Sandi Zirbel has seen an influx of immigrants on dairy farms in Wisconsin firsthand.
As the co-owner of a 635-cow dairy cooperative in the town of Glenmore, Zirbel said immigrants frequently come looking for work.
With more than 15 million jobless Americans, the federal government has closer scrutinized foreign worker visa requests. Tech companies have relied less on high skilled workers from abroad, and instead, have tried to hire Americans to fill open jobs.
The evolution of the H-1B visa program provides an early Halloween scare.
It's been almost two months since the government mandated that federal contractors check the eligibility status of new hires using E-Verify, and in the border city of San Diego, it's receiving high marks.
NumbersUSA's founder and president Roy Beck discusses the E-Verify program on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight (Oct. 16, 2009).
A Postville, Iowa slaughterhouse was the site for the largest-ever immigration raid conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the new owners are now taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. The new owner told the Associated Press that they'll start using E-Verify.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have prohibited cities, counties or districts from requiring employers who receive government contracts to use an employment verification system like E-Verify. AB 1288 was offered by Assemblyman Paul Fong and passed the State Assembly last spring and the State Senate over the summer.
The California clothing manufacturer, American Apparel, is firing about 1,800 employees whose identity documents contain irregularities. In other words, they are illegal aliens. The wording in the articles, columns, and editorials written about this would have you believe that the people being fired have done nothing wrong. But they have.
Jobless claims in the United States increased a little more in September, reaching 9.8 percent. The Labor Department reported a loss of 263,000 jobs during the month, 80,000 more than expected.
An unemployed construction worker offers observations on the tricks that some greedy employers use to employ illegal aliens in the construction industry.
Many unions have declared themselves in favor of legalization of the illegal aliens residing in our nation. For the future, the unions have called for an independent commission to set immigration levels in response to labor market needs. But due to the enormous amount of money made off cheap labor, such a commission would be subject to enormous pressure, even bribery. Why not let the legal American voters decide on the level of immigration? It would be hard to bribe over 100 million voters.
I watched NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday afternoon and heard TV and magazine journalists warn that the U.S. may have entered a long era of European-style high unemployment. Then I got online and saw that writers for some of the nation’s largest newspapers are still talking about needing to increase foreign labor to relieve U.S. worker SHORTAGES! Irrational? Yes. But if you are as committed as Congressional leaders to high immigration, you apparently have no threshold for embarrassment.
On a dismal day for America's workers, I see a few bright spots that all of us connected to NumbersUSA could make brighter through focused activism this fall. (Look inside.) But the utter hypocrisy and insanity of the elites is on full display as they lament the huge oversupply of workers for jobs after 21 months of a recession in which they have called for more immigration to meet what they claim is a U.S. "worker shortage!"
Recently, an article in a large newspaper caught my eye with a quote from a farmer in words that were so perfect for the “comprehensive reform” amnesty crowd that it seemed like a lobbyist had coached him on what to say. So, over a 2-week period I tried to contact him, and I finally caught up with him a couple of days ago. Our conversation illuminates how decent family farmers have gotten mixed up with the amnesty lobby.
American Apparel, a clothing retailer based in Los Angeles, will fire more than 1,500 of its workers in September due to the workers being ineligible to work in the United States.
The U.S. government is seeking nearly $5 from a New Jersey tech firm indicted for H-1B visa fraud. Vision Systems of South Plainfield is accused of using an Iowa-based shell company to underpay H-1B workers.
I was dining in downtown Boston with a long-time acquaintance of Teddy Kennedy at the very time the Senator died a week ago. We had discussed what had caused Kennedy to pursue immigration policies that so fundamentally changed America. When I awoke the next morning to the Massachusetts TV stations doing their eulogies, I decided to wait until after burial to share my thoughts. . . .
A report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer says that Americans are more willing to take jobs they wouldn't otherwise do in a tough economy. With 15 million Americans out of work and nearly 7 million jobs lost in the current recession, Americans are working in slaughterhouses, on farms, or at sewage plants.
In this week's video blog, Roy urges Members of Congress to assist 15 million unemployed Americans by supporting a suspension of all non-essential immigration.
The powerful "elevator ad" is back up on CNN, reminding news watchers that Washington's politicians have only minimal concern for jobless Americans. With 15 million unemployed, the ad notes that our immigration system is still bringing in 1.5 million foreign workers each year. Not one Member of Congress has proposed suspending this insane federal attack on the working families of this country.
Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chair Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he'll unveil a proposal for immigration reform and amnesty shortly after the summer recess. The publication Congress Daily is reporting that despite an intense battle over health care reform, Schumer still plans to launch at least an outline of his plan, if not proposed legislation.
Another biased and factually incorrect article from the New York Times leads me to vent my frustrations by writing.
With the nation's unemployment rate rising above 9.5 percent and more than 15 million American workers looking for a job, many of them are turning to fruit orchards and vegetable fields to make ends meet. Farmers report that former farm workers and first-timers are filling up some of the seasonal jobs.
