DHS Recognizes Mass Fraud in Huge White-Collar Visa Program

[Franklin Pierce]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security has admitted that those registering for the H-1B white-collar visa worker program may be committing large-scale blatant fraud, diverting wealth and careers from myriad U.S. college graduates.

More than 400,000 duplicate requests for H-1B work permits were submitted by companies for 96,000 foreigners, according to an April 28 statement by deputies of Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.

The 408,891 duplicative requests outnumber the 350,103 non-duplicative requests — many of which used more sophisticated fraud techniques.

DHS Recognizes Mass Fraud in Huge White-Collar Visa Program

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security has admitted that those registering for the H-1B white-collar visa worker program may be committing large-scale blatant fraud, diverting wealth and careers from myriad U.S. college graduates.

More than 400,000 duplicate requests for H-1B work permits were submitted by companies for 96,000 foreigners, according to an April 28 statement by deputies of Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.

The 408,891 duplicative requests outnumber the 350,103 non-duplicative requests — many of which used more sophisticated fraud techniques.

DHS Recognizes Mass Fraud in Huge White-Collar Visa Program

@AM64

Hold on... we have people that are saying that Americans have priced themselves out of the labor market.

 

[AM64]

@AM64

Hold on... we have people that are saying that Americans have priced themselves out of the labor market.

We have. These "must have immigrants" are cheaper than engineers, programmers, etc that they replace, and they can make more here than they could in their home countries. It's a racket that has been in place and exploited by business for a few decades now. If you want a parallel, look at Indians who come to the US and operate small businesses; they wouldn't be here if it wasn't lucrative, and they seem to manage a lot of businesses better than people born here because of work ethic. Our lifestyles are extravagant and outpacing incomes. It's only going to get worse if we don't get a handle on housing costs - both owning and renting. It's a death spiral labor chasing prices chasing labor ..., and unfortunately you don't seem to understand it. The dems (and other factors) have just dropped a mass destruction energy bomb in the middle of it to absolutely blow up all costs.

A lot of people need to study system dynamics that engineers are taught. You cannot manipulate a system (and the economy is a system) without affecting the system. If you add a cost anywhere in the process, it will increase the cost of the output. If you siphon off revenue by taxes or by "investment" in commodities or stock markets, it will increase the cost of the product; and a lot of our investments do exactly that without any addition to the process.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

I mean, this is about national security, right?

Weapons Makers Suffering Worker Shortages As Ukraine War Drives Demand | ZeroHedge

Part of the issue is that jobs in the defense industry require niche skills and security clearances - a problem compounded by a flood of defense companies trying to hire at the same time in an industry which has long struggled to meet recruitment goals.

"Our first priority is really to ramp up capacity, which, of course, means increasing staff," according to Patrice Caine, CEO of French component maker Thales, which plans to hire 12,000 people this year to make submarine sensors, jets, and other military items. Caine described the situation as "tensions on some labor markets," which they plan to deal with by outsourcing to 'foreign engineering centers,' as well as relying on corporate partners.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

We have. These "must have immigrants" are cheaper than engineers, programmers, etc that they replace, and they can make more here than they could in their home countries. It's a racket that has been in place and exploited by business for a few decades now. If you want a parallel, look at Indians who come to the US and operate small businesses; they wouldn't be here if it wasn't lucrative, and they seem to manage a lot of businesses better than people born here because of work ethic. Our lifestyles are extravagant and outpacing incomes. It's only going to get worse if we don't get a handle on housing costs - both owning and renting. It's a death spiral labor chasing prices chasing labor ..., and unfortunately you don't seem to understand it. The dems (and other factors) have just dropped a mass destruction energy bomb in the middle of it to absolutely blow up all costs.

A lot of people need to study system dynamics that engineers are taught. You cannot manipulate a system (and the economy is a system) without affecting the system. If you add a cost anywhere in the process, it will increase the cost of the output. If you siphon off revenue by taxes or by "investment" in commodities or stock markets, it will increase the cost of the product; and a lot of our investments do exactly that without any addition to the process.

