Lawyers' words are kerosene on the flaming H-1B bonfire
The immigration battle brews on Capitol Hill.
(Credit: U.S. Senate)Much of life is timing. And in this case we have video of lawyers saying things that will only add more fuel to the already burning issues of immigration and controversial H-1B visas.
Speaking to his law firm's clients, Lawrence Lebowitz advises them, "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker. And that, in a sense, that sounds funny, but it's what we're trying to do here."
A lawyer working with Lebowitz outlines what employers may have to do if a qualified U.S. citizen does apply for a job: "If necessary schedule an interview, go through the whole process to find a legal basis to disqualify them for this particular position."
Later a representative for a lawyer's professional group said the seminar from Lebowitz and friends was for employers who already had temporary foreign workers and wanted to make those workers permanent.
How do we, the public, get to hear this lawyerly advice? Video clips of this legal seminar have been posted on YouTube, of course. This, in turn, aroused significant attention and media coverage. This occurs as there's a heated battle in Washington D.C. over immigration law.
So we know that Lebowitz and his associates work for Cohen & Grigsby, a law firm with offices in Pittsburgh and Florida. Lebowitz is listed as a director on the firm's Web site. He's one of 14 associates of the firm who were recognized by Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2007. C&G uses the motto "progressive law."
So Mr. Lebowitz seems to have leap-frogged his colleagues, going from advising lawyer to national celebrity, all via YouTube. And how did this happen? Somebody who apparently disapproved of Lebowitz's suggestions alerted a Californian who fights H-1B visas. At one time the entire presentation was posted online, deliberately, by C&G. From there the edited video got onto YouTube via ProgrammersGuild.org.
(That's sarcasm for those who couldn't tell.)
I thought your country used to be proud of that.
Let's lock down our borders, disallow future H1B visas and start get back to a US first policy!
2. For H1-B there is a requirement that they cannot find an American with the required skills.
But sure, if you want to create a procetionist communist society where the State decides your job and your education from a planned economy's needs, go right ahead. If you want to move manufacture of goods back to where it is more expensive to perform, so that the cost of goods shoots up, go right ahead. (Of course, since the State would set both prices and wages, it's not much of a problem.) But good luck finding someone who wants to live there.
Or you can accept that business is international and companies "shop" their workers where it is cheap, just like you shop at cheap chain stores instead of the local more expensive ones...
- Unemployment rate at historical low, so who cares?
- by joelam888 June 24, 2007 2:16 PM PDT
- You have a job, I have a job, all we have a job, and a good one, too.
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- All we have a job
- by baldguy61 June 24, 2007 5:50 PM PDT
- In China, one of the best paying and sought-after jobs is the MacDonald's burger flipper position. It pays more than a college professor's salary and the waiting list is about 200 applicants deep. Give the current offshoring situation 20 years and that's what we'll be looking at in the USA. Welcome to the global economy.
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- Unemployment rate of software developers is close to none: 0.9%
- by joelam888 June 25, 2007 8:16 AM PDT
- http://news.com.com/A+sunny+hiring+season+for+job+seekers/2100-1022_3-6192920.html?tag=nefd.lede
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