Good Riddance to Wretched Refuse
July 29, 2004
It’s official...every liberal in the nation wants to replace the Ten Commandments with the immediate adoption of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations. Geez, from the way the New York Times is spouting off you’d think that Indiana Jones had just found the Ark of the Covenant.
After beginning its work in late 2002 on a budget of $3 million and issuing a report 20 months and $15 million later, only two things are certain: (1) Like anything the government touches, the commission is now 500% over original budget and still “confident that it can fulfill its mandate with this amount” and (2) “The immigration system as a whole was widely viewed as increasingly dysfunctional and badly in need of reform.”
And speaking of immigration...last week, the NYT’s reported that “Indians Go Home, but Don't Leave U.S. Behind”. Apparently, “Drawn by a booming economy, in which outsourcing is playing a crucial role, and the money to buy the lifestyle they had in America, Indians are returning (to India) in large numbers.” Good riddance!
As the Times reports, these repatriates, “are seeking to refashion India implicitly in America's image”. I guess that might be somewhat of a silver lining. It’s usually good to globally spread American values. That is...until every teeming shore enters the consumer lifestyle and squeezes energy prices through the roof.
Arjun Kalyanpur, sums-up the bad news, "Why should my country be any less than the country I was in?''. Kalyanpur and his wife, Dr. Sunita Maheshwari, spent eight years in America working and training at Yale-New Haven Hospital--he as a radiologist and she as a pediatric cardiologist. Seems like the couple spent just enough time amongst us to complete medical internship, residency and sub-specialty training.
No doubt, plenty of your tax dollars were hemorrhaged in those perpetually money losing medical programs. American Medical News reports that the “...financial losses at many of the nation's 400 major teaching hospitals...mean significantly less money for medical schools.” But why should Dr. Kalyanpur care about the financial challenges facing U.S. medical education. For Kalyanpur, America, after all, is only “the country I was in”. With credentials in hand (gratis of the U.S. taxpayer), Kalyanpur is know comfortably back in India...or, as he calls it “my country”.
And that is the problem with American immigration. It isn’t about freedom or values...it is about money. The American taxpayer has, for decades, cultivated a rich orchard and the wrenched refuse from teeming shores only care about picking our ripest fruit. U.S. taxpayers are allowing their inheritance to be squandered by a pay-for-play immigration system.
Only ignorance of H-1B visas could lead a person (like John Kerry) to criticize “outsourcing” of U.S. jobs. Oh, that’s right, Kerry voted for expansion of the H-1B program (S.2045) in 2000 after he voted against a less onerous bill in 1998 (S.1723). Flip-flop, flip-flop, flip-flop....
The H-1B program accommodates temporary skilled labor shortages. The government defines it as “a nonimmigrant classification used by an alien who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.” In a classic flip-flop, the government assures you that “H-1B status requires a sponsoring U.S. employer”, but makes accommodations so that “An alien may change H-1B employers without affecting status”. And there’s the rub.
Aside from the fact that a GAO report found no proof of a high-tech worker shortage and evidence of widespread abuse in the H-1B program...many of the H-1B participants don’t pay any U.S. taxes (contrary to official spin). Besides, with liberals always crying about record unemployment, how can there be a labor shortage!
A quick and dirty primer on tax avoidance goes like this: American company seeking cheap skilled labor (usually high tech) contacts an American temp agency owned by the relative of an India-based “body shop” (temp agency). The India based “body shop” recruits a person of often-dubious qualifications and hires him/her/it. The Indian “body shop” then loans that employee to its American affiliate. The American “body shop” next places their borrowed employee on a contract basis with an American tech company.
The American tech company pays the American “body shop” that, in turn, pays the India-based “body shop” that, in turn, pays the actual employee an India-based salary. Ergo...the employee does not pay any U.S. taxes.
Immigration to the U.S. (for any reason) is a privilege, not a right. It should be a very controlled and structured process with the end goal of assimilating the immigrant into the fabric of American culture. Immigration should not be the handmaiden of multinational business interests or political gerrymandering. Of course, with the brain child of multiculturalism, America is Balkanizing into tribal villages. But that’s an issue for a few former and future articles.
American culture and immigration have to be synchronized or this country will continue evolving into an international bazaar. Otherwise, after the fruit stands are barren, the Kalyanpurs of this world will roll up their carpets and go home.
I can remember, as a young student, my grandfather told me about arriving in America around the turn of the century. He said that when the horizon broke, and he first saw the Statute of Liberty, he knew he was home. All I ever heard was “Respect the laws, get an education and don’t embarrass your family”. As a smart young student I thought how naively unsophisticated this old gent must be.
Today, when I think about “my country” all I can imagine is the U.S.. And what do I think of when I revel in being an American? Well, it’s not the “suburban good life”, paying my taxes or being drained by liberal babble that comes to mind. For me, America always comes back to the noble experiment given life in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The thrill of liberty’s journey is my America.
I guess that as that young student, I wasn’t that sophisticated, but I certainly needed that education...and so do our elected officials!
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