More on H-1B Nurses

Date: Sunday, April 28, 2002 5:01 PM

*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***

Get the Facts on H-1B at www.ZaZona.com

In the newsletter of 4/18/2002 "Shocking Candor From Immigration Lawyer"
an
immigration lawyer named Lorenzo Lleras accused employers of using fraud
to
import H-1B nurses. He said that in order to get an H-1B the nurses must
be
supervisors and that is clearly not what they are coming here to be.

Perhaps more shocking is the lack of knowledge of the law by this
immigration lawyer. H-1B allows RNs to obtain H-1Bs if the employer says
the
job position requires a minimum of a four-year university degree.
Examples
of the nurse position that could legally qualify would include the
supervisors Lleras mentioned but also include nurse practitioner, nurse
obstetricians, nurse anesthesiologists etc.

If there is any cheating going on it is probably that it allows
employers to
declare that a nursing position required a degree without any kind of
review - the employer sets the standard, not the Deptartment of Labor.
Employers declare that a particular nurse has the equivalent experience
as a
degreed nurse so they don't even have to have a real degree. This offers
a
huge loophole in the H-1B law for the importation of nurses.

I used the LCA Database at www.ZaZona.com/LCA-Data to search for some of
the
nurse positions which look rather dubious in terms of requiring college
degrees. The last one on the list is used often and I suspect that is
because nobody will ever figure out if "other occupations" is a nurse or
a
secretary. Here are some searches you can do yourself:

Company Job Title

Guardian Solutions Nurse Midwife
Indian Oaks Residential Nurse Assistant
Lutheran Home of NW Indiana Nurse Assistant
PACIFIC LINK HEALTCARE Nurse Recruiter
SEVERN HEALTHCARE INC Nurse General Duty
ALL SAINTS HEALTHCARE Shift Change Nurse
21st Century Medicine Other Occupations in Medicine

Without a doubt H-1B is being used for all types of nurses.

////////////////////////////////////

Paul Noel sent me a great letter on the nurse profession.
I thought I should share it with all of you.

////////////////////////////////////

As a Registered Nurse who has left the profession behind, I have a word
or
two to say on the topic.

I think that a little History from Alabama would clarify things.

Slavery was fading into oblivion in the old south by 1820. The
provisions
of the United States Constitution which banned slavery where having
their
effects. Tennessee and Alabama were driving out their slave lords and
it
looked like the new lands would eventually be free of the awful
situation.
One of the famous slave types who were driven out of Tennessee was Sam
Houston. Colonel Travis (Alamo Fame) left Huntsville, Alabama and went
west
to Texas.

These men went to Texas because they wanted a land where they could have
slaves. When Mexico banned slavery these "Great Americans" threw a
revolution against Mexico. The United States of America was not amused.
It
took Texas 8 years to bring statehood to the "Lone Star Republic." The
reason for the delay was that congressmen rightly feared that the
admission
of Texas would bring Slavery back and cause a civil war. That it did.
...
But there is much more to the story.

Slavery was not against the black man. He was imported to do the labor.
Slavery was against the poor white man and against the very children of
the
Slave Lords.

So in 1840 when slave importation was opened wide there was a great
economic
rush to buy slaves. The parallel to today's "Tech Bubble" and the H-1B
and
other programs is profound. The arguments were made that noone could
compete without slaves and much the similar to the arguments of today.

By 1850 the old south was deep in debt and by 1852 there was depression
in
the south. Deprived of any consumer market the products of the old
south in
massive "Cheap Labor" production were a drug on the market. The
children of
Alabama were headed north and west for work. All the while the
complaints
that nobody wanted to work continued just as we hear in the letter
below.
As we shall see nothing could have been farther from the truth.

By 1861 the slave lords had everything they wanted and no market. They
were
bankrupt. They chaifed for war and got it. Yes they got it all right.
To
sample the destruction is to list the areas of land completely
destroyed.
It was over 150,000 square miles of land with every structure and all
crops
destroyed. A million men laid in their graves never to rise up again.
Millions more were maimed.

So what of those lazy worthess kids who didn't want to work? Well they
went
to work all right. The went north. They turned out the shot and shell
along
with the railroads, cannons and supplies for the Union Army. You see
when
they got the chance to earn their way, they did very well and burned
their
parents homes to the ground. They went west. There they mined the gold
and
silver in the hardest work a man can do. The silver of Carson City
Nevada
which paid for that war was mined by their hands.

