Tag: tech jobs

Tech Workers Brace for Possible Omnibus Job-Killer

by Joe Guzzardi

Like the proverbial bad penny that keeps reappearing, lousy immigration bills are hard to kill off. Consider the EAGLE Act of 2022, also known as Equal Access to Green Cards for Legal Employment, or formally recognized as H.R. 3648. The newest proposed legislation is another iteration of the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act. Although it passed the House by a 365-65 vote, eventually it stalled in Congress.

Introduced by immigration lawyer, amnesty advocate, enforcement foe and expansionist champion Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the new and the old versions of her proposed legislation both share the same ruinous-to-U.S. tech workers’ feature: the legislation would rob thousands of U.S. tech workers of access to well-paid, white-collar, high-skilled jobs in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, STEM jobs for which they are fully qualified. Continue reading “Tech Workers Brace for Possible Omnibus Job-Killer”

Tech Layoffs May Give U.S. IT Workers Opportunities

by Joe Guzzardi

Elon Musk, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, and the firings he immediately called for that included H-1B visa holders, as well as the tech industry’s mass, across-the-board layoffs, raise a three-decade-old question: should the H-1B visa be eliminated, and should U.S. tech workers be put first in line for the white-collar, well-paid jobs?

Musk, who completed his $44 billion Twitter takeover last month, declared that he would end lifetime bans from his platform and tweeted that diverse viewpoints would be welcome. He has a golden opportunity not only to end censorship and restore free speech as he’s promised, but to also hire U.S. tech workers when workforce needs again grow. Continue reading “Tech Layoffs May Give U.S. IT Workers Opportunities”

Former U.S. Gatekeepers Lobby for More International STEM Students

Via US Techworkers

by Joe Guzzardi

In early May, nearly 50 former U.S. officials who held prominent federal government positions sent an urgent letter to Senate Majority and Minority leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, and to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Also copied was the Bipartisan Innovation Act Conference Committee, a group that will reconcile differences in the Senate and House versions of separate bills which address America’s global competitiveness.

Included among the letter’s signatories are the former secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the Department of Navy, as well as the former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner, a CIA director, their assistants and undersecretaries and a two-term U.S. representative. The letter’s tone is alarmist.

Continue reading “Former U.S. Gatekeepers Lobby for More International STEM Students”

Senate Introduces Bill Intended to Displace U.S. Tech Workers

Guest Post by Joe Guzzardi

In one of his final official acts before retiring, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) introduced the Immigration Innovation Act of 2018 that would increase the annual H-1B quota from the current 85,000 up to as many as 195,000. Cosponsored by lame duck Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), the bill would also allow H-1B visa holders’ spouses and children to work, a provision that President Obama’s 2015 executive order granted, and which the Department of Security is re-evaluating with an eye toward ending.

The press release that announced the Hatch-Flake legislation, also referred to as I-Squared and a nonstarter in the two previous Congresses, is watered down with touchy-feely language, but the end goal is obvious: fewer jobs for American tech workers and more imported overseas labor.

Continue reading “Senate Introduces Bill Intended to Displace U.S. Tech Workers”