H1B Visas...

[wizard at neonedge.com (Wizard)]

Dear Mr. Romney,
   I have been working now for several months, however I was laid off in
September of 2001 and had been unemployed since then. Over that time there
have been numerous discussion regarding the poor job market and difficulty
finding work in the Technology & Computer fields in the Northeast on an
email discussion list for the Boston Linux & Unix User Group (www.blu.org),
as well as other venues I have been a part of. The most recent discussion
was in regards to your attendance at an event sponsored by EMC that had a
speaker trying to justify H1B visas. I am not at all opposed to immigration.
My great-grandfather immigrated in the late 1800's from Italy, and became
quite successful after many years of hard work. This country has had it's
origins in immigration.
   The issue here (in my opinion) is money. When college-educated American
citizens are hard-pressed to even find entry-level employment, and places
like Home Depot are stating that they will only hire people with prior
experience, and companies are paying as little as HALF of what they were two
years ago to fill the same IT and software positions, then something's got
to give.
   When I was laid-off in 2001, I was making $75,000/year, had good
benefits, and worked from home. I have almost 20 years of experience, am
reliable, and have an excellent CV. Yet today I am making less than
$44,0000/year, work more hours, have to travel regularly, and am away from
my home 12 to 16 hours daily. Even then, in order to make ends meet I have
to do side work selling and developing websites and using my weekends to do
this work. This still will probably only get me up to about $50k (if I'm
lucky).
   I'm one of the lucky ones. There are thousands of IT and Software
developers who were laid-off BEFORE me that are still seeking work. Many of
these people are friends of mine, and are as skilled or more skilled than I,
but are unable to find jobs. It is UNFAIR to these Americans, many of whom
have paid taxes to the State & country for their entire careers (when they
were in a higher tax bracket, naturally), that large corporations reaping
the benefits of the American marketplace should be allowed to continue to
bring in cheap labor from overseas simply to save themselves a few bucks,
when the very same employees that they have laid off in the not-so-distant
past are still unemployed and actively seeking work.
   H1B visas ARE VALID when they are used to fill a VALID NEED. When they
are used in a depressed economy simply to save a few bucks, when CEOs are
taking home MILLIONS (BILLIONS?) in incentives and salaries on the backs of
hard-working Americans, then it by all rights falls into the category of
GREED, not NEED.
Thank you for your time,
Grant Mongardi
531a Country Way
Scituate, MA 02066
(781)544-3387