Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Forced To Train Their Foreign Replacements Then Canned - Outrageous!‏

Lawsuits Claim Disney Colluded to Replace U.S. Workers With Immigrants

By Julia Preston, The New York Times

Even after Leo Perrero was laid off a year ago from his technology job at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. — and spent his final months there training a temporary immigrant from India to do his work — he still hoped to find a new position in the vast entertainment company.

But Mr. Perrero discovered that despite his high performance ratings, he and most of the other 250 tech workers Disney dismissed would not be rehired for at least a year, and probably never.

Now he and Dena Moore, another American laid off by Disney at that time, have filed lawsuits in federal court in Tampa, Fla., against Disney and two global consulting companies, HCL and Cognizant, which brought in foreign workers who replaced them. They claim the companies colluded to break the law by using temporary H-1B visas to bring in immigrant workers, knowing that Americans would be displaced.

“I don’t have to be angry or cause drama,” said Ms. Moore, 53, who had worked at Disney for 10 years. “But they are just doing things to save a buck, and it’s making Americans poor.”

Ms. Moore had also trained her replacement. After she was laid off, she applied for more than 150 other jobs at Disney. She did not get one.

The lawsuits by Mr. Perrero and Ms. Moore, who each filed a separate but similar complaint on Monday seeking class-action status, represent the first time Americans have gone to federal court to sue both outsourcing companies that imported immigrants and the American company that contracted with those businesses, claiming that they collaborated intentionally to supplant Americans with H-1B workers.

A furor over the layoffs in Orlando last January brought to light many other episodes in which American workers, mainly in technology but also in accounting and administration, said they had lost jobs to foreigners on H-1B visas, and had to train replacements as a condition of their severance. The foreign workers, mostly from India, were provided by outsourcing companies, including the two named in the lawsuits, which have dominated the H-1B visa system, packing the application process to win an outsize share of the quota set by Congress of 85,000 visas each year.

The Labor Department opened investigations of the outsourcing companies — the direct employers of the temporary immigrants — at Disney and at Southern California Edison, a utility that laid off hundreds of American workers in 2014. The investigations are continuing. At least 30 former Disney workers also filed complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming that they faced discrimination as American citizens.

The lawsuits by Mr. Perrero and Ms. Moore are based on the rules for H-1B visas, which Congress designed to bring foreign workers with special skills into the country. Employers are required to declare to the Department of Labor that hiring foreigners on the visas “will not adversely affect the working conditions of U.S. workers similarly employed.”

“Was I negatively affected?” Ms. Moore asked. “Yeah, I was. I lost my job.”

Sara Blackwell, a lawyer in Sarasota, Fla., representing the former Disney employees, said the suits charged that the companies had lied under oath when they said no Americans would lose their jobs.

Disney, in a statement on Monday, said, “These lawsuits are based on an unsustainable legal theory and are a wholesale misrepresentation of the facts.” The company said more than 100 of the workers who were laid off in Orlando had been rehired.

HCL has said it complies carefully with United States laws. Cognizant, in a statement on Monday, said that it would not comment on the lawsuit, but that it “fully complies with all U.S. regulations regarding H-1B visas.”

The company said an internal compliance team “ensures our practices are not merely compliant with existing laws in letter and spirit, but also adhere to best practices.” Cognizant said it employed “many thousands of U.S. citizens and residents in addition to employees on lawful H-1B visas.”

Responding to the frustration of American workers, Congress in December renewed and increased a fee on outsourcing companies that it had allowed to lapse. Larger companies employing many H-1B workers in the United States will pay an extra fee of $4,000 for each new H-1B visa — up from $2,000 — and another $4,000 to move an H-1B immigrant who is already in the country to a new employer.

Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, a Democrat who has been openly critical of Disney’s layoffs, offered a bill to reduce the H-1B quota by 15,000 visas a year to 70,000. The issue came up in the presidential race, as Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican candidate, introduced a bill with Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a Republican hard-liner on immigration, to sharply increase the minimum wage for H-1B workers to $110,000 a year, to discourage outsourcing companies from using the workers to lower wages.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an international association of tech workers, posted an online petition to encourage Americans who were displaced to file complaints with the Justice Department. In a letter to the group in December, Alberto Ruisanchez, a Justice Department lawyer in charge of prosecuting immigration abuses, confirmed that it would be a violation of anti-discrimination laws for an employer, or a contracting firm, to fire workers or hire replacements “because of citizenship or immigration status.”

