Great Recession Porn: Illegal Mexican Immigrants Are Going Home

When your mind isn't clouded by partisan politics or rigid ideological dogma, it is easy to apply common sense about any given issue. I have been saying for many years that the most effective way to combat the problem of illegal immigration is not to demonize the poor souls crossing the border in hopes of a brighter economic future, but to instead vigorously prosecute the corporations who hire them. At a time of high structural unemployment, it is even more unforgivable that American employers refuse to pay a living wage and instead undercut American workers by hiring illegal aliens. And I've never bought into the bullshit that there are jobs that "Americans won't do." Offer a decent wage and see what happens. Will prices go up? Sure, but people in this Spoiled Rotten Nation buy way too much shit they don't need anyway.

Until recently, I had no evidence to back up my theories about the economic driver for illegal immigration because U.S. government policy was solidly behind the corporations and their nefarious schemes to destroy the working and middle class wage structure in this country. Which was the real reason, incidentally, that President George Bush the Lesser infuriated the nativists in his own party by not backing draconian anti-immigration laws. Yeah, a real humanitarian, that asshole.

But now, as the lingering effects of the Great Recession are dragging on, the data is trickling in that support my position. Here is the Atlantic Wire with the story:

A new study says that for the first time since the Great Depression, there may be fewer Mexican immigrants coming into the United States than there are moving from the United States back to Mexico. According to the Pew Research Center, the net migration between the U.S. and Mexico over the last five years was essentially zero, and the downward trend suggests that flow of both legal and illegal immigrants may have actually reversed back toward Mexico.

There are many possible reasons to explain the decline, but the most obvious one would seem to be the struggling U.S. economy, which has cost millions of available jobs, particularly in construction and in the South, where recent immigrants generally thrive. There have also been big increases in enforcement, deportations, and border security, although the report also says that arrests of illegal immigrants trying to cross the border has actually plummeted by nearly 75%. Whether that's because fewer people want to come here or they just don't think it's worth the risk is hard to pin down, but the number of folks willing to take the chance is definitely declining.

Given the continued hysteria over illegal immigrants and how demographic shifts might change the country in the future, many Americans might be shocked to learn that the shift is actually heading in the other direction. There have been several state laws just within the last couple of years that were passed on the premise that illegal immigration was out of control, even as the population of Mexican immigrants is apparently lower than it has been in decades. (Some might argue that the news laws are responsible for that, but the trend was clearly in place even before they were passed.) The Supreme Court will actually hear arguments this week about the harsh Arizona law that has been at the center of the debate for the last couple years, but this new evidence may put the crackdown in a new light, since the problem it was intended to resolve may not actually exist.

Gee...dry up the pool of available jobs and the illegal immigrants stop coming to America. Who would have ever thunk it? So much for the ridiculous idea that the immigrants come here to have babies who become American citizens just so they can collect welfare benefits. I daresay the average Mexican migrant farm worker is far better acquainted with what it means to perform hard labor than your average brain dead dittohead.

Consider this story one of the strongest indicators yet that America is experiencing an ongoing slow motion economic collapse. When the world's poor, tired, huddled masses no longer see our country as a great and glorious land of opportunity, but instead decide that being destitute back at home where they at least have a family and social support structure is better than being here where they are reviled just for trying to earn a meager living, the end cannot be all that many years away.


Bonus: Arlo Guthrie covers his legendary father

Whistleblower Accuses IT Giant Of Immigration Fraud

It's bad enough that American jobs are being shipped overseas because of globalization. It's even worse when cheap foreign labor is being imported into the United States with the complicity of the federal government. Here is CBS News with the details:

We've all had this happen: you call an American company's 800 number for help, and end up talking to someone in a foreign country. It's called outsourcing. American firms do it because foreign labor can be cheaper.

But now, one company is being accused of bringing those lower-paid workers to the U.S. illegally and that may be costing Americans jobs.

