Clinton Calms Silicon Valley’s Worries, Promises To Preserve High-Skill Visas

[Warren DeMontague]

15. Call me crazy, I think we should try to find Americans for domestic jobs before importing workers.

And yes, I understand the logic of tech companies and H1B visas.

Maybe that makes me "nativist", however, it seems to me there are separate questions around immigration- one, do we provide a path to citizenship for the undocumented workers who are already in this country- some of them for decades- or continue to keep them off the books so that companies can pay them substandard wages with no benefits, etc. (Or promise to deport them, which is completely unrealistic as well as immoral)

That's one thing. But no country in the world doesn't control its borders or somehow try and regulate immigration. The idea that it is intrinsically immoral to regulate immigration in any way- well, I don't think that's what anyone is advocating, is it?

The only people who believe borders should be erased are Ayn Rand/Club for Growth types, last time I checked.

So it's really a question of what, how, how many, etc. And the H1B visa program isn't about working to document people already here, it is a way for companies to actively recruit people to come and take high-paying jobs.

Now, fine. Maybe that's a net gain for the US and worth it. It's a logical argument, and we should have that conversation. But not pretend it's the same thing as a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented workers who are already here.

The other part of the equation is "well, Americans simply don't have the skills for these jobs"- and why is that? Why aren't we educating our kids for the jobs of the 21st century?

Maybe we should have that conversation, too.