What is it I don't understand? I've touched on several of the things you mentioned, but where we disagree is on the idea that labor costs are the main driver of our situation.

And your last paragraph is absolutely correct. But you only focus on labor/wages as the main driving input into the system.

 

[volfanhill]

I mean, this is about national security, right?

Weapons Makers Suffering Worker Shortages As Ukraine War Drives Demand | ZeroHedge

Part of the issue is that jobs in the defense industry require niche skills and security clearances - a problem compounded by a flood of defense companies trying to hire at the same time in an industry which has long struggled to meet recruitment goals.

"Our first priority is really to ramp up capacity, which, of course, means increasing staff," according to Patrice Caine, CEO of French component maker Thales, which plans to hire 12,000 people this year to make submarine sensors, jets, and other military items. Caine described the situation as "tensions on some labor markets," which they plan to deal with by outsourcing to 'foreign engineering centers,' as well as relying on corporate partners.

Quoting zero hedge is as bad as quoting the smut papers at the checkout line. Grow up.

 

[AM64]

What is it I don't understand? I've touched on several of the things you mentioned, but where we disagree is on the idea that labor costs are the main driver of our situation.

And your last paragraph is absolutely correct. But you only focus on labor/wages as the main driving input into the system.

I guess there is a factor I am forgetting, and it's generational. I grew up when unions were running rampant, and you are a generation that missed a lot of that. We are fighting a lot of history and momentum. I remember when products we bought were invariably US made, and I guess you wouldn't have seen the same thing. When the UAW went on strike against one the Big 3 automakers and then forced the concessions on the other two, it ratcheted car prices year after year. Teamsters, steel workers, miners, etc all followed suit year after year. Railroads moving goods and inputs had multiple unions to add to the mix - and any one could stop transportation of necessary inputs and finished products. Then in the 70s OPEC hit us with the oil embargo, gas was short, prices skyrocketed, and Honda and Toyota became household names.

A lot of the damage was done before you came along, the spiral once started may change course or velocity, but it isn't going away. A lot of that initial damage was directly a result of union action. A cost increase to any input necessary to the production of an item will increase the cost of the item. Labor is generally a big input, but right now energy cost is likely the most pervasive - squeezing the laborer and the manufacturer. Biases are borne from what we experience; one of my strongest memories is strong armed union tactics - unions are far weaker now and were by the time you began collecting your experience base. The UAW and steelworkers don't have the impact they once did because their stupidity opened competition from Japan, Korea, China, etc; but we're still paying the cost in balance of payments, and it may very well sink us before it's all over.

 

[norrislakevol]

Everything has changed, and everything is changing. From the attempting of decoupling from China, to the laziness of unions, to automation, to AI. Throw in those foreign workers too. This is a very interesting mess.

 

[EasternVol]

I guess there is a factor I am forgetting, and it's generational. I grew up when unions were running rampant, and you are a generation that missed a lot of that. We are fighting a lot of history and momentum. I remember when products we bought were invariably US made, and I guess you wouldn't have seen the same thing. When the UAW went on strike against one the Big 3 automakers and then forced the concessions on the other two, it ratcheted car prices year after year. Teamsters, steel workers, miners, etc all followed suit year after year. Railroads moving goods and inputs had multiple unions to add to the mix - and any one could stop transportation of necessary inputs and finished products. Then in the 70s OPEC hit us with the oil embargo, gas was short, prices skyrocketed, and Honda and Toyota became household names.

A lot of the damage was done before you came along, the spiral once started may change course or velocity, but it isn't going away. A lot of that initial damage was directly a result of union action. A cost increase to any input necessary to the production of an item will increase the cost of the item. Labor is generally a big input, but right now energy cost is likely the most pervasive - squeezing the laborer and the manufacturer. Biases are borne from what we experience; one of my strongest memories is strong armed union tactics - unions are far weaker now and were by the time you began collecting your experience base. The UAW and steelworkers don't have the impact they once did because their stupidity opened competition from Japan, Korea, China, etc; but we're still paying the cost in balance of payments, and it may very well sink us before it's all over.