The allegations are the subject of a federal probe and CBS News has been investigating this story for months. The allegations have been made against a giant Indian information technology firm called Infosys. The charges are coming from inside the company, from an employee who has never spoken publicly before.

Jay Palmer is a principal consultant at the company called Infosys. He is also the whistleblower whose charges sparked the federal investigation. Palmer says Infosys, the global high-tech giant, engaged in a systematic practice of visa fraud, a charge the company denies.

Palmer said the first thing to catch his attention was an employee that had been in the U.S. from India several times before.

"He came up to me and he was literally in tears," Palmer said. "He told me he was over here illegally and he didn't wanna be here. He was worried that he would get caught."

Palmer says he began digging into how and why Infosys seemed to be bringing in large numbers of workers from its corporate headquarters in Bangalore, India, into the U.S.

Palmer says at first, most came over on H-1B visas. These visas are for people with specialized talents or a level of technical ability that can't be found among American workers.

When asked if all the people had some special expertise that couldn't be found in the U.S., Palmer said, "Absolutely not. Not even close. Many of them is what we call freshers. People that would just come over, whoever they could get to come over. Whoever got accepted for a visa."

Many of the people brought in, in fact, didn't know what they were doing at all, Palmer said. "There was not a project or program that I was involved in that we did not remove somebody because they had no knowledge of what they were doing," he said.

So then what's the motive to bring them in? You could hire an American who is trained in that particular discipline and do better.

Palmer said, "It's purely profit."

Palmer says the Indian workers on his team were paid substantially less than an American would have made in the same job.

When the U.S. State Department began to limit the number of H-1B visas, Palmer says Infosys began using another type of visa, the B-1. The B-1 is meant for employees who are traveling to consult with associates, attend training or a convention. But Palmer says the employees were brought in not for meetings, but for full time jobs.

Palmer said the jobs were in "Everything from coding software to testing software to fixing software to installing."

So why would Infosys do this? And what advantage did it give them in the marketplace?

Palmer said, "They could outbid everybody or underbid everybody on every contract (because they were paying less.) For example...if I'm gonna pay you $15,000 a year why would I pay an American or a legal worker $65,000 a year? It makes no - it's just economics."

And Palmer says the B-1 workers never paid U.S. taxes because they received their salaries from India.

"They're basically a lot of times being paid on a cash card or a debit card where money was put in their account," Palmer said. "And the fact is, is they're just taking that money out and they're never paying U.S. taxes."

Infosys may not be a household name to many Americans, but in the technology business, the company is a powerhouse. It is one of the biggest consulting firms in the world with more than $6 billion in revenues last year alone, and 145,000 employees in 32 countries. But the bulk of its business comes from the U.S., re-engineering the computer systems of some of the biggest names in corporate America.

Federal officials say Infosys employees have 6,000 B-1 visas good for 10 years. Palmer says if just half of those employees were working on U.S. soil that would earn the company more than $150 million a year more than if they paid Americans the prevailing wage.

Infosys declined CBS News' repeated requests for an on-camera interview with a company executive or with chief executive officer and chairman S.D. Shibulal. But the company's chief financial officer, V. Balakrishnan, has denied the charges on Indian television, saying, "I think we are very clear that we have not violated any of the rules. We believe we have a strong case."

Infosys did give CBS News a statement saying, in part, "Any allegation or assertion that there is or was a corporate practice of evading the law in conjunction with the B-1 visa program is simply not accurate, and we will vigorously defend the company against any false allegation to that effect."

But one of Palmer's most serious allegations is that top company executives not only knew of the alleged fraud, but wanted to expand on it to increase profits. Palmer says during a 2010 meeting at Infosys' corporate headquarters in Bangalore the practice was discussed with a group of executives, including a senior vice president.

Palmer told CBS News, "There was some conversations about how to increase the share price, which is - in America is the stock price. So it's really about getting people over no matter what the cost or whatever. And you know, I think that's the first time I heard the term, you know, 'Americans are stupid.'"

