When ever the glorified arm of big business pushes an agenda, such as H-1B, the middle class of this country better wake up. Right away the statement jumps off the screen, "Not enough US citizens", is a big clue that all this H-1B will do is lower the wages of the US citizens who are employed in those jobs and then the soon to be US engineers stay away because the job does not pay well.

Remember the catch phrase, :They do the jobs Americans will not want". Yes lower any job below the appropreate wage for that job and American citizens will stay away. Not because they do not want to do the job, but because the job does not pay well enough to make a living.

H-1B is nothing more then a wage lowering bill and to just prove that all one has to know is that the Chaber of Commerce wants it. Yes the lobbying arm of BIG business wage lower organization.

I think with with Tester, McCaskill and Webb winning, the electorate sent a pretty strong message that Congress should focus on strengthing American workers and business, not just business without the helping the workers.  SKIL bill, which Allen sponsored, is targeted to help the wealthiest employers in the country.  The present quotas are adequate to admit some of the best and brightest.  H1B still needs many reforms, like making it open to all professions and countries, not just (in practice) non-muslim computer programmers from India.  It needs to be made into a citeznship track program not a guest worker program.  Let's keep the quotas low and the try the pro-worker reforms first.

...a very strong pro worker voice...

Sanders is cosponsoring the DeLauro legislation to reform L-1
and Brown has a pretty good record on H-1B, L-1.

I don't know where they stand on the Skil Bill but since they just both made the Senate hopefully we can talk to them.

I'm hoping so much that labor Dems get on the issue of domestic labor markets and labor arbitrage and differentiate it from "amnesty o no".  I think "amnesty o no" as a black and white presentation is a huge mistake and should be addressed really on a case by case basis, but after they actually secure the borders and fix the system to handle it..

It drives me crazy and creates this massive wedge issue instead of addressing the real problems and solving it.

Most importantly it obfuscates the real issue of labor arbitrage and frankly I think it's on purpose per the strategy of the corporate cheap labor lobby.

I think that if we can get through the lame-duck session without the corporate lobby pushing something through which will be devestating for American technology workers, the new Congress may be able to iron out legislation that considers the impact on labor.

Immigration should be used to better our nation.  Our current policies use immigration as a tool for cheap and exploitable labor.

I would hope that our nation could move forward without exploiting people (both American workers and foreign workers) and I would hope that we could move forward without this race to the bottom.  The current H-1b and L1 visas are part of the race to the bottom.

We should seek the best and brightest, not the cheapest and most exploitable.  The H-1b delivers an indentured servant workforce and must be stopped.  It is a weapon in corporate America's war on the middle class.  (As are many Republicans and a handful of sorry Democrats)

and do youe ver wonder why people like me get all excited about Lou Dobbs? He's the only one who seems to understand that we don;t have a labour shortage, and that this mythology about us being saved by cheap unskilled labour, primarily from Mexico is just that, a MYTH.

I have no trouble with trade, but trade is not off shoring and insourcing of cheap labour. The US didn;t get wealthy by important lots of unskilled labour, it got wealthy when it slowed immigration and forced productivity.

Sorry, with unemployment what it is in many parts of Virginia, we have plenty of lesser/greater skilled labour happy for a job that simply pays a steady wage. 

It's BS. and a myth, and its time to accept that we live in the 21st century, not 1890. Why is it the Amaish don;t need lots of unskilled cheap labour to manage their farms?

Such BS. Thank God Jim Webb understands protection of diversity and rights starts with enforcing the laws on everyone.