Well put. The unions served a noble purpose until they didn't. Once they gained power, there was a lot of stupidly short sighted abuse of the system. The UMW pretty much put several large coal operations out of business, and themselves out of very well paid jobs, by sandbagging.

 

[EasternVol]

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Agency (USCIS) of the Department of Homeland Security has admitted that those registering for the H-1B white-collar visa worker program may be committing large-scale blatant fraud, diverting wealth and careers from myriad U.S. college graduates.

More than 400,000 duplicate requests for H-1B work permits were submitted by companies for 96,000 foreigners, according to an April 28 statement by deputies of Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.

The 408,891 duplicative requests outnumber the 350,103 non-duplicative requests — many of which used more sophisticated fraud techniques.

DHS Recognizes Mass Fraud in Huge White-Collar Visa Program

That program's been rife with fraud for years. It's supposed to be for jobs for which no American can be found but companies have laid off whole departments and replaced them with imported staff.

 

[turbovol]

I guess there is a factor I am forgetting, and it's generational. I grew up when unions were running rampant, and you are a generation that missed a lot of that. We are fighting a lot of history and momentum. I remember when products we bought were invariably US made, and I guess you wouldn't have seen the same thing. When the UAW went on strike against one the Big 3 automakers and then forced the concessions on the other two, it ratcheted car prices year after year. Teamsters, steel workers, miners, etc all followed suit year after year. Railroads moving goods and inputs had multiple unions to add to the mix - and any one could stop transportation of necessary inputs and finished products. Then in the 70s OPEC hit us with the oil embargo, gas was short, prices skyrocketed, and Honda and Toyota became household names.

A lot of the damage was done before you came along, the spiral once started may change course or velocity, but it isn't going away. A lot of that initial damage was directly a result of union action. A cost increase to any input necessary to the production of an item will increase the cost of the item. Labor is generally a big input, but right now energy cost is likely the most pervasive - squeezing the laborer and the manufacturer. Biases are borne from what we experience; one of my strongest memories is strong armed union tactics - unions are far weaker now and were by the time you began collecting your experience base. The UAW and steelworkers don't have the impact they once did because their stupidity opened competition from Japan, Korea, China, etc; but we're still paying the cost in balance of payments, and it may very well sink us before it's all over.

Wages in America for most workers were absolute crap for 30 years. They stagnated starting when U.S. corporate executives got stock-price fever in the mid/late 1980s. Stock price became paramount--and as a result cost-cutting became paramount, and a function of that was paying workers as little as possible, laying off huge numbers of people. Wages rose very little if at all from the mid/late 1980s until well into this century. We've STILL got millions of people--many of them middle-aged--working full-time jobs for $12 an hour. That's poverty level. Disgraceful. Look at Wal-Mart: Made billions for the owners on the backs of woefully underpaid workers with virtually no benefits. There is a reason that American retailers are CONSTANTLY in a hiring mode--and that reason is that there is astoundingly high turnover in the U.S. service industries, and there is astoundingly high turnover mostly because wages and benefits are poor and so there is no incentive for people to stick with the jobs. You work your tail off for a year at $12 a hour and the U.S. company rewards you with a 30 cents an hour raise. Whoopee! Don't spend it all in one place!

Unions did not create the corporate outsourcing movement: When you could pay Chinese or Bangladeshi workers pennies per hour, it didn't matter what U.S. workers were making. As usual in America, we can't seem to find the good middle ground with respect to worker pay and worker-management relations that they've found in Germany in other countries. See this on Germany:

"Figures from the government-backed Institute of Employment Research (IAB) show that, in 2018, almost half (46%) of employees in Germany were covered by industry-level collective agreements, with another 8% covered by agreements signed at company level – meaning overall collective bargaining coverage was 54%. This left 46% of employees whose terms and conditions were not set by collective bargaining, although the managers who completed the survey, on which the figures are based, said that the terms and conditions for half (51%) the employees not covered were oriented on industry-level agreements."

