Doing the jobs Americans aren’t willing to do

June 14, 2007

Given the recent rhetoric in Republican circles about immigration policy, I found this story spectacularly amusing.

The California Republican Party has decided no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions — state deputy political director — and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa, a program favored by Silicon Valley tech firms that is under fire for displacing skilled American workers.

Christopher Matthews, 35, a Canadian citizen, has worked for the state GOP as a campaign consultant since 2004. But he recently was hired as full-time deputy political director, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country’s largest state Republican Party operation, California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring confirmed in a telephone interview this week.

In the nation’s most populous state — which has produced a roster of nationally known veteran political consultants — “it’s insulting but also embarrassing … to bring people from the outside who don’t know the difference between Lodi and Lancaster … and who can’t even vote,” said Karen Hanretty, a political commentator and former state GOP party spokeswoman.

Wait, it gets funnier. Matthews was hired by Michael Kamburowski, the state GOP’s chief operations officer, who is … wait for it … an Australian citizen.

“There are talented Republicans in California, and the message that (party chair) Ron Nehring is sending is that there’s no talent pool here,” Hanretty said.

Just to be clear, I don’t care who the California Republican Party hires. I’m sure these two guys are perfectly capable political professionals.

But given the GOP’s immigration policy, and it’s take on the H-1B visa program, these hires are a little surprising, aren’t they?

The hiring of two immigrants at top Republican Party posts has handed ammunition to critics who note that many Republicans have spoken critically about the impacts of waves of Mexican immigrants.

“The hypocrisy is disgusting,” said longtime Democratic Party activist Gloria Nieto, policy director at San Jose-based Services Immigration Rights and Education Network, or SIREN, an immigrant advocacy nonprofit organization.

Nieto argued that the party has painted Latinos “as the brown menace. … But it’s perfectly OK to hire people from outside the country? What does it say about the Republican Party that they import their hired guns?”

As for the H-1B visa program in specific, it’s supposed to focus on “specialized workers” whose unique skills are unavailable in the American workforce. According to Labor Department regulations, employers are supposed to make a good-faith effort to hire Americans, and then rely on “specialized” immigrants if necessary.

So, in other words, the California Republican Party is suggesting that in the largest state in the Union, there were no qualified people to serve as the state deputy political director.

Too funny.

June 14, 2007 at 4:55 pm

We are talking about the state that has an Austrian-born governator.

Great post CB. Sort of makes all the GOP claims that they really truly like brown people that much more incredible (in more ways than one).

It’s not that Republicans don’t want immigrants taking American jobs—it’s just that they don’t want “the non-Party-faithful” taking American jobs. I’m sure the entire immigration mess would go away if the GOP could guarantee that only Republican immigrants were picking the lettuce….

As someone who is trying to marry a foreigner and have her get a work permit and to be able to travel, I find the entire debate about visas and immigration to miss the point completely.

Why should it take over a year for an American citizen to bring his wife/her husband into this country?

Then why should it take over 3 additional months when that spouse is not allowed to leave the United States or to work legally in the United States?

Our current law is disgusting and is probably going to get worse.

But given the GOP’s immigration policy, and it’s take on the H-1B visa program, these hires are a little surprising, aren’t they?

Repubs being hypocritical surprising? No.

Of course, I’m guessing these guys are both white. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

This proves there is no such thing as a competent Republican. The California GOP searched high and low and couldn’t find one. They have to outsource right-leaning competence from other nations it seems.

Odd, I haven’t seen the CA GOP or anyone with any power “painting Latinos as the brown menace”. It’s just that they’re willing to put their country first. Meanwhile, Democratic racial demagogues such as FabianNunez seem to be a bit “confused” (youtube.com/watch?v=FgbCB8QlQWw). Now really, the MexicanNationalAnthem?