Mr. Perrero, like many Americans who have lost their jobs, said he was long reluctant to speak out publicly against his former employer. At 42 and with a family to support, he worried that he would not find another job in Orlando, where Disney rules as the largest employer by far. He spoke with The New York Times anonymously in an article in June about the humiliation of training his foreign replacement.

But local recruiters told him that despite the company’s statements, Disney managers said they would avoid rehiring workers who had been laid off. Mr. Perrero said he knew of only two workers from the close-knit group of more than 200 who were dismissed who went back to tech jobs at Disney.

Mr. Perrero said he was “part Italian, part English, part Swedish.” He said, “I wholeheartedly believe our country needs to have amazing people come here to build a long-term foundation.” But he said the H-1B program had been abused.

Ms. Moore said that even with strong programming credentials, it was hard for her to start over in her 50s with another company. She has 13 grandchildren, and she confessed that one of the difficult losses was a pass that allowed her to take them to Disney World at no cost.

Ben Ferro (Editor)

benferro@insideins.com

Monday, January 18, 2016

Trump Was Right

McCarran Walter Act of 1952

Note the media did not mention McCarran and Walter were democrats and that this act was created in 1952. It was use by Carter in 1979 … useful facts to ignore when trying to destroy someone’s character... very interesting article!

McCarran Walter Act of 1952 (Immigration and Nationality Act)

Trump was recently severally criticized for suggesting that the U.S. should limit or suspend the immigration of certain ethnic groups, nationalities, and even people of certain religions (Muslims). The criticisms condemned such a suggestion as, among other things, being “Un-American”, dumb, stupid, reckless, dangerous and racist.

Congressmen and Senators swore that they would never allow such legislation, and the president called such a prohibition on immigration unconstitutional.

As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, Surprise !!!” It seems that the selective immigration ban is already law and has been applied on several occasions.  Known as the McCarran-Walter Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, allows for the

"Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by president.  Whenever the president finds that the entry of aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, the president may, by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate." (Section 212(f)

This provision of the Act was utilized by Jimmy Carter, no less, in 1979 to keep Iranians out of the United States, but he actually did more.  He made all Iranian students already here check in, and then he deported a bunch.  Seven thousand were found in violation of their visas, 15,000 Iranians were forced to leave the United States in 1979.

It is of note that the act requires that an applicant for immigration must be of good moral character and "attached to the principles of the Constitution". Since the Quran effectively forbids Muslims to swear allegiance to the U.S. Muslims may be deportable.

Ben Ferro (Editor)

benferro@insideins.com

Friday, January 15, 2016

You’re Paying For More Than Their Ticket Home …

Sen. Rand Paul Uncovers Government Giving Business Assistance to Deported Illegal Immigrants from El Salvador

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the latest edition of ‘The Waste Report,’ which is an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government. The latest edition uncovers the federal government giving business assistance to deported illegal immigrants from El Salvador.
‘The Waste Report’ can be found below.

When a child gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they don’t typically get rewarded with an extra cookie. Yet, the Obama administration has decided they will take the unusual step of rewarding illegal immigration by providing business support to undocumented immigrants from El Salvador that were deported from the United States.[1] To be clear, the program isn’t incidentally helping deportees—it is directly intended to assist them.

