House passes GOP immigration bill for science, math grads (not a good bill)

[DainBramaged]

The US House of Representatives passed a controversial bill this morning that would grant 55,000 new visas to foreigners who graduate from US universities with science, technology, engineering or math degrees (so-called STEM graduates). The vote comes just two days after the Obama administration said it was opposed to the bill.

The bill, called the STEM Jobs Act, passed on a 245-139 vote mostly along party lines, with about two dozen Democrats joining Republicans in supporting the bill, according to a report from the blog The Hill. Most Democrats opposed the bill, though, because the STEM Jobs Act adds the 55,000 new visas at the cost of a diversity-visa program that grants the same number of visas to countries with historically low levels of immigration to the US.

About half of the diversity visas would go to African immigrants, and some minority Democratic representatives today accused the bill of being shortsighted or even racist. Shutting down the main program that provides visas to African immigrants "is racist, if not in its intent, then certainly in its effect," said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), according to The Hill report. "Republicans have just received a historically low vote from minorities in the past election, yet they want to create an immigration system that gives visas with one hand while taking visas away from minorities with the other."

Republican advocates of the bill have presented it as a straightforward jobs program. "For each person we welcome to America with one of these high degrees, we create jobs, net jobs," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). "We create opportunity for expansion of the kinds of businesses that in fact Americans are prepared to work in, but often we do not have enough engineers, scientists, or math professionals."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/house-passes-gop-immigration-bill-for-science-math-grads/

[peacebird]

1. We *have* engineers, scientists, and mathmeticians enough, corporations want the slave labor wages

They can pay to these visa holders instead of paying a decent wage to qualified citizens.

[cloudbase]

2. We certainly have enough people with no or minimal skills as well.

No need to import more.

[jmowreader]

3. Darrell, do you know WHY we have this shortage?

It's because Republicans like you - specifically like you; you own an electronics company - have imported so many lower-wage engineers and programmers from the Third World, potential engineers and scientists born in the US are cutting out the middlemen and applying directly to Walmart. You can get a job putting shirts on hangers now, or you can get your MSEE and then get a job putting shirts on hangers because all the MSEE-employing companies are paying Walmart wages to Pakistanis. Both paths lead to clothes hangers, but the direct approach doesn't involve student loans.

New law, and Alan Grayson is just the guy to.introduce it: any company applying for permission to import an H1B needs to disclose the wage offered, and explain how they thought offering submarket wages was a good faith effort to hire an American.