As for the “GOP’s immigration policy”, it strongly supports such visas. Others realize the damage that giving a large number can cause. This site has been around for a long time, perhaps our host should take a look at it: http://www.zazona.com

Let’s skip to the bottom line: who ultimately benefits from posts like this?

there’s always FEMA Brownie

Re: #6
Let’s skip to the bottom line: who ultimately benefits from posts like this?

One possible answer is Canadians or Australians looking for work in America, the land of opportunity!

Another answer is Americans interested in political news, specifically the nationality of the California Republican Party state deputy political director and chief operations officer.

Thought that last one was pretty obvious to anyone with 5th grade English reading and comprehension skills.

Well the difference here is that the GOPers are white people and Mexicans are brown. No real hypocrisy here, just old fashion racism.
JC

Perhaps it IS a job that no Americans will do. I, for one, would rather pick lettuce than work for the Republican Party.

The GOP is willing to put their country first? In what delusional, alternate universe does this take place? In the real world, repubs put party before country at every turn. But that could simply be their arrogance. They think the are the country.

Kamburowski is qualified, though — he chaired a project to rename objects in all 50 states for Ronald Reagan! (um.)

Hmmmmm. This all sounds familiar. Republicans promoting one policy for the rest of us while ignoring that rule when it comes to themselves. Where have I heard this before? Oh, yeah…

“The Washington Post reports that President Bush is beefing up his besieged White House legal team with some crack lawyers to defend the administration against a variety of congressional inquiries. As the Post’s Peter Baker notes, all eight [of the newly-hired attorneys] received degrees from Ivy League schools or from West Point.

So, when it comes to policy-making over at the so-called Justice Department, a Regent University law degree, like the one held by Monica ‘I may have crossed the line’ Goodling and a battalion of other fundies, suffices. But when it comes to protecting the president’s backside, apparently a divine legal degree is no substitute for an East Coast elite Ivy School pedigree.” –Tom Schaller

Neil, @3

It’s probably all outdated — I came here in ’73 — but I came on a *tourist* visa and we got married here. You might want to do the same with your bride-to-be. Just make sure she brings all the paperwork (preferably already translated, with a notary-public seal confirming that the translation is correct) which will allow her to marry.

Once you’re married, even if the process of getting a green card takes forever, the visa renewal is almost automatic, because she’d be married to a native-born American. Then, once she gets the green card, she can travel (though not to some countries), using it in lieu of a passport. But she’ll have to spend a certain minimum of time each year within US or else risk being knocked out of the citizenship track. I don’t remember what the requirement was then, because it never mattered much; I only went back to Poland once every second year, for 4-6 weeks.

Good luck to you and your prospects. The naturalization process is long and tedius and frequently aggravating, but not impossible.

The GOP supports the H1B program and employment based immigration.

The Democrats on the other hand are busy messing up the lives of H1B and EB applicants by dumping loads of illegal immigrant applications into the legal immigration system. Do you know that the USCIS and USDOL have not finished processing illegal immigrant applications from the last Democrat sponsored 245(i) amnesty from back in …. 2001?! At this rate we will need an Department of Illegal Immigrant Services to process all of the 12 million or so applications that will be filed due to CIR.

So, in other words, the California Republican Party is suggesting that in the largest state in the Union, there were no qualified people to serve as the state deputy political director.

Is California the largest state in the Union? I thought Alaska was the largest state. Maybe you are thinking most populous or most electoral votes means largest?

The problem is worse than you think. There were no qualified persons in the entire US.

Personally I am not against immigration even though I work in a high-tech field that is literally being flooded with oompa-loompas. I am against importing labor in the face of falling and stagnant wages. I am against importing labor when American Citizens are unemployed and under-employed.

Wonder why kids are not pursuing degrees in Math and Science in the US? Maybe its because they are watching Mom and Dad (with Math and Science Degrees) march from job to job as they are displaced by imported labor.

