US House passes border bill amid India anger

[ChromeFoundry]

Source: The Economic Times of India

10 Aug 2010, 2055 hrs IST,AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation to toughen US-Mexico border security, amid anger in India at the steep increases in work visa fees proposed to pay for the new measures.

The measure, unveiled 90 days before November mid-term elections, aims to add another 1,500 agents and deploy more unmanned aerial vehicles that scan the frontier for undocumented immigrants or illegal drug runners.

The House, called back from a month-long break to adopt an emergency spending package to help cash-strapped states, passed the border measure by voice vote. The legislation's 600-million-dollar price tag would be paid by raising fees on what the measure's backers called a handful of foreign firms that "exploit" US visa programs to improperly import workers to the United States.

A summary of a Senate version of the bill named Indian firms Wipro, Tata, Infosys and Satyam, which fly thousands of employees each year to the United States to work at their clients' locations as technicians and engineers.

India's National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has slammed the bill, warning it would boost annual US visa costs for India's outsourcing industry by 200-250 million dollars annually.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6288789.cms

[OhioChick]

1. Good, glad it passed n/t

[pscot]

2. +1

:hi:

[Owl]

4. +2

[Jim Sagle]

8. +3

:headbang:

Better yet, why not shitcan HI-B, and its particpants?

[OhioChick]

13. With the unemployment numbers as high as they are....

We're crazy not to.

[ihavenobias]

3. Employers.

It's sad that almost no one in Congress ever talks about really going after the employers who hire undocumented workers (you know, the ones who create the demand). Until we reduce the demand, we'll never reduce the supply of exploitable labor.

[Lightning Count]

7. Easily fixed.

Require that all hirees names and ssn be submitted to a gov't agency for verification before hiring. If their social is already in use or there is another discrepancy they cannot be hired.

[fasttense]

9. Just checking Social Security numbers wont do it.

Bush ran raids and dragged tens of thousands of illegally employed non-citizens back to their counties of origin and yet not much changed.

Until you jail and severely fine employers for the millions of illegal hires, the corporations will just bring in another bus load of non-citizens to work at half price.

Get some of those fat rich men to do the perp walk and you'll see some change.

[Lightning Count]

10. Not that simple.

Employers are not immigration experts. They cannot be expected to be ICE. There must be a nationwide database setup with people's names, ages, ssn, etc. that an employer is required to submit each applicant to before they can be hired. This will not eliminate people who work off the books, but it will go a long way.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. The heart just bleeds for them, doesn't it?

They should double H1B fees every few years anyway.

[JCMach1]

6. Wow, some real teeth against visa abuse!

[JDPriestly]

11. Americans need jobs. There are no jobs for immigrants here right now.

Immigrants can get visas again once our economy is flourishing. But not now. Can't they understand that this is not personal about them. It is personal about keeping our country together. Why should taxpayers be paying unemployment benefits for Americans out of jobs and then allow people from India to come in an take jobs. Makes no sense. If the Indians can't understand that, then they are not intelligent enough to do the kinds of jobs they are being hired to do.

[Owl]

14. Well said.

[Historic NY]

12. Mad because they have been slipping throught the cracks.& taking advantage..