Intel Lays Off 12,000 Employees After Filing Thousands of H-1B’s For Foreign Workers

 

  A recent move by one of the country’s biggest corporations raises serious questions about the government’s visa program and the willingness of businesses to outsource jobs at the expense of Americans.

In what can only be described as throwing American workers under the bus, tech giant Intel has opted to lay off 12,000 employees. Although the company insists that the cutbacks are a necessary part of a major restructuring plan, other activity undertaken by the company proves that it is neither suffering from financial hardship nor an excess of labor.
Not only is the company seeing a marked increase in it’s performance this year, but it has repeatedly lobbied for foreign workers to fill positions. In fact, Intel has earned a name for itself as one of the biggest users of the controversial H-1B program, which effectively allows corporations to replace well-qualified Americans with professionals from other countries who are generally willing to work for significantly lower wages.


Although one might be tempted to believe that the people Intel is hiring through H-1B are just doing “the jobs Americans won’t do,” nothing could be farther from the truth. Far from being confined to minor jobs like testing and maintaining software, the corporation is bringing in engineers and scientists from all the around world just so it can save a buck.

While Intel might see some merit in this state of affairs, many Americans do not:

“The H-1B visa program isn’t the only program used to import foreign workers into the country. Late last year the Obama administration expended the Optional Practical Training (OPT) visa program, which is allowing 120,000 foreign students to work with companies, many of whom rely on the universities for hires.

Because of corruption, agencies are trying to crack down on fake universities that import foreign fake students for work at U.S. companies, and companies that use the H-1B system to get foreign workers for rent to American companies.

Intel’s critics say Intel has used illegal methods to reduce white-collar salaries in California’s Silicon Valley. Intel was a defendant in a 2011 class action lawsuit filed against a group of tech companies, including Apple and Google. The lawsuit was settled in 2015 for $415 million.

For its part, Intel claims that the H-1B visa program is a good thing for the country and, according to Intel spokesperson Lisa Malloy, ‘sustains our national competitiveness, drives economic growth, and creates jobs in the process.’

Along with other companies, such as Microsoft and Qualcomm, Intel was part of the group of business giants that allied with Democrats and with Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) pressure GOP politicians to accept the 2013 ‘Gang of Eight’ immigration bill. The unpopular bill, which included a huge increase in the importation of immigrants and H-1B guest workers, as well as a blanket amnesty for millions of illegals already here, failed when GOP voters ejected GOP House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, in his June 2014 primary election.
Since then, political outsider Donald Trump has put himself on track to the GOP’s 2016 nomination by promising to reform the nation’s immigration and guest worker systems to help Americans. For example, he has said he would reduce the inflow of H-1Bs by raising the minimum wage for H-1B workers, and has called for one year ‘pause’ in legal immigration. Trump’s main rival, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), has also called for a pro-Americanreform of the labor market, saying it will drive up Americans’ wages and spur technology development.

Their failed GOP rivals — including Gov. Jeb Bush and Gov. Marco Rubio — declined to call for pro-American immigration reform. In fact, Bush’s economic platform called for increased outsourcing of U.S. jobs to imported foreign professionals.

Currently, four million Americans turn 18 each year, and the nation’s government annually imports roughly one million new legal immigrants and workers, plus hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants and roughly 700,000 temporary guest workers, including the six-year H-1B professionals. In 2013, the inflow of foreign labor helped reduce wages and boosted the stock market.”