If Palmer is telling the truth here, and I am inclined to believe that he is because as a whistleblower against a multi-national corporation he is the one who has placed his ass on the line, that assessment is absolutely correct, Americans ARE stupid. Forget for a moment whether or not Infosys is committing visa fraud. If they are, the company should obviously be vigorously prosecuted. What's even more outrageous is that at a time of record high unemployment, the U.S. government agreed to grant 6,000 visas for Infosys employees to come to work in the U.S. in the first place.

Does anyone still need to be shown a more glaring example of how the federal government now represents the interests of multinational corporations over those of the American people? There is NO justification for the U.S. to be importing cheap foreign labor, even if it was being done legally, when so many people are struggling to find work. It is all being done in the name of globalization, which was always a scam to enrich the elites at the expense of everybody else. We can only hope that these outrageous charges will be thoroughly investigated and the vigorously prosecuted if found to be accurate. But I'm not holding my breath on that last point.


Bonus: But don't worry, President Hopey-Changey feels your pain...he really does

Give Me Your Wealthy, Your Well-Heeled, Your Select Few, Yearning to Buy Our Houses

A couple of weeks ago in my post about Obama’s fast-tracking of the latest “free” trade agreements, I asserted that bipartisanship in Washington is actually the worst possible thing for average Americans. On those rare occasions when both parties agree on a particular measure, it is almost always designed to help rich people. The latest sad example of this phenomena was reported by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday:

American consumers and the federal government haven't been able to bail out the sinking U.S. real estate market. Now wealthy Chinese, Canadians and other foreign buyers could get their chance.

Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill that would allow foreigners who spend at least $500,000 on residential property to obtain visas allowing them to live in the United States.

The plan could be a boon to California, which has become a popular real estate market for foreigners, particularly those from China.

You hear that, you poor, American deadbeats? You slackers aren’t pulling your share of the load to bail out the construction, real estate, mortgage and investment banking industries, so we have to enact yet another measure to sell out the country from underneath you.

So who is behind this latest nefarious scheme?

"Many people want to come and live in the United States," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who introduced the legislation Thursday along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). "They will be here spending money and paying taxes, and the most important thing is they'll sop up the extra supply of homes we have right now compared to demand, and that's what's dragging our economy down."

The legislation would create a new homeowner visa that would be renewable every three years, but the proposal would not put them on a path to citizenship. To be eligible, a person would have to buy a primary residence of at least $250,000 and spend a total of $500,000 on residential real estate. The other properties could be rented.

The program would come with several restrictions.

The purchase would have to be in cash, with no mortgage or home equity loan allowed. And the property would have to be bought for more than its most recent appraised value, Schumer said.

I was no fan of former New York Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato, but he had it exactly right during the campaign in which he lost his seat to Chuck Schumer when he referred to his opponent as a “putzhead.” Yes, Senator Schumer is correct that America has a long tradition of encouraging immigration. That’s what all of that windy verbiage penned by Lazarus and inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty is all about. As you’ll recall, it concludes thusly:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

But you can forget all of that lofty nonsense in an era in which the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination has seriously proposed building an electric fence along the southern U.S. border with enough juice to kill any illegal immigrants who try to cross. We don’t want your huddled masses anymore. Just your millionaires—people who can come here and instantly join the 1%. Because who else other than a millionaire is going to have $500,000 in cash laying around to invest in U.S. real estate?

Let's also recognize who most of these millionaires the "honorable" Senators Schumer and Lee want to bring here really are--Chinese businesspeople who likely made their millions by destroying the natural environment of their home country and exploiting the cheap labor of their countrymen. If you want to see what the "modern" China is really like, watch this horrible video (hat tip: Mish Shedlock)...but I warn you, it is GRAPHIC. China is a country where the average human life has little if any value. However awful America's belligerent foreign policy may be, we haven't sunk to this level on the domestic front...yet.

