Lou Dobbs vs. Siskind

Date: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 12:31 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Siskind is a prominent, and very rich, immigration attorney.
http://www.visalaw.com/

Siskind takes pot shots at Lou Dobbs and FAIR in his latest bulletin.
He whines that CNN didn't interview a shills to explain the virtues of
H