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Anonymous
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Sens. Mikulski & Specter's H-2B bill multiplies less-educated foreign workers to keep less-educated Americans unemployed
By Roy Beck, Wednesday, February 18, 2009, 11:17 AM
Latest data reveal 1.6 million American young adults (18-29) with only a high school degree who are looking for a job but can't find one. Yet, Sens. Mikulski and Specter have introduced a bill to double or triple the visas for less-educated foreign workers over the next three years to compete against those unemployed young Americans.
And 23 Senators have already co-sponsored the bill.
It is my unfortunate role to regularly tell you of supposedly august public officials who seem totally unaware of the unemployment disaster befalling the American people.
Do Mikulski and Specter hate lower-educated and less sklled American young adults?
Or do the wads of contributions from greedy corporate lobbyists just make it impossible for them to see the struggles of our national community's most vulnerable members?
YOUNG AMERICANS NEED JOBS
One problem is that most Senators are rich and primarily hang around with other rich people. They can't imagine their own kids making beds, waiting tables, running a cash register or checking passes at ski lifts.
In short, most Senators apparently cannot even see the 15.1 million young American adults (18-29) who have no more than a high school diploma and whose job prospects are heavily in the service industry.
Today's excellent report from the Center for Immigration Studies shows a lot of young adults who might love to have the jobs that Mikulski and Specter are insisting on giving to imported foreign workers:
1.6 million young adults with only a high school diploma are unemployed, looking for work but unable to find any kind of job.
Another 291,000 of them are looking for a full-time job and have had to settle for part-time hours.
Yet another 477,000 teens (16-17) are officially unemployed, actively seeking a job.
But Mikulski and Specter can't imagine that somewhere between 66,000 and 300,000 jobs primarily in vacation and resort locations can be filled from among those 2.4 million Americans.
They have introduced S. 388, which would explode a cap of 66,000 H-2B work visas a year. The bill would allow any foreign worker who has used an H-2B visa to take a job from an American in the last three years to be brought back in over the next three years without counting against the 66,000 cap. Potentially, the number of H-2B visa workers could multiply two, three or four times.
Wouldn't you think that under our unemployment crisis, Senators would suspend the H-2B program instead of expanding it?
Co-Sponsors
Sen Barrasso, John [WY] - 2/5/2009 Sen Bennett, Robert F. [UT] - 2/5/2009
Sen Bond, Christopher S. [MO] - 2/5/2009 Sen Burr, Richard [NC] - 2/5/2009
Sen Cardin, Benjamin L. [MD] - 2/5/2009 Sen Carper, Thomas R. [DE] - 2/5/2009
Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] - 2/5/2009 Sen Collins, Susan M. [ME] - 2/5/2009
Sen Crapo, Mike [ID] - 2/5/2009 Sen Enzi, Michael B. [WY] - 2/5/2009
Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] - 2/5/2009 Sen Inouye, Daniel K. [HI] - 2/10/2009
Sen Johnson, Tim [SD] - 2/6/2009 Sen Kerry, John F. [MA] - 2/5/2009
Sen Landrieu, Mary L. [LA] - 2/10/2009 Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT] - 2/5/2009
Sen Levin, Carl [MI] - 2/5/2009 Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] - 2/5/2009
Sen Reed, Jack [RI] - 2/5/2009 Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME] - 2/5/2009
Sen Specter, Arlen [PA] - 2/5/2009 Sen Thune, John [SD] - 2/10/2009
Sen Voinovich, George V. [OH] - 2/6/2009 Sen Whitehouse, Sheldon [RI] - 2/5/2009