President Trump ran on a ticket to the White House that promised to put Americans first. Too bad for us, the Republican corporatists in Congress don’t feel the same. The House just passed H.R. 1044, or The Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019, a worker visa bill that will feed big tech’s appetite for cheap foreign labor from just two favored nations—China and India. A full 140 Republicans in the House wasted no time voting for a bill this past Wednesday that was put together by big business interests and Democrats that will abolish per country caps and allow 300,000 Indian and Chinese contract workers to take college graduate jobs in the United States. That is 300,000 America graduates who will not have a job in tech or STEM.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), “Under H.R. 1044, Indian and Chinese nationals applying for employment visas would not face caps. Before, nationals from other countries could receive employment visas because no country could fill more than 7 percent of any employment visa category. H.R. 1044 erases that boundary, thereby allowing the hundreds of thousands of applicants from India and China to dominate the [high skilled] employment categories and limiting applicants from other nations.”

To be clear, there is no shortage of skilled American workers, but rather greedy industries that do not want to pay American salaries and hire full-time lobbyist groups to support RINOS to pass legislation that will benefit them—not Americans. According to NumbersUSA.org, “The United States has issued more than 1 million new green cards every year since 2005 and in 8 of the past 10 years. That many new green cards, combined with non-immigrant work visas, adds 125,000 new workers to the job market every month who compete with unemployed Americans and recent high school and college graduates for jobs.”

If signed into law, the bill would profoundly change legal immigration to the United States for generations, barring individuals from any other countries other than India or China to immigrate to the United States on an employment visa. According to an article on FAIR’s website, “A full 224 Democrats and 140 Republicans voted to remove the caps and reward tech companies and lobbyists. Only 65 representatives voted against this bill in support of American workers, notably Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who requested a recorded vote and highlighted the danger this bill posed to American job-seekers, as well as two members of Republican leadership – Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) Interestingly, two firebrand progressives joined in opposition to this bill – Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Additionally, Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) also voted against the legislation.”

Although the bill must still pass in the Senate, Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook advocay group is pushing hard for a big win, even comparing it to the Dream Act. “This is a very important bipartisan effort that we strongly support… If this passes, it will join the Dream and Promise Act as two pieces of commonsense but CRUCIAL immigration legislation passed by the House this year, waiting only for a vote in the Senate.”

The Senate’s version of the bill is currently on hold after Sen. Rand Paul blocked a “unanimous consent” maneuver by GOP Utah Sen. Mike Lee. But Paul may switch his vote, allowing Lee to repeat his “unanimous consent” maneuver. Lee is backed by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate’s judiciary committee. The Senate’s Fairness Act (S. 386) will not only eliminate the per-country numerical cap for work visas but would increase the per-country cap for families to 300,000 as well. The Senate version has 34 co-sponsors, representing both sides of the aisle. The House version, H.R. 1044, has 311 bipartisan co-sponsors.

Joseph Joh, Assistant Director and Senior Adviser for the Office of Legislative Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security released a scathing statement on the bill. “The Department of Homeland Security does not support S. 386. The bill would do nothing to move the current employer-sponsored system toward a more merit-based system. The adverse effect on immigrant visa wait times for nationals of countries currently with lesser demand would be an obstacle to any potential plan to promote or increase immigration from countries who immigrants present reduced risk, such as Visa Waiver Program countries, or any other class of countries which the Administration may desire to provide preferential treatment (e.g., countries with which the U.S. has negotiated favorable trade deals).”

Americans for Legal Immigration has also come out in opposition of the bill. According to ALIPAC, “The powers behind this bill enjoyed a complete media blackout on HR 1044 except for the Breitbart website and the Sean Hannity Show, which means most Americans have no idea anything just happened. Sellout Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is getting rich fast from selling out America and has now raised more money in the first half of 2019 than any other House Republican in history, according to fundraising figures released by his campaign on Wednesday morning.” According to ALIPAC, the bill also helps U.S. real-estate investors by extending the green-card giveaway to the Chinese leaders who use the EB-5 program to buy green cards for their families.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy voted for the giveaway, which provides a fast-track to green cards for 300,000 Indian contract-workers and 300,000 of their family members who choose to stay and work in the United States after their work visas expired. They were allowed to stay once their employers nominated them for green cards.

Perhaps the most egregious silence on the bill is House Whip Steve Scalise, who was the chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee. Although Scalise is a favored representative of the conservative base, his silence against big business and this bill is deafening. Also silent is President Trump’s office of the Press Secretary, which did not issue any statements other than Pence’s call for the ratification of the America First USMCA trade agreement. Trump has also not tweeted anything on the bill. It is disappointing to say the least, but we must all remain vigilant in tracking the passage of this job-killing and unfair Visa worker bill. #Reignwell