So what had the arguments done. They produced a destroyed land and a
hopeless people which only now are recovered. To get close to such
arguments is very dangerous. You see, cheap labor is a curse to a
nation.
Doubt me? Look anywhere on earth where the rich get their "cheap labor"
and
see if it follows that their land is happy.

Now to nursing. This lawyer is ignorant of the facts. He is merely a
self
serving person who like the slave merchants was happy to preach about
the
benefits of buying slaves while he takes the profits in the trade. The
lawyer is mad that he finds less than the level of commission which he
likes.

I worked 7 years as an RN. I can say of a certainty that there is no
shortage of Nurses. There is a desperate shortage of good management.
Nurses are leaving the profession because of the fact that for
insignificant
wages you become the target of all manner of attacks. I myself have been
sued. Imagine me for the paltry wage of $14.50 per hour I should
possibly
lose the equal to my life's earnings. It could happen. Let me assure
you
that the case has no merit but in the eyes of men such as wrote the
letter
below they don't win enough. The reality of a case has no bearing here.
He
fails to take into account that he may one day find himself in a land
where
there is nobody with enough income to pay for his lawsuits when he wins.
This if he wins his argument.

Since I no longer work as an RN, I do earn more. As I did my taxes this
year I had my daughter add up all the various taxes I pay. To replace
my in
my current occupation as Software Engineer with an H-1B worker which was
actually done to me on October 5, 2001, caused a tax savings due to the
fact
that H-1B does not pay Social Security Tax and the employer does not
match
it on them, a savings of nearly $10,000 per year. With tax incentives
like
this it is a wonder that any of us has a job. But let that happen and
who
will pay for the guns that defend that lawyer of will pay for the courts
he
loves to sue in.

Registered nurses routinely work extremely long hours under conditions
that
very few people imagine. The do so where a mere unfounded accusation
can
result in their unemployment. They do so where they are occupationally
at
risk for disease but more than 40% never have any health insurance.
Imagine
that! An industry dependent for survival on insurance which will not
provide if for its employees. Maybe if the Lawyer below wants to earn
his
living doing real good for society like he claims, he will sue employers
as
workman's compensation claims for the occupationally caused illnesses
which
nurses suffer and get not one dime in benefits for.

Let me assure you that not only are nurses willing to work but they work
so
hard that most suffer skeletal and other progressive damages to their
bodies. No nurses are not unwilling to work. The work when they are
sick,
when they are tired and even when they are hurt. They are probably the
most
industrious of people and they are mostly a caring lot. The problem
here is
that they are not rich. That does not make them friends of the lawyers.

With the simple facts of Alabama History we see that such claims of
"Unwilling to Work" are false. We see that the situation built by such
abuse of our fellow men produces war and destruction. It has in the
past
and it will again.

More recently we saw on September 11, 2001 the results of such programs
as
H-1B and other immigration programs that abuse Americans. 80% or more
of
the Security staff of our East Coast Airports was Middle Eastern Aliens
here
on work permits. The Education Visa's which somehow worked even if they
were "Claimed to be applied for." which were issued to make men such as
this
lawyer money were handed out the way they wanted. In 1993 this had
already
born fruit in the WTC bombing. Nobody paid any attention to the "Terror
Town" dubbed so by the New York Post that was forming as 400,000 Middle
Eastern mostly employment related visa persons in Jersey City.

So this man wants to make sure that the nurse who takes care of him when
he
is old, is an alien. He thinks he will be safe then, when Al Qaeda or
similar runs the facility!

Lest anyone believe that I am against Immigration, I am married to an
alien.
I waited 13 months for the INS to provide her visa. Unlike Mohammad
Atta et
al. I could not get her into the country on the promice that she had
applied for a visa, I had to wait. This kindness was given to me by men
such as this Attorney. You can see that the policies here are strictly
for
momentary monitary gain for the rich and powerful. I would have paid
more
to get my wife's visa processed faster, but my money as an ordinary
citizen
was no good!

I have for 17 years owned an apartment house. Never once during that
period
have I ever wanted my tenants to be poor and have unfortunate employment
conditions. You see my prosperity depends on theirs. Maybe this Lawyer
should learn that his prosperity and safety depend on mine! Maybe he
should
be more concerned with the working conditions and prosperity of nurses
than
how low he can depress wages. Until we get rid of the idea that
prosperity can be built by destruction of others we will only see more
of
his evil.

Sincerely
Paul Noel
Harvest, Alabama

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