AP says bailed-out banks continue to hire foreign workers

Your tax dollars:

Although this particular program doesn’t involve refugees, I wanted to mention it because it continues on the theme we have been writing about regarding refugee labor.   The AP story, hat tip Whuptdue, begins:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -Even as the economy collapsed last year and many financial workers found themselves unemployed, the dozen U.S. banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages requested visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers to fill high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The major banks, which have received $150 billion in bailout funds, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

The numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP’s analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.

The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions. Such visas are most often associated with high-tech workers.

Although no doubt there are many do-gooders involved in the open borders and refugee movements, there is also a business component that this AP story confirms.

Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.

Now in the old pre-bailout days, businesses were certainly within their rights to hire whomever they wanted assuming the employees were here legally.  Everything has changed since some businesses have signed a pact with the devil (the federal government!).   Every business that is now wholly or partially owned by the taxpayers will be scrutinized constantly,  by people with all sorts of axes to grind, on such issues as CEO bonuses, what sort of planes they are flying, whether they are redecorating offices and whether they are hiring Americans or not.

Do you think American businesses will be doing much business under the circumstances?

By the way, I meant to mention that last week British workers were protesting the hiring of  foreign workers in the UK.

Comments worth noting: tired old arguments about immigrants

Last night after I wrote this post where I was so angry at Time magazine and the refugee-pushing lobbyists, I knew I needed to further remind readers of the primary reason we are here—why we write this blog.   And, gosh, I get up and here is a comment (from someone called CRD) worth noting to help me explain why we do what we do.

Dear Ann,

Your ancestors were once oppressed and discriminated against, so they got on a boat and came to a new county, the US, and gave it a try. I imagine when they landed they were helped by some nice people who maybe showed them how they could find work, where a good place to live was, where to shop. I imagine they also faced some discrimination. They were probably poor at first and spoke with accent, and didn’t know all street names by heart. Some people laughed at them I’m sure. Told them to go back to their country of origin. Told them they’d never fit in. Some people probably even formed groups and told them to get out of their neighborhood.

Which type of person are you? Would you have helped your great grandparents when they arrived in American or would you have discriminated against them?

Dear CRD,   You are right to some extent, my parents were treated well and helped by nice people.  But here are the differences worth noting, my parents were eager to be Americans.  They shed their foreign language as fast as they could (they were literate in their own original languages).   They received no welfare and they worked their butts off all their lives to send us kids to college.  They had no taxpayer funded federal government contractor finding jobs and apartments for them.  My father fought for the US in World War II.  Although proud of their heritage, they never looked back.  And, they accepted America, they didn’t seek to change our form of government, they were not Muslims.

Before I go on to what I really wanted to say, just a historical reminder the immigrant lobbyists like CRD often forget—-by the late 1920’s we were overloaded with immigrants.   America took a breather and the numbers were cut dramatically until the 1960’s which gave those earlier great waves a chance to assimilate.   Maybe if the economic panic continues, its time for another breather.

Now, more about why we write RRW.

The recent Time magazine article (not the one from 2002) on the Rohingya is an example.   But, we first saw the phenomenon in our own county, and that is, the utter shameless skewing of the news in favor of refugees and immigrants.  Most every story on refugees is a damn puff-piece.  I call them the ‘refugees see first snow stories.’   No one (hardly anyone) in the mainstream media dares tell the public the whole truth, so the public needs us!   That is why we are here—-to balance the biased mainstream media.

Why don’t they tell the whole story, the good and the bad,  about refugee resettlement or immigration in general?  Why, because they, in the media, are scared to death of people like CRD here.  Ideologues like CRD want to guilt-trip everyone into  shutting up and accepting their point of view and most people can’t take that sort of abuse, most people want to be considered good people, so they back down.  We don’t.

The American public has a right to know all the facts about immigration and especially in our case, the refugee program, because only when all the facts are presented to the people can public policy be fairly debated and decisions fairly made—-for the general public and for the refugees.   People like CRD want to WIN by guilt-tripping people and hiding some facts to lead people to their point of view.   It is wrong.  It is immoral. It is elitist.  And, it stinks!

Open borders crowd: Obama immigration reform will come in late 2009

Update May 1:  Obama says it’s this year!

Update April 9th:  New York Times is now reporting that Obama Administration is going ahead with amnesty push soon, here.

Update April 8th:  Center for Immigration Studies confirms CIR will not come anytime soon, here.

