Corporate Elitists Plot to Undermine American Workers

by Joe Guzzardi
May 24, 2010

President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness spells more bad news for unemployed Americans. In a recent article about its goals, the council picked up where Obama left off in his pro-immigration El Paso speech by calling for America to get “more aggressive” in its worldwide search for skilled foreign-born workers.

Claiming that the United States faces a “reverse brain drain,” the council urged policies that would make an already tight American job market almost impossible to penetrate. 

Among its other anti-American worker suggestions are to create “a pro-growth green card system” that would speed up the process for overseas workers to come to the United States to take jobs that would otherwise go to Americans. Additionally, the council recommends that an automatic green card be attached to every foreign-born U.S. college graduate to help ensure that they don’t return home when their student visas expire.

In conclusion, the report called for Republicans and Democrats to “show political courage” by ending what it referred to as the damage done to the economy by haggling over “immigration laws and policies.” These are all code words for passing comprehensive immigration reform that would amnesty millions of illegal aliens and institute a policy of unlimited non-immigrant worker visas.

If the United States were at full employment, an accelerated process for the “best and brightest” to jump to the front of the line as well as issuing automatic green cards might be worthwhile since, in theory, those practices would help America compete globally. But with the national and California unemployment rates at 9 and 12 percent, more workers would create more pressure on the struggling job market.

A closer look at the council’s membership shows, however, that what it has been most effective at is not job creation but laying off their own employees. Council chair Jeffrey Immelt is chairman of General Electric, a company that has fired thousands in the past few years. Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini, one of the council’s participants, has also authorized the dismissal of thousands and, under his leadership, been responsible for erratic corporate earnings.

What the President’s council has unquestionably demonstrated is that it isn’t up to the task of creating American jobs and that its proposals exemplify more ivory tower thinking.

The problem the Council was appointed to solve is an American job shortage. Yet the report goes off on a tangent that ultimately advocates more jobs for overseas workers or students who would otherwise have to return home when their visas expire.

While Americans may lag other nations’ students in overall academic excellence, the U.S. colleges still produce more physical science majors than the country can employ. No evidence exists of an American labor shortage.

If there were, wages would be going up. Instead, they’re declining, a sure sign of a worker surplus. 

In the high tech personnel world, what’s been happening for nearly two decades is the never ending search for cheap labor and rampant age discrimination. Americans over 40, regardless of their experience or academic credentials, are rarely hired in the IT industry.

As for wages, even Silicon Valley entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa is up front about why he imported foreign workers in his previous professional life as founder and CEO of two technology companies. Said Wadhwa, “I was one of the first to use H-1B visas to bring workers to the U.S. Why did I do that? Because it was cheaper.”

The president’s council should be focused on eliminating fraud-ridden worker visas so that American professionals who are now collecting unemployment can get jobs denied to them by a glut of foreign-born workers.

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1986. He is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns are frequently syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. Contact him at [email protected].