Earlier this week, Barack Obama had an online town hall meeting and interacted with Jennifer Wedel, whose semiconductor engineer husband is unemployed. President Obama said he found Mr. Wedel’s inability to find a job “interesting.” It is truly astounding that the president finds it “interesting,” as opposed to “appalling,” that his pro-foreign worker immigration policies are keeping America’s high tech workers out of U.S. jobs. I hope you will use your position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to reduce the number of H-1B visas our country issues so that technology workers like Mr. Wedel can find a job.
I cannot understand why President Obama continues to support the H-1B program when there are so many U.S. technology workers who cannot find a full-time job. Doesn’t he realize that companies prefer H-1B workers because they are temporary and can be paid less? Mrs. Wedel’s husband will never get a job as long as H-1B workers are available.
Each year, 85,000 H-1B workers are admitted, and these visas are good for three years, and renewable once. So, at any one time, there is a maximum of 510,000 H-1B workers in the United States, displacing American workers. Don’t you think this might be the reason Mr. Wedel cannot find the job? When you do the math, it’s not very “interesting” after all, is it?
As President Obama refuses to, I hope you will look out for these jobless and at-risk U.S. workers by reforming the H-1B program. The vast majority of these workers are completely unnecessary and only put skilled Americans out of well-paying jobs. The Senate Judiciary Committee can and must act on this issue.
Phone me if you would like to talk about this,
Mr. Greg Raven