Or early 2010!   From New America Media:

Pro-immigrant advocates believe the Obama administration will have a window of opportunity between this September and March 2010 to shepherd a comprehensive immigration package that will provide a path to legalization for an estimated 12 million undocumented residents, strengthen border security and help[!] the ailing economy.

Ira Mehlman, speaking on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says ‘no way’ will the Obama Administration push amnesty if the economy still stinks later this year.

“I’m not sure if any of those folks want to go back to voters in 2010 with the economy bad and say to voters, ‘We didn’t do much to fix the economy, but we passed amnesty for 13 million (undocumented) immigrants,” said Mehlman.

Fighting Tolerance Fascists

That’s what we do here every day!

Here are a few choice bits from a good column today at Town Hall by blogger and columnist John Hawkins. 

No rational discussion allowed:

Tolerance taken to an extreme has actually impeded our ability to rationally discuss vitally important issues that will determine whether our country continues to be successful and prosperous over the long haul.

You hate immigrants don’t you:

Then there’s immigration. The whole point of allowing people to immigrate to this country is to benefit the people who are already here. Yet, if you try to have any sort of substantive conversation about how many people we are allowing into the country each year, where they should be coming from, or how we should choose them, the screaming starts again. “Why do you hate immigrants?”

Hang tough and stand up to political correctness:

Unfortunately, since the people benefiting from continually playing the tolerance card are unlikely to give it up any time soon, those of us who put our country first are going to have to be bolder about confronting them, drawing attention to the real issues, and sticking up for people who have the courage not to be cowed by political correctness. Whether our country remains a shining city on a hill or becomes just another unremarkable slum basking in its faded glory will depend on how successful we are at that task.

Yup, fighting tolerance fascists here everyday.

Spain sends us a jaw-dropping message, but will we listen

Or is it already too late?

How many times in recent years have we heard that Europe is so far ahead of us, so multicultural, so sophisticated, so you know—advanced!   Even Barack Hussein Obama while running for President made his pilgrimage to the great region of diversity and enlightenment sending a message back home that we knuckle-draggers needed to follow Europe’s lead.  

Now, besides Judy’s news this morning that immigrants in France will be DNA tested we have news from Spain which I found appalling, shocking, depresssing.   Will we follow Europe’s lead now?

From the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago, as the economy crumbles, Spaniards are now doing the work immigrants used to do:

MANCHA REAL, Spain — Spain’s unemployment rate rose to 13.9% in December — an eight-year record and by far the highest rate in the European Union. In this southern village, that means olive grower José Morillo is hiring locals and turning away foreigners who worked for him during the country’s economic boom.

Half of Mr. Morillo’s pickers used to be immigrants, as Spaniards shunned the low-paying work. This year, all but one of his 11 workers is Spanish — and the nearby town is teeming with unemployed immigrants who sleep outdoors or in church shelters.

It is so bad the Spanish government is paying immigrants to leave!

Government efforts to free up more jobs for Spaniards are having a limited effect. Billboard-size ads in subway stations and on city buses pitch payments for legal immigrants who go home: If they agree to leave Spain for at least three years, the government will pay the unemployment benefit they’re entitled to in a lump sum — 40% on leaving and 60% on arrival back home.

The average payment runs about $14,000. In the program’s first two months last year, just 1,400 immigrants took up the offer.

Spain got in the same problem we did—easy credit fueling over-zealous construction.

A building frenzy helped Spain generate more jobs than any other country in the euro zone this decade. More than five million immigrants arrived, and the registered population, which had been stable till 2000, jumped 15% by 2008.

Last year, the cheap credit that fueled Spain’s boom dried up. The economy likely entered recession in the second half of 2008, and the European Commission expects it to shrink 2% this year. Data out Friday show the number of Spanish out-of-work job seekers rose by 609,100 in the fourth quarter, bringing the total number to 3.2 million. The unemployment rate was nearly twice the euro zone’s November average of 7.8%

Thank God for the defeat of the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty bill in 2007!   Thank God for knuckle-draggers, rednecks and assorted bitter clingers!    Spain granted its illegal aliens amnesty and now they are sleeping on the streets!

During Spain’s flush times, immigrants were welcome to come and work. In 2005, the government granted amnesty to more than half a million people living in Spain illegally. Today, they are seen as a growing social problem.

I wonder if the Wall Street Journal editorial staff, that had pushed Amnesty here in the US,  took note of this message from Spain.

As time goes on, I think we too will see that there are many jobs Americans are happy to do, just as advanced Spain (Europe!) has belatedly discovered.