Are Foreigners Better and Brighter?

The notion that foreigners are better and brighter than Americans is nonsense. And we have enough unemployed and underemployed engineers to fill vacancies, if there are any. Highly paid lobbyists are continually pressuring Congress to expand immigration for foreigners to fill science and engineering jobs, using a variety of visas, especially H-1Bs. Their propaganda often includes labeling these young foreigners "the best and the brightest." The big businesses like to employ foreigners because they can be paid less than Americans and given fewer benefits. Visa employees are subject to carrot-and-stick control: the offer of a path to citizenship, and the threat of deportation if they try to transfer to another company.

The question we should ask all candidates this year is, with jobs and unemployment being our Number One problem, why did we tolerate the decade from 2000 to 2010 becoming the highest decade of immigration to America in history? It's clear that the Obama administration has betrayed its own constituency of African-Americans, as well as citizens of all races who desperately need entry-level jobs. The Center for Immigration Studies calculates that more than half of net new jobs in the last five years have gone to recent immigrants.

Our government used to obey a federal law that denied visas to potential immigrants who were unable to support themselves and might become a "public charge." Somehow, that whole concept seems to have disappeared. Just this month, some Senators wrote to Homeland Security and the State Department asking why they don't consider whether potential immigrants would use some of our nearly 80 federal welfare programs when they evaluate visa applications. We're still waiting for an answer to the senators' letter.

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