US to hike H1B visas, merit will count for green cards

[JDPriestly]

178. I think that people who are citizens, people who were born here or are naturalized

should be given a preference. Their right to equal protection under the law is guaranteed.

People from India or China have no right to have equal protection under our law as I read the 14th Amendment.

U.S. Constitution

Amendment XIV
Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

Person, I would argue, is defined in the first sentence of that amendment.

Persons are those born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.

And I don't think that, in these times of widespread unemployment, foreign nationals and citizens should be allowed to come in and use the privileges and claim equal rights with people born here.

If people have been here for years on American visas, on green cards, they should consider becoming citizens. That is, in my understanding, what the Dream Act is about -- encouraging people who live and work here and want to stay here to study and become citizens. I'm all for that.

I am not in favor of special work visas that essentially lure foreigners to the U.S. to become what the Germans call "Gastarbeitern" or essentially people here to work with no path to citizenship. Gastarbeitern are second-class citizens. That we should not have. That is very unamerican in my view. We already have too many people who have little legal standing here.

If an employer wants to bring an individual over here to work, let that employer sponsor the individual as an immigrant. Let the employer and the immigrant go through the immigration process. We should not have these temporary work visas at all. The people who have them are not protected by the 14th Amendment and in my opinion should not be. We have to have some legal clarity as to their status.