The program, which is administered by the non-profit Instituto Salvadorno Del Migrante (INSMI – translated to Institute of Salvadorian Migrants) and funded through a $50,000 grant from the taxpayer-backed Inter-American Foundation, “will further develop a network of returned migrants, including deportees, facilitate reintegration into their communities and support their enterprises by offering financial education, technical advice and assistance with business plans.”[2]

So if you break the rules and get deported, we will help you start a business back in your home country. How absurd. It seems that the justification for this program is that returning deportees often have trouble getting business loans. INSMI director Cesar Rios was quoted saying, “[t]he mistaken reasoning of bankers is that if they lend a deportee [$]10,000, tomorrow morning he’ll be in
New York because he’ll use the money to pay for a new trip.” [3]

Mistaken reasoning? With a cost of $4,000 to $10,000 per person to hire a smuggler to get someone into the U.S. illegally, as part of a $6.6 billion industry, Salvadorian banks may have a reasonable fear that their money will not actually go into a business.[4] This fear is particularly valid considering the individuals in question have already demonstrably left El Salvador seeking undocumented residence in the United States. So while banks justifiably hesitate to take on such a risk, it is apparently perfectly reasonable to pass that risk on to the American taxpayer.

According to the project synopsis, 30 percent of the Salvadoran population lives abroad, mostly in the
U.S. “Many are undocumented and vulnerable to deportation.” What kind of message does this send to people in El Salvador or elsewhere who play by the rules? Keep in mind that the assistance under this program is targeted to deportees, meaning that it’s possible they were sent home for reasons beyond simple immigration infractions.

The Inter-American Foundation has sought to clarify that the program is not “intended” for criminal deportees (those deported after committing crimes in the U.S.), but the FSO Subcommittee has yet to receive definitive confirmation that criminal deportees are in fact prohibited from receiving funds, nor has any specific award criteria been provided to verify.

What we do know is that about 30 percent of the returning deportees were deported due to violent or other crimes beyond undocumented presence.[5] Yet arguments made by backers of these programs do not instill confidence that funds are protected. In fact, part of the justification for the program is that “the impression [in
El Salvador] is that most of those sent home are gang members or criminals.” Incredibly, program advocates have actually argued that such an impression would be unfair given that most returning criminal deportees’ crimes include, “assault, drunk driving, and drug possession,”[6] as though those crimes are in some way trivial. 
Ben Ferro (Editor)

benferro@insideins.com

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Not all refugees are nice people .......‏

Federal Agent Says Iraqi Refugee Wanted To Bomb Texas Malls

By Juan A. Lozano
Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) -- An Iraqi refugee who is facing charges he tried to help the Islamic State group wanted to set off bombs at two Houston malls and was learning to make electronic transmitters that could be used to detonate explosive devices, a federal agent testified Wednesday.

Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, who came to Houston from Iraq in 2009, was indicted last week on three charges, including attempting to provide support to a designated terrorist organization. He pleaded not guilty to all three charges during a court appearance on Wednesday.
AP Photo/Bob Levey

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes denied granting Al Hardan a bond, ruling that there would be a serious risk that the Iraqi refugee would flee if released from federal custody.

Hughes made his decision after listening to testimony from Homeland Security Special Agent Herman Wittliff, who said that in addition to Al Hardan wanting to set off bombs at the two Houston malls, including the popular Galleria mall, the Iraqi man was also learning how to make electronic transmitters that could be used to detonate improvised explosive devices. Al Hardan wanted use cellphones - a collection of which were found in his apartment - to detonate the transmitters, Wittliff said.

"He wanted to build them (the transmitters) for ISIL," Wittliff said.

"For what purpose?" asked prosecutor Ralph Imperato.

"So he could kill people," Wittliff replied.

Al Hardan's arrest prompted criticism of the Obama administration's refugee policies from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been a leader among Republican governors calling for a halt to resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states. Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called for a retroactive review of all refugees who have come to the U.S.

Immigrant advocates say they have full confidence in the vetting process and that tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees have been successfully resettled in the U.S.

Al Hardan's older brother, Saeed Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, has said his sibling has denied any wrongdoing and that neither his brother nor anybody in their family had ever expressed any support for the Islamic State.

Prosecutors allege Al Hardan was coordinating efforts with another Iraqi refugee living in California, Aws Mohammed Younis Al-Jayab. The two men communicated through Facebook messenger from April 2013 to October 2014 and talked about getting weapons training and eventually sneaking into Syria to fight alongside the terrorist group, Wittliff said.

The agent also testified Al Hardan received training on how to use an AK-47 assault rifle in November 2014 on a farm outside Houston from a confidential informant who was working with federal authorities.

