder will be rammed full bore down America's throat. If...IF...any new "guest" worker proposals are accepted whole, it will not end the process but will pave the way for more foreign workers and illegal immigrants to come to the U.S.

The problem here is that Congress STILL has not connected all of the dots in the immigration picture. The U.S. already has "guest" worker programs and they are called H-1B visa, L-1 visa, and several other variants all under the Non-Immigrant Visa program. Limits to the H-1B visa program were originally set at 65,000 skilled workers annually. That limit has increased to over 195,000 annually during the last 5 years despite dotcom busts and massive high-tech lay-offs. Lobbying is already underway on Capitol Hill to either increase those annual limits above 195,000 or to hold them at their already high levels. Give an inch and we'll take a mile -- that is the cheap labor lobby’s motto.

I have put food on my table for over 20 years working in the high-technology industry. My last gig was as a senior manager over a group of applications programmers. I have now been out of work for over a year. The application programming responsibilities of my old team is now with InfoSys in India, and even more foreigners are breaking into line ahead of me on their H-1B or L1 visa fast track. However that is not as bad as it can get.

American workers at Siemens ICN in Orlando, Florida received an interesting assignment at the end of 2002. They were to train a group of L1 visa holders from India in the intricacies of their jobs, and then pack up their desk and get out. The American Worker Replacement program, a.k.a. America’s "guest" worker program in all its anti-American glory.

Guest worker programs are a colossal failure for America. Nothing illustrates that more than the current state of America's technical, engineering, nursing, healthcare, research, and educational employment areas. H-1B visa holders are crowding out Americans, and the shell game only gets worse with the introduction of L1 visas. The INS enforces H-1B visas; a troubling sign if ever there was one. L1 visas are not closely monitored and are used for "intra-company" transfers, i.e. "shell" American companies with foreign "subsidiaries" use L1 visas to bring American Replacement workers into the U.S. and avoid the "tight" monitoring of the INS.

The bottom line to the guest worker program is pure and simple - Wall Street and stock valuations. Lower cost without lower prices equals increased margins. Trying to raise the world’s standard of living on the backs of American workers will kill this nation. Nothing will be accomplished by creating even more guest worker programs.

America’s economy is in a shambles. The President is proposing a number of tax "cuts" to help stimulate the economy and, as he recites often, put Americans back to work. I have a better idea.

Declare a complete end to "guest" worker programs, a six month notice to all H-1B, L1, and other non-immigrant work visa holders that their visas will be revoked, and a one year timeout to study and determine the impact on America of the influx of "guest" workers, i.e. go home… we’ll call you if we REALLY need you.

Glenn Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project and a columnist for USA Daily. His columns also appear on EtherZone. Glenn is also a former State Chairman for Buchanan 2000 Presidential campaign, and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.