Congress, White House Go Silent on Jobs Giveaway to Irish Graduates

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, U
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty
Neil Munro

GOP politicians are working with Irish politicians and advocacy groups to pass a bill that would transfer thousands of white collar jobs from U.S. graduates to Irish graduates.

The white-collar giveaway bill is reportedly near fast-track approval in the Senate because only two of the 51 GOP Senators still have a “hold” on the bill  — even though 22 GOP Senators will face millions of college-educated voters in 2020.

The Irish visa program would allow about 5,000 more Irish graduates per year to take salaried jobs in the United States, even though many of those jobs are also sought by debt-burdened U.S. graduates. The E-3 visa program does not have a multi-year cap, so the giveaway could soon outsource up to 50,000 good jobs to foreign graduates — without providing any similar benefit for U.S. graduates seeking a job in Ireland.

The labor giveaway would help U.S. companies by nudging down average salaries for American graduates — but that would hurt Trump and GOP candidates by slowing salary growth for suburban voters before November 2020.

Companies and investors are intensively lobbying politicians to quickly add hundreds of thousands of white collar and blue collar foreign workers to the labor force because Americans’ salaries and wages are rising, despite the growing inflow of legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and visa workers:

This closed-door trading away of Americans’ jobs “happens all the time,” said Rosemary Jenks, government relations for NumbersUSA. “‘If you get yours, I get mine,’ which is why we have so many [work] visas.” She added:

It is just unbelievable because we have the caravans and mass chaos on the southern border, and we’ve got the employment rate among people with only a high school education lower than it was in 2007, yet they are still talking about how there is not enough workers.

The E-3 visa allows 11,500 Australian college graduates to get U.S. jobs each year. In 2017, U.S. companies hired 5,947 new Australians via the E-3 visa, which was approved in 2005 by President George W. Bush. The pending bill in the Senate would allow the Irish to get the 5,000 E-3 visas not used by the Australians each year.

Each visa allows a foreign graduate to work for two years in the United States. They can be renewed endlessly, but the foreign graduates cannot switch jobs or become immigrants, ensuring that the visa remains a source of cheap young graduate labor.

The E-3 visa workers are snapped up by major U.S. companies, according to MyVisaJobs.com. For example, the site reports that in 2017, E-3 workers won 92 jobs at Amazon, 62 jobs at Uber, 56 jobs at Facebook, 96 jobs at Skywest Airlines, 29 jobs at Tesla and 28 jobs at Ernst & Young. Those opportunities that otherwise would have been won by American graduates were located largely in the major cities of New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, says the site.

The site’s data suggests that the E-3 program is now outsourcing jobs to 22,000 Australian graduates. The outsourcing may reach 50,000 jobs by 2025 if the Irish are allowed into the giveaway.

The giveaway was rushed through the House on November 28 by just a few members working under the guidance of House Speaker Paul Ryan. The visa program matches Ryan’s ideological support for employers’ use of imported labor, regardless of the cost to young college graduates in Wisconsin or any other American state.

In the Senate’s fast-track process, the bill needs to get unanimous consent before it can pass – ensuring that it will be stopped if just one, single, solitary U.S. Senator places Americans’ interests above the interest of  U.S. employers and Irish graduates.

Six Senators have placed holds on the legislation, but several have since removed their holds, according to Irish media sources that are endorsed by the Irish legislators and officials who are lobbying for passage of the giveaway. For example, Irish Senator Mark Daly tweeted on December 3:

The IrishCentral report on December 3 said “the six senators are Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and very influential; Mike Enzi of Wyoming; Johnny Isakson of Georgia; James Lankford of Oklahoma; Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Roy Blunt of Missouri.”

Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson put a hold on the bill in a bid to get a visa program that would deliver South Korean workers to the Kia auto factory in his state. There are already several visas — such as the L-1 program — that Kia can use to import South Korean workers into the Peach State. An Irish news site, IrishCentral, reported that Isakson has removed his hold. Isakson’s office did not respond to questions from Breitbart News.

South Carolina’s Thom Tillis also put a hold on the giveaway, reportedly because he wants to boost the inflow of H-2B laborers to employers in many states. According to the Irish Echo, Tillis “could end up lifting his hold in return for a commitment to consider his H2-B reform ideas separately.” Tillis is a former executive at IBM, where he helped the company outsource huge numbers of jobs to foreign workers, including workers from India. Tillis is now trying to vastly increase the size of the H-2B program as U.S. employers try to fend off demands for wage increases in a tight labor market. Tillis’ office did not respond to questions from Breitbart News.

The site also said that Missouri’s Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Oklahoma’s Sen. James Lankford have also placed holds on the bill, even though both are advocates for cheap imported labor. Lankford may drop his hold, according to a December 11 report by the Irish Echo.

The bill could be stopped by any one of several other Senators who are close allies of President Donald Trump’s “Hire American” migration policies. However, staffers for Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, Georgia’s David Perdue, and Arkansas’ Tom Cotton did not respond to questions from Breitbart News.

In February 2018, 36 GOP Senators backed Trump’s Four Pillars Immigration Reform, which would have helped Americans by reducing the inflow of legal and illegal immigrants. That group includes 13 Senators who will face the voters in 2020 after they have decided to support or oppose the E-3 giveaway. The Senators include:

Tennesee Sen. Lamar Alexander, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotten, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Georgia Sen. David Perdue, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, Sen. Thom Tillis, and Tennessee Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is the Majority Leader and controls the Senate’s business.