During the hearing, Wittliff read aloud excerpts from a conversation that authorities had recorded between Al Hardan and his wife in October 2014. Prosecutors did not say how the recording was obtained.

"Once I get the passport I will leave America, I will leave. I will make a widow of you," Al Hardan said to his wife, according to the excerpt read in court. "I will go to Syria. I am not wacko. I am not wacko. I am speaking the truth. I want to blow myself up. I want to blow myself up ... I am against America."

Wittliff also testified authorities had a photograph showing Al Hardan had taken an oath on a Quran to the Islamic State and that in the closet of his bedroom, agents found an Islamic State flag and a prayer to do list in which he spoke about receiving strength to be able to commit jihad and becoming a martyr.

Wittliff was the only prosecution witness at Wednesday's hearing.

Defense attorney David Adler didn't present any witnesses but suggested during questioning of Wittliff that there was nothing illegal about Al Hardan having the electronic components or old cellphones that FBI agents found in his apartment.

Adler also suggested that the firearms training Al Hardan allegedly received from the informant was about "two guys shooting a gun."

The defense attorney said the conversation that authorities recorded between Al Hardan and his wife could have been a domestic argument and that while Al Hardan said he was against America, he didn't say "I'm going to bomb America."

If convicted, Al Hardan faces up to 25 years in prison.

Al Hardan, who is a legal permanent resident, is married, has an 8-month-old son and had worked as a limousine driver before his arrest, according to his brother. Adler said since Al Hardan's arrest, his family has been evicted from their apartment.

Al-Jayab remains jailed in Sacramento, California. Authorities say Al-Jayab fought twice in Syria, including with a group later affiliated with the Islamic State between November 2013 and January 2014.

Ben Ferro (Editor)

benferro@insideins.com

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Surprise, surprise … a suburb of Washington, DC!

This next article will give you a small taste of what I, as the District Director in Baltimore, MD, had to deal with on a daily basis with the anti-INS, anti-ICE bureaucrats in Montgomery County and Baltimore City.

Ben Ferro (Editor)


Montgomery Co. Slams Immigration Raids, Refuses To Cooperate

Bruce Leshan, WUSA

ROCKVILLE, Md (WUSA9) -- Montgomery County leaders offering a blunt warning to the Obama Administration: Local police will not cooperate with new immigration raids to deport women and children who have fled violence in Central America.

The raids continue across the country despite new criticism in Montgomery County and on the presidential campaign trail from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

But Montgomery County’s response is also facing derision from some people. Prince William County Board Chair Corey Stewart, the leader of Donald Trump's campaign in Virginia, said he'll encourage undocumented immigrants to leave his community and head to Maryland.

Reaction to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids is rolling across social media, with immigrants passing the word not to answer that knock on the door.

Federal agents “have come to my apartment, they have knocked on my door, but I haven't opened the door. And my neighbors have not opened the door either,” said “Sandra,” who crossed the border illegally two years ago with her six-year-old son.

She is among the recent immigrants targeted by the Obama Administration. About 100,000 women and children have fled a recent surge in gang violence in Central America.

Sandra said she fled her country after death threats. “I'm really afraid that if I get deported, I will end up in a casket with my son.”

Montgomery County leaders fear the new round-ups are discouraging immigrants from calling the police for help when they face other crimes. Some immigrants are staying home from work and pulling their children out of school.

“You should send your kids to school. Participate with your community. We are in fact a welcoming community,” said Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, who called the raids “ill-founded and counter-productive."

On the other side of the Potomac, Stewart says Montgomery County is making a huge mistake.

“I'm going to do the very best that I can to encourage illegal aliens who want to commit crimes to leave Prince William County, in fact to leave Virginia all together, go up to Maryland, because you're welcome up there,” Stewart said.

The Obama Administration plans to continue the raids, with Homeland Security officials hoping they will send a message and prevent another big surge in illegal border crossings.

People in favor of deportation complain the scale of the raids is too small to have much of an impact.

But the Montgomery County Council and Executive say many of the people being deported have received little or no legal help and no due process.