Billionaire Kochs Back GOP/Dem Plan to Outsource Middle Class American Jobs

Kochs-Kamala-Mike Lee
(Getty Images)
John Binder

The pro-mass immigration Koch brothers’ network of billionaire, donor class organizations is backing a Republican-Democrat coalition that would allow for the swift outsourcing of middle-class American jobs to mostly Indian nationals.

A plan known as the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), as well as Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), would eliminate the U.S. country caps in the legal immigration system that would fast track outsourcing of white-collar American jobs to mostly Indian and Chinese nationals imported to the country by businesses, outsourcing firms, and multinational corporations.

The country caps were originally implemented to prevent any one country from monopolizing the legal immigration system. Eliminating the country caps would immediately fast track up to 300,000 green cards, and eventually American citizenship, to primarily Indian nationals in the U.S. on the H-1B visa, so long as they agree to take high-paying white-collar jobs from Americans.

In the process, not only would other foreign workers be crowded out from receiving employment-based green cards, but the elimination of the country caps would fast track the outsourcing of high-paying American jobs that would otherwise go to U.S. graduates.

The Kochs’ Libre Initiative organization has announced their support for the mass middle-class outsourcing scheme, with the group’s president Daniel Garza saying in a statement:

We thank Senators Lee and Harris, as well as Representatives Lofgren and Buck, for introducing this commonsense, bipartisan legislation to eliminate an unfair policy that favors high-skilled workers from one nation over another. According to a recent estimate, workers from some countries will have to wait more than 150 years to obtain a green card, while others face no wait at all. This unfair system makes no sense, which is why there is such broad support in both the House and Senate to eliminate it. [Emphasis added]

This is a good step towards positive reform of our immigration laws. Congress should consider bills like this, which will help deliver a more transparent, efficient, and navigable system that welcomes immigrants who will contribute to this country. We hope leaders will move promptly to debate and pass this worthwhile legislation. [Emphasis added]

There has been an enormous effort by Republicans and Democrats — including Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), Sen. Corey Gardner (R-CO) — to ram the plan through Congress with huge donor class support.

The plan is a boon to Silicon Valley billionaires, big business elites, and outsourcing firms, as they would be able to readily import more lower-paid Indian and Chinese foreign workers to take American jobs that would have otherwise gone to American citizens.

Experts have said that should the country caps be eliminated, India would be able to monopolize the country’s legal immigration system for the next ten years. After that decade of an Indian-first legal immigration system, the legal immigration flow from India to the U.S. would likely stabilize to make up around 75 percent of all employment-based legal immigration.

Likewise, U.S. employers would be incentivized to more readily outsource American jobs through the H-1B visa and the L-1 visa programs.

The nation’s workforce now includes roughly 1.5 million foreign visa workers who are imported via the H-1B, L-1, OPT, O-1, J-1, and other visa programs. These outsourcing workers are not immigrants, but rather contract workers hired for one to six years, at lower wages, to take U.S. jobs that would otherwise go to American graduates.

Every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of an American workers’ occupation reduces their weekly wages by about 0.5 percent, researcher Steven Camarotta concludes. This means the average native-born American worker today has their wage reduced by perhaps 8.5 percent because of current legal immigration levels.

Likewise, every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of low-skilled U.S. occupations reduces wages by about 0.8 percent. Should 15 percent of low-skilled jobs be held by foreign-born workers, it would reduce the wages of native-born American workers by perhaps 12 percent.

Overall, four million young Americans enter the workforce every year, but their job opportunities are further diminished as there are roughly two new foreign workers for every four American workers who enter the workforce.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.