What really strikes me about this proposal is just how transparently desperate it is. Putzhead Schumer and his Senate colleagues know that the dismal condition of the U.S. real estate market is still the biggest threat to trigger an economic collapse in this countrty. Were Bank of America, for example, forced to open the books on its mortgage-lending portfolio, there is little doubt that America’s biggest bank would instantly implode.

So there you have it. America has become a land of the millionaires, by the millionaires and for the millionaires. As far as your “leaders” are concerned, it no longer matters whether you were born and raised in this country, or whether you went off to fight in its imperial wars. All that matters to them is whether you have a fat bank account and can afford to help bail out their buddies in the financial industry.

Wherever Your Ancestry, Being an American Means the Freedom to Consume as Much of the Planet’s Resources as Possible

I’ve mentioned before that I am a resident of Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. As much as I have complained about the insular nature of residing in a well-to-do community full of folks who work in and around the imperial capital, there are certain aspects of living here I do like. One of them is the diverse nature of the local population. On any given day you literally see people from just about every major ethnic group, religion and nationality in the world around here. I’ve lived in my current residence for 14 years, and during that time have had a Jewish family, and Indian (subcontinent) family, two Korean families and a Hispanic family as my next door neighbors (the downside is it is a transient neighborhood). Going out to dinner, you can partake of just about any kind of world cuisine there is should you be so inclined. My community is a nearly perfect mosaic of the American melting pot.

One thing that becomes apparent when you live around such a diverse group of suburbanites for a long period of time is that no matter where they hail from, or what religion they practice, or what social customs they may have followed back home, once they have been here long enough they truly start to become modern day Americans. By this I don’t mean that they are grateful to have the “freedoms” that Americans supposedly enjoy, although maybe some of them did come here to escape political or religious repression in their own countries. No, what I mean by that is they all to a greater or lesser extent become perfect American consumers.

This is particularly noticeable among the younger generation; the teenagers and college age children who have been here all their lives. The high school age daughter of the Indian couple who currently lives next door to me could in her appearance and mannerisms easily pass for as the child of a pair of blonde-haired, blue-eyed WASPs. She dresses in the latest fashions sported by well-to-do teenagers everywhere, is constantly chatting and texting on her IPhone and was given a car to drive by her parents as soon as she turned sweet 16. The only indication that she retains some knowledge of her cultural identity was a recent performance of traditional Indian dance she gave at her high school.

I should emphasize that I do not begrudge her or her family for wanting to live their lives in their adoptive country the same way as any other successful American would. Just because their family moved here much more recently than mine does not mean they have any less right than I do in that regard. What it really goes to show, however, is that the great appeal of America to many people around the world is not necessarily the right to speak freely, or have a free press or even to own a firearm, but instead the fossil-fuel enabled abundance that allows even the average citizen wealth and convenience inaccessible to all but a tiny elite in many other countries. This is the real essence of the American Dream for many people.

Historically, legions of immigrants have come to America more for economic reasons than to escape persecution. The Statue of Liberty would be more reflective if the great lady were draped in Gucci and carrying a Coach handbag instead of a torch. Unfortunately, however, as America enters the latter stages of an economic decline that began shortly after our domestic oil production peaked in 1970 this dream is becoming more and more inaccessible to those who grew up here, let alone those coming from other nations in pursuit of it. When the day finally comes that emigration to America trickles to a halt it will be due to economic collapse rather than because of any elaborate border fences or rigorous internal identification checks (sorry, Arizona).

When Americans proclaim that their country is founded upon freedom, what they really mean even if they don’t realize it is the freedom to make a buck and consume. All other aspects of freedom in America are secondary and always have been. Nativists who point the finger at immigrants as the source of our economic ills are misdirecting their ire. Those accusatory fingers should instead be pointed squarely at themselves for our current economic predicament is the result of decades of rampant, uncontrolled consumerism--pursued by the public and urged on by the politicians they vote for--that has pushed our economy well past the point of long term sustainability.