And most would agree that Germany has had a very successful economy for a long time.

Unions have some issues, to be sure--but then without unions American workers generally get screwed, especially in the service sector. Income inequality is a huge issue in America because workers tend to be grossly underpaid while corporate executives are grotesquely overpaid. Compare executive compensation packages in America compared to Europe. They're essentially corrupt in America, with complaisant crony boards giving top executives these massive pay packages (salary, bonuses, stock options) that are incredibly excessive. It's no accident that multinational manufacturers have established lots of operations in the American south, in states controlled by Republicans who are anti-union, anti-worker and pro big business. Take a look at any list of the poorest states in America--8/9 of the top 10 are in the South.

 

[Rasputin_Vol]

A lot of the damage was done before you came along, the spiral once started may change course or velocity, but it isn't going away. A lot of that initial damage was directly a result of union action. A cost increase to any input necessary to the production of an item will increase the cost of the item. Labor is generally a big input, but right now energy cost is likely the most pervasive - squeezing the laborer and the manufacturer. Biases are borne from what we experience; one of my strongest memories is strong armed union tactics - unions are far weaker now and were by the time you began collecting your experience base. The UAW and steelworkers don't have the impact they once did because their stupidity opened competition from Japan, Korea, China, etc; but we're still paying the cost in balance of payments, and it may very well sink us before it's all over.

This is one of your most revealing and honest comments. You are correct in saying this. My issue with people like you is that you don't get a proper perception of what is going on right now. Just like your biases carried over from the Cold War, you carry over those same biases with regards to labor. Now did the labor movement swing the pendulum too far in the 1970's? I don't think most reasonable people would disagree with that. But in the past 40 years, there is no way you can make the case that wages have been dragging down our economy, nor were a significant justification for outsourcing much of our manufacturing overseas. Whatever increases that were applied to wages were offset by technology and productivity. Also, I don't see a lot of you boomers complaining about wage inflation when it comes to upper management or the push by companies to chase yields in order to satisfy expectations of stockholders. So inflation with regards to management compensation and stock price is OK, but passing on increases in wages puts a burr in your saddle.

 

[AM64]

This is one of your most revealing and honest comments. You are correct in saying this. My issue with people like you is that you don't get a proper perception of what is going on right now. Just like your biases carried over from the Cold War, you carry over those same biases with regards to labor. Now did the labor movement swing the pendulum too far in the 1970's? I don't think most reasonable people would disagree with that. But in the past 40 years, there is no way you can make the case that wages have been dragging down our economy, nor were a significant justification for outsourcing much of our manufacturing overseas. Whatever increases that were applied to wages were offset by technology and productivity. Also, I don't see a lot of you boomers complaining about wage inflation when it comes to upper management or the push by companies to chase yields in order to satisfy expectations of stockholders. So inflation with regards to management compensation and stock price is OK, but passing on increases in wages puts a burr in your saddle.

I've had plenty to say over the years about management compensation and what's going on with stocks. There's absolutely no justification for the millions paid to corporate execs - particularly when you look at where the economy stands and US jobs that no longer exist. It seems people forget that there are two sides to the consumer/manufacturing equation. If you don't have jobs and if they don't pay reasonably, then you have no consumers. That's not to say that manufacturing should ever exist primarily to generate a consumer base, but it seems business has forgotten the part about what generates customers.

The stock market has been out of control for a long time. It really no longer fills the intended purpose of providing capital necessary to allow business to grow; stock and commodities markets are basically gambling establishments and a place to park retirement savings in hopes it can keep up with investment ... and with hopes that industrial strength investors don't find the "bad" news they need to pump out everyone else's "investments" once they've bubbled the market sufficiently. We have a real need for nuclear power and for oil refining, but the stock market would touch neither because of uncertainties and long lead times. The markets are great for corporate level execs who do stupid stuff that leads to inflated stock prices that rewards them, but sinks the company in the long term - with GE being a prime example.