AP Investigation: Bailed-out banks sought to hire 21,800 foreign workers in past 6 years

[alienlovechild 75]

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The dozen banks receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

The figures are significant because they show that the bailed-out banks, being kept afloat with U.S. taxpayer money, actively sought to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. As the economic collapse worsened last year — with huge numbers of bank employees laid off — the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in fiscal 2007 to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.

The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions.

It is unclear how many foreign workers the banks actually hired; the government does not release those details. The actual number is likely a fraction of the 21,800 foreign workers the banks sought to hire because the government limits the number of visas it grants to 85,000 each year among all U.S. employers.

During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. The number of foreign workers included among those laid off is unknown.

Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.

Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/sns-a...,0,466168.story

[peejay 327]

And that is just the tip of the lunacy going on here in the USA. Even as we continue to lose millions of jobs in the USA, congress continues to allow the importation of hundreds of thousands of foreign workers month in and month out. Whose interests are these jackasses looking out for? I don't see any change.

How can it make any sense for the American people's own government to be approving more competitors for a dwindling number of jobs? Month after month as hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their jobs, the feds keep pumping another 138,000 new foreign workers into the labor force.

The monthly 138,000 figure is so big you may doubt its credibility. But it comes directly from the Department of Homeland Security. Its most-recent-year data show that the U.S. granted:

• 744,531 permanent green cards to working-age adults ages 20-64, and

• 912,735 new employment authorization documents to temporary foreign workers.

That adds up to an annual rate of 1,657,266 new foreign workers (not counting illegal workers) added to our economy. There are no indications that the pace has slackened. If this pace continues, DHS will issue an average of 138,000 new work permits and green cards to working-age adults each month this year.

http://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/jan...oreign-work-vis