Yesterday, the Senate adopted two immigration-reduction amendments through a voice vote, marking our third and fourth victories this week. Sen. Charles Grassley's (R-Iowa) E-Verify amendment to the Homeland Security spending bill allows employers to check the workplace eligibility of all employees, not just new hires. Sen. David Vitter's (R-La.) No-Match amendment prevents further delay in the implementation of a Bush Administration rule allowing the Social Security to send No-Match letters to employers.
One small favor from this disastrous recession: slightly fewer reporters are mindlessly scribbling down the phrase, "jobs Americans won't do." Over four hundred NumbersUSA members wrote to me personally after my latest fundraising email. About 275 of them are unemployed. You wouldn't believe all the jobs that they used to do and would very much like to do again.
Our readers have sent us a lot of personal stories in response to Roy’s blog last week about his trip to the Midwest and who he found working at hotels and at a resort in the nation’s heartland. The jobs weren’t filled with imported labor, but instead Roy found hardworking Americans doing the jobs the open borders groups say Americans won’t do.
Utah Democratic Representative Jim Matheson wrote a letter to Pres. Barack Obama urging him to require E-Verify for federal contractors. Pres. Obama delayed a 2008 executive order that would require federal contractors to use E-Verify. It was the third time the order had been delayed and the fourth by Obama. Rep. Matheson's letter was signed by 12 members of the Blue Dog Coalition members.
In March 2009, Pres. Barack Obama hosted a health care summit at the White House where he addressed the nursing shortage. Pres. Obama said he favored improving conditions for American nurses before importing foreign nurses to fill open jobs.
According to a Business Week report, there are more than 100,000 open nursing positions in the United States with more nurses likely needed should the Obama Administration successfully reform health care this summer, which would insure millions of uninsured Americans. Many health care facilities want to import foreign nurses, but President Obama and the nurses' unions want to improve conditions for American nurses.
In my blog from Thursday, June 18, I looked at the historical views of black Americans towards massive immigration of low-skilled labor. For today’s African-Americans regarding illegal immigration, there seems to be a divergence between the leadership and the rank-and-file. Terry Anderson, a radio host in Los Angeles, airs his views in a two part video interview that is posted on the CAPS website. The link was sent to me by a NumbersUSA member who wrote, “Everyone at NumbersUSA needs to see these radio interviews.”
This blog features an article by Frederick Douglass from the August 17, 1871 issue of his newspaper, "The New National Era." America had its cheap labor lobby back in 1871, and it has one today in the form of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ImmigrationWorks, and Bill Gates himself testifying before Congress for more H-1B visas. Frederick Douglass attacked the cheap-labor lobby's "fair-seeming phrases" immediately in the first sentence. We all know that today's cheap labor lobby has similar "fair-seeming phrases" that I will not repeat here since they are all over the mainstream media. The issues that deeply concerned Frederick Douglass in 1871 are very relevant today.
Senate Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Chuck Schumer said he will push for a national worker identification card as part of any immigration overhaul. The card would include biometric data like fingerprints, and he said it will make it easier for employers to identify undocumented workers.
I testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning on one of many bills proposed to increase green cards and immigration at a time of incredibly high unemployment. My remarks probably could apply to any bill that increases green cards. Members of Congress almost never consider the cumulative cost of all the green cards they decide to hand out. I called on them to put that consideration first.
The mandatory usage of E-Verify for companies contracting with the federal government has been delayed for a fourth time. Former President George Bush first signed an executive order making E-Verify's usage mandatory last fall, but he delayed its implementation once, and it has now been delayed three times under Pres. Barack Obama.
Reporter Lee Howard was recently recognized by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists for his reporting on H-1B visa abuse by the Pfizer Corporation. Howard is a reporter for the New London Day in Southern Connecticut, and Pfizer's corporate headquarters are in New York City with a large research and development office in New London.
The Labor Department on Friday suspended a regulation adopted shortly before President George W. Bush left office that would have made it easier for farmers to bring in foreign workers.
A new half-hour video assembles some two dozen of the nation's foremost leaders in protecting American workers. The video gives them a soapbox to explain how elected leaders use high immigration to drive down the wages of and throw out of work many of the country's most vulnerable citizens. Watch a six-minute trailer or go directly to the full video. Use it in programs for civic clubs, unions, veterans groups and churches.
As an undergraduate economics major with one year to go, I am amazed at the amateurish analysis contained in a new study by an immigration lawyers group that contends that immigration rates in an area have no connection to unemployment.
"Margaret Heintz sputtered in frustration.
"There's nothing we can do," the Marshalltown, Iowa, woman said to her daughter, Mona Kilborn, when they talked about their shared point of aggravation -- illegal immigrants.
"Mom, you can do something," Kilborn said. "You can write your congressman. I'll even get you the address."
So in September 2007, the 90-year-old Heintz put pen to paper for her first letter to a politician. Two weeks later, she died at the hands of an illegal immigrant.
