Please call, email, or write the White House now and defend USCIS Director Cissna who is trying to defend US workers. US Techworkers has a call to action:
“Rumors are circulating around Capitol Hill that President Trump may soon fire USCIS Director Francis Cissna who has made some very strong statements in defense of U.S. tech workersand against many of the flaws in the employment-based visa system.
Please call the White House, 202-456-1111, and defend Cissna. Before calling, make your short list of talking points, and tell your short individual story to the operator. Your time will be short, so please be prepared with what you want to communicate. You should also call your congressional representative to deliver the same message that you relay to the White House.
Here are some direct quotes from Cissna’s interview with the Center for Immigration Studies. We suggest that your read it as it may contain other quotes that are more pertinent to your individual case.
There’s more grist in this interview too in which Cissna talks about H-1B and STEM workers.
Cissna’s background
“I’ve been in the State Department. I’ve been at private law firms. And then, of course, in 2005 I came to the then – the new DHS. I came to USCIS at the end of 2005 as an attorney in the counsel’s office. And I have been at DHS ever since, since 2005.”
Mission statement
“We serve the American people, who have conferred upon the agency a special mission through the Congress to administer these immigration laws …”
And to:
Restore “the integrity of the immigration system” and “at the same time, clearly, any reforms, anything, any touching of that program should be mindful of the effects, the possible adverse effects on American workers. A simple fix, for example, just banning the ability of employers to fire American workers and replace them with H-1Bs …”
“… Look more carefully at whether the wages that are being proffered to the workers correspond to the skill level of the job,” and “there’s all sorts of fraud and abuse, and not just H-1B, but across all these programs. And that is an eternal problem with administering the immigration system. You’re always going to have people who are going to try to kind of game it and get the benefit, potentially unlawfully, and, of course, we’re mindful of that …”
Further:
“We’re interviewing a whole lot more people now. This comes under not just antifraud, but the President’s general directive to all the immigration entities to just vet and screen people better. So in that – under that umbrella at the agency, as USCIS, we have started interviewing people who are getting green cards based on employment. Before, they didn’t have to be interviewed.”
“The goal is … to enforce a ground of inadmissibility to this country that’s been on the books for … more than 100 years.”
“I don’t think that Congress intended for the spouses of H-1Bs to work … Congress, when it touched this issue, gave spousal employment to the spouses of intercompany transferees and to the spouses of E Investor visa and Treaty Investor visa workers to their spouses in 214(e)(6) and 214(c)(2)(E). And if you look at those provisions, Congress spoke. They said that those two categories of people, the spouses, should get to work. They didn’t talk about H-1Bs …”
And best of all:
“I would really love it if Congress would just pass a one-sentence provision that would just prohibit American workers being replaced by H-1B workers.”
Comrades, coming to the defense of Francis Cissna at this time is coming to defense of our country, and more to the point, the productive class of this country. Please, let’s all of us do our part.
In solidarity,
Kevin Lynn
Founder
U.S. Tech Workers
CALL THE PRESIDENT TODAY! WE DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME.
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TTD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Email the White House here:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/