The Senators’ states already include many visa workers holding jobs sought by their constituents, according to a website operated by Americans professionals who have lost jobs to visa workers.

The giveaway bill is backed by many Democratic Senators, partly because many of the E-3s are hired by high-tech companies in their states. For example, the bill is supported by New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer who has supported pro-Irish immigration bills, including the Diversity Visa program, which he helped launch in 1990.

The E-3 is a is not a huge program by U.S. standards because roughly 1.5 million foreign graduates are already holding white collar jobs in the United States. The 1.5 million foreign workers are hired via a variety of programs such as the H-1B, L-1, OPT, CPT, J-1, O-1, and TN programs.

However, these programs are very unpopular. In November, graduates’ opposition to these programs helped defeat GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder, chairman of a House appropriations panel.

The E-3 visa would a huge boon to Ireland’s graduates — and its politicians — because it would allow roughly one-third of the district’s annual output of university graduates to get jobs in the United States.

Yet despite the huge relative gain for Irish business, the E-3 giveaway legislation would only help about 5,000 older Americans retire in Ireland, presumably with their 401Ks. That lose-lose deal would transfer U.S. jobs to Irish graduates in exchange for transferring U.S. savings to Irish businesses.

Ireland’s finance minister tweeted Thursday that a major Irish airline is hiring pilots. Under the E-3 bill, young Irish pilots could be hired in the U.S., and retired American pilots can spend their savings in Irish pubs.

Multiple Irish media sources – some tweeted by Irish government officials —  say the giveaway is backed by several administration officials, including Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and John Kelly, the outgoing chief of staff.

One Irish media outlet says Trump endorsed the E-3 extension during a St. Patrick’s Day meeting with the Irish Prime Minister in 2018.

After the meeting, Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said he had helped Trump deal with a business problem facing a Trump golf course in Ireland. Varadkar told the story in a speech to Hill legislators — but later backtracked amid criticisms from Irish groups.

Varadkar is a far-left progressive. In 2016, he told reporters, “I think any reasonable person would agree some of the comments [Trump] has made are racist, particularly about Latinos and also many of the things he has said are sexist.”

In his March 2018 meeting with Trump, Varadkar also pushed Trump to approve an amnesty for Irish illegals in the United States.

The Irish embassy did not respond to calls from Breitbart News. The White House did not respond to emails from Breitbart News.

Irish lobbyists and American politicians have justified the E-3 giveaway with claims of historical ties, ethnic alliances, and business favors  — but the advocates have not declared a desire to help American graduates earn decent wages, buy houses and start families.

Wisconsin GOP Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner sponsored the bill in the House, saying:

This legislation would allow Irish nationals to apply for those visas unused by Australian nationals. This significant addition to the U.S. immigration system will not only benefit Irish nationals seeking employment in the United States but also ease restrictions on Americans wanting to live and retire in Ireland.

In a press statement, Sensenbrenner said:

The United States was built on hard work and the determination of immigrants – many of whom hail from Ireland. Through their perseverance, they have enabled this country to grow and prosper …

I believe in the value and opportunity that comes with legal immigration. I am pleased to have authored this legislation to make the process more efficient for one of our oldest allies, and add to the great legacy of cultural diversity celebrated in our country.

The campaign for the E-3 giveaway has been led by Irish politicians and Irish-American groups, such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A November 28 tweet from an Irish Senator, Mark Daly, said:

John Deasy TD Governments Special Envoy to US has worked hard on visas. Delighted to work with John & Mick Mulvaney Director of Budget & Management in White House & Casey Higgins in Speaker office on visas down the years & get it this far

The special envoy, Deasy, is a member of the Irish parliament, which is properly called the Dail. He told the Irish Times:

“The only way we were going to achieve a deal in Washington was by increased political activity at member level.

“No disrespect to our Department of Foreign Affairs but I think that was necessary and I think that has proven to actually have an effect over the last year, year and a half.”

The Irish lobbies sought and won the support of Speaker Paul Ryan:

The Irish groups lobbied Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s staffer for his approval:

The Irish groups lobbied White House officials, including Mike Mulvaney, the director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin

The Irish groups also worked closely with Democrats:

The lobbying group which met with Schumer’s staff included a far-left, anti-Israel Irish legislator who is a member of the Sinn Fein party:

Nationwide, the U.S. establishment’s economic policy of using legal migration to boost economic growth shifts wealth from young people towards older people by flooding the market with cheap white collar and blue collar foreign labor. That flood of outside labor spikes profits and Wall Street values by cutting salaries for manual and skilled labor that blue collar and white collar employees.

The cheap labor policy widens wealth gaps, reduces high tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, hurts kids’ schools and college education, pushes Americans away from high tech careers, and sidelines at least five million marginalized Americans and their families, including many who are now struggling with fentanyl addictions.

Immigration also steers investment and wealth away from towns in heartland states because coastal investors can more easily hire and supervise the large immigrant populations who prefer to live in coastal cities. In turn, that investment flow drives up coastal real-estate prices, pricing poor U.S. Latinos and blacks out of prosperous cities, such as Berkeley and Oakland.

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