The immigration issue, especially possible passage of a Senate version of Bush’s immigration bill, will probably guarantee the destruction of the democratic, not republican party, in 2008. The immigration debate continues to be misleadingly framed as a problem of economic justice, but it is, and is understood by many Americans to be an issue of border security and rule of law. The fact that both parties (and their helpers in the media) have tried to dust over the distinction between legal and illegal immigration will be held against them, because most people understand (correctly) that the immigration bill currently proposed is basically a capitulation to business interests and a refusal to enforce border integrity for fear of offending hispanic voter blocks. (There is meanwhile, of course, nothing wrong with the monitored legal immigration of hard working, talented Mexicans.) Both political parties will be tarred should Bush’s immigration bill be passed, but democrats, who need desparately to win if there’s to be a United States at all in 50 years, will be perceived as unable to prevent a flawed and opportunistic Republican domestic policy even while holding power in the Congress. And Republicans will be able to appeal at least to hispanic voting blocks, having lost others through their incompetence and lawlessness in recent years.

This isn’t all that surprising nor hypocritical. Looking at the last 10 years the Republicans are all about globalization and removing all trade and labor barriers for its constuency, ie. large global corporations. It just failed to mention to it’s voting fodder that its inherent interests have never been the same as those who vote them in. It’s just now the results of their spectacularly successful policy have come back to haunt them, with the destruction of US manufacturing. I imagine the R’s of California will self destruct and the large corporations will continue their successful endeavors with a bit more subleties via Hillary. If you doubt my cynicism one should look at her cozying up to Rupert Murdock over the last 6 years, and her history with Wal-mart.

Clarification – these are not “immigrants.”

If these employees are in the United States and working with an H-1B visa, they are not “immigrants” but rather “aliens” with a work visa. (e.g. “The hiring of two ~~immigrants~~ legal aliens with a temporary work visa at top Republican Party posts . . .”)

The H-1B is a temporary work visa and the holders must return to their home countries after their visa expires typically in 3-6 years.

Some H visa recipients do apply for resident alien status after they have worked in the U.S. for a while and thus they may become “immigrants” at some later time. However, as long as they are in the U.S. on any of the “H” visas, they are legal aliens with temporary work authorization and not “immigrants.”

The requirement for hiring an alien to take a specialty job is that an employer prove (through advertising the position, recruiting and other evidence) that there is no ‘minimally qualified” U.S. worker willing to take the position. Any person who does apply for the job, but is not hired, must be reported as part of a “labor certification” in support of the H-1B application. As part of that process, the employer (the state GOP) must justify the reasons for not hiring any U.S. worker who applied for job but not hired.

. . which leads to the next CLARIFICATION: Given the job advertised by the GOP, there is NO doubt that whoever filed the paperwork in support of the H-1B visas for these foreign employees . . . how shall I say this? . . . , well um, LIED BECAUSE THERE IS NO F’ing WAY the CA GOP fulfilled the recruiting and other legal requirements mandated by federal law to justify temporary foreign employment for a political consultant position.

How pathetic.

sláinte,
cl

Schwarzenegger:

• Came to US on a tourist visa that bars working.

• Made large amounts of money popping his muscles, in contests, for rightwing Weider magazines, and hawking protein powder.

• He paid NO taxes on that income.

• He bragged about ripping off Northridge earthquake victims, on the Tonight Show.

• He met with Ken Lay and investment fraud felon Michael Milken during the ENRON/Reliant electricity rate ripoff in 2002.

• He stole his election in 2003, an election in which NO tabulator in the State had certified software, and in which the software was ILLEGALLY installed and removed within days of the election.

• Having run on a pledge to take no special interest money, has taken in nealry $120 million in special interest money.

• Has greenlighted a Blackwater private military base at the CA border (part of the secret privatization of the border scheme), and offered them a no-bid contract to provide emergency services (since the CA Natiional Guard is being blown to bits overseas).

• And, a personal favorite, his (Blackwater) security pointed their machine guns in protesters faces, and in 2003, his supporters rolled a tank and a Stryker onto Westwood Blvd. in Los Angeles, and pointed the tank guns at protesters.

• He’s a thug, a criminal, and a willing traitor to his adopted country.

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