posted 10-10-2015 03:36 AM                  

Marco Rubio’s signature immigration bill is drawing fire from conservatives who say it would allow more companies to go the route of Disney and replace their American employees with cheap foreign “guest workers” from India, China, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Rubio, R-Fla., is one of eight Republicans and four Democrats to co-sponsor the “I-Squared” bill in the U.S. Senate. It would triple the number of temporary guest workers allowed into the U.S. on the H1-B visa each year, from 65,000 to 195,000, while also allowing the visa holders to bring in family members.

The actual number of H1-B visas issued could be closer to 300,000 when including non-profit entities taking advantage of the legislation. The visa, which is good for six years, has been used by Disney, Southern California Edison, Cargill, Harley Davidson, Deloitte, Northeast Utilities, and other corporate giants to replace American tech workers with foreigners who will work for about one-third lower salaries.

Disney has replaced hundreds of its American IT workers this year with people from India and elsewhere, then forced the Americans to train their replacements or risk losing their severance packages. To add insult to injury, the company then reportedly placed the laid-off Americans on a “black list,” which forbids any Disney contractor from hiring them for up to a year.

The I-Squared bill has the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Software Alliance and heavyweight execs from Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Google among others.

Rubio made a fundraising stop on June 9 to the home of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, seeking fresh cash for his presidential campaign.

“Oracle’s top dogs have repeatedly made clear they’re big backers of comprehensive immigration reform,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci. “So, while he (Rubio) is picking up the checks, will he have a real heart-to-heart with Larry on Silicon Valley and immigration reform?”

Over his political career Rubio has taken in $37,050 in campaign contributions from Microsoft alone, which is among the top 10 of his business donors, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Rubio is one of 14 Republicans vying for the GOP nomination in the 2016 presidential race. Whether they like it or not, immigration continues to be a hot-button issue among voters.

Rubio is already viewed with suspicion by some on the conservative wing of the party, which remembers the last major immigration bill he helped write. That was Senate Bill 744, which supporters called “reform” but critics called “amnesty.” It passed the Senate in 2013 but died in the House.

Since that defeat, Rubio has avoided the issue of “reform” and focused his comments on border security. Now, two years later he is back with a new bill, I-Squared, that has the backing of the same coalition of lobbying groups — basically the U.S. tech industry and major corporations represented by the Chamber of Commerce.

At a time when American tech workers are being thrown out of their jobs, and those graduating college with technology or so-called “STEM” degrees can’t find work in STEM-related fields, Rubio’s I-Squared bill would expand the guest-worker program that many see as the culprit.

News broke June 26 that another Florida company, the St. Petersburg-based digital media firm Catalina Marketing, is employing the Disney strategy, using foreign workers to replace 50 of its IT workers and making the Americans train their foreign replacements.

In fact, at a time when presidential candidate Rubio is pushing for an expansion of the guest-worker visa program, Florida’s other senator, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is calling for an investigation into the program.

Even in the liberal state of California, the State Assembly this week adopted a resolution calling for a federal investigation of the H1-B visa program’s role in stealing American tech jobs.

Rubio, along with Jeb Bush, are the most vocal supporters of the guest-worker program in American politics today, along with Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, where Cargill replaced 900 U.S. workers last year, is also on board with the program.

See all the sponsors of I-Squared, Democrat and Republican.

WND called and emailed Rubio’s campaign and Senate staffs requesting comment on his support for I-Squared and expansion of the guest-worker program. They did not respond.

Rubio did break his long silence on the issue last Friday, providing the following statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation with regard to Disney:

“Of course we’re concerned about these reports. If the program was misused, then people should be held accountable.”

Critics, such as public policy professor Ron Hira of Howard University and economics professor Hal Salzman of Rutgers, who together have done the most research on the guest-worker program, cite evidence that U.S. colleges and universities are already cranking out twice as many STEM graduates as needed. Their research shows that nearly half of STEM graduates can’t find a job in a STEM-related field. In short, there is no shortage of American tech workers, which is further borne out by the stagnant wages in the U.S. tech industry over the last 10 years, Salzman said.

posted 10-10-2015 10:36 PM                  

We don't NEED guest workers! We need to make it less comfortable for Americans to NOT work the jobs Americans won't do!

And if ,on another note, we were to give guest workers path to citizenship, or becoming an American, would they still do the job that an American won't do , being that he is now an american?!?!

posted 10-11-2015 07:31 AM                  

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Originally posted by mslc10:
94 million unemployed here in America , more than the total population of Germany!

We don't NEED guest workers! We need to make it less comfortable for Americans to NOT work the jobs Americans won't do!

And if ,on another note, we were to give guest workers path to citizenship, or becoming an American, would they still do the job that an American won't do , being that he is now an american?!?!

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posted 10-11-2015 09:55 PM                  

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Originally posted by ed monahan:

The same day there was an article about all of the kids living in poverty in Cincinnati. How in hell can anyone be living in poverty when we are giving away that much money????

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Because after all the crooked career politicians take their cut, there is very little left! Like a lawyer in a class action settlement, or even civil case - victims typically get scraps while the savvy get rich ....