Blogger, semi-pro historian, and computer programmer Clayton Cramer writes

Unlike the illegal aliens who drive down the wages of unskilled or low skilled citizens and legal residents, H-1B workers are driving down the wages of people like myself, who are paid pretty darn well. I’m not asking you to cry for people whose salaries are driven down to $80,000 a year by competition–it’s not equivalent to the guy who is trying to raise a family on minimum wage.

Still, there are some unpleasant results, if this is an accurate description of the people that are brought in under H-1B visas. It means that most of these jobs are positions that could be filled by college grads, or people with one or two years of experience. (My experience with my current employer suggests that this is actually the case–some of them bring no more–and in some cases less expertise than I would expect of any recent computer science graduate.) Driving down wages in this entry level or near entry level segment has the effect of discouraging Americans from getting degrees in these fields–or preventing them from getting jobs that will give them the experience that they need. This is bad for them, and probably bad for the American economy in general. We already have a hard enough time getting Americans to major in hard subjects–why provide any encouragement for them to get degrees in fields where, to put it bluntly, we already have more than we usefully employ?Clayton Cramer’s BLOG

He also quotes an American software engineer who says

[O]ne of the regs for H1B is that the company must be unable to fill the job with a US worker. Some more clever companies satisfied this requirement by simply advertising the job in a different city then the actual job location, thus nearly insuring that no one would respond.

I don’t blame the Indian engineers for taking advantage of the program. Overwhelmingly the Indian engineers I’ve worked with were smart and capable. They acted in their own interests as one would expect. But that is the point. Every time I hear someone explaining how great it will be if we just expand the H1B program again, I think to myself: “This is not in my best interest, and in my opinion, not in the best interest of the rest of US workers.” I just read comments by Larry Kudlow on “NRO The Corner” singing the praises of an expanded H1B program. I’m not buying it.

Kudlow’s “Corner” post is called “Brainiac Immigration.”

Amanda Paulson, Faye Bowers and Daniel B. Wood write at the Christian Science Monitor:

On any given day in the Home Depot parking lot in the San Fernando Valley, from 100 to 200 day laborers – almost all undocumented – show up hoping for work. Much of the talk Friday was of the new Senate immigration plan – particularly its proposal to let illegal immigrants step forward and start down the path to legalization and, eventually, US citizenship.

“This is unquestionably an opportunity to come out of the shadows and into the sunlight,” says Jefe Rodriguez, a middle-age contractor who says he makes about $200 in a good week. “However, $5,000″ – the price tag to apply for permanent residency – “is way too much money, mucho dinero. We don’t have that kind of money.”

Now, the basic problem is that the value of citizenship is far more than the fines that are being considered or currently implemented.

In this case, we have someone complaining about being asked to pay $5000 for something that has a market value of $100,000 and a theoretical value closer to $300,000.

I think we ought to substantially raise the price for all types of visas and residency rights, enforce the existing penalties against employers–and substantially increase those penalties for future violations. The revenues obtained could be used to help those affected go back home with less distress than they might otherwise experience.

I suspect that even fairly minor incentives could facilitate movement of millions of folks back to Mexico.

Of course, even Americans aren’t necessarily entitled to taxpayer-funded college educations, (did you know that the word education doesn’t appear anywhere in the Constitution) but illegal immigrants are really not entitled to free university degrees.

Oddly enough, the Supreme Court says illegals are entitled to free education up to high school. Perhaps they’re using a different copy of the Constitution.

The story below is typical sob story stuff, propaganda for Dream Act type funding for illegals who qualify for college.

While such funding was vetoed in California by Schwarzenegger, I’m afraid every government program which illegals aren’t eligible to tap will experience explosive growth in costs if the Senate Sellout passes.

Effect of illegal status on college students detailed -
Effect of illegal status on college students detailed
By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
May 20, 2007

What does it mean to be an undocumented immigrant studying at a California college?

According to students who appeared Saturday before a panel of California lawmakers at UCLA, it’s a relentless scramble to secure enough money to attend school.

It’s not only hard to find a job, but it’s also extremely difficult to secure financial aid or scholarships to help pay for tuition, causing some to drop out to save up, the students told five legislators: two state senators and three assemblymen.

Paola Fernandez, 21, said she’s unsure whether she’ll have enough money to attend UC Santa Barbara in the fall.

Fernandez, whose parents brought her to the Central Valley from Mexico illegally when she was 4, just graduated from a Kern County community college, where she was a top student.

Sophomore Ernesto Rocha, 20, who crossed the border when he was 8, sometimes takes his sleeping bag to a UCLA library or a friend’s nearby apartment because he can’t afford to live on campus.

However, the cost of living in Mexico is much cheaper, and I understand tuition at the University of Mexico is cheap, too.

This year the Dow Blog, which has done some truly excellent work in the past, has been showing signs of burn-out. Quite a few fine blogs have shut down lately: as VDARE.com remarked when Fjordman closed, amateurs and volunteers cannot be expected to go on indefinitely. (Inference: Support VDARE.com!)

However, patriotic outrage at the new Senate Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration measure has been stimulative. Four extensive articles have been posted in three days. Borjas on the Immigration “Compromise” ends with as succinct a statement by DB of the reality as I have seen anywhere:

The economics are relatively simple. Low-skilled immigrants are admitted in huge numbers driving down the wages of blue-collar workers. Certain groups of professionals (doctors, engineers, and computer programmers for example) will also see their wages decrease…Meanwhile, the social costs associated with education, health care and welfare expenditures will explode and be largely socialized.

The primary beneficiaries will be social, economic, and political elites who manage to reap the benefits of mass immigration while insulating themselves and their families from the consequences…(They) don’t have their livelihoods, not to mention their children’s education, threatened by mass immigration, but they will acquire the cheapest pool cleaners, house-keepers, and roofers in the Western world.

Churches and Immigration is a valuable briefing for observant Christians on the Treason Lobby -Clerical Division (DB’s second this year).

Importing “Family Values” is a remarkable collection of the insulting, derogatory and silly remarks made about the historic American nation by NeoCons rushing to support this latest attempt to destroy it.

And no patriot would disagree with Dow Blog’s instant reaction to the Bill: Please Impeach These Guys.

The moral of the story is that we no longer live in a country governed by its people. What the elites want, they will get. Open borders, “free trade,” never ending war and interventionism, the melding of America into globalist political institutions and a “global economy” and the destruction of our laws, culture, and people

Welcome back to the barricades, Dow Blog.

Senators can usually expect deferential and respectful receptions from their own party’s State conventions. But astonishingly this weekend GOP Senators were booed both in South Carolina and Georgia. Reason: their support for the new Amnesty/Immigration Acceleration bill.

Boos, hisses greet defense of immigration reform bill The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saturday May 19 2007 actually has a link to a recording of Senator Chambliss being booed. He responded with the unbelievably stupid claim that without this legislation, America would have to import its food. Apparently he has never heard of machines.

In South Carolina, Kennedy-loving Senator Lindsay Graham was also booed for praising the bill. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, however, was cheered for denouncing the proposal. (Immigration Heats Up South Carolina GOP by Jim Davenport The Sentinel May 19 2007).

Getting booed by their own party delegates must have been a shock to these men. Perhaps it will remind them they were not elected to be servants of the White House. VDARE.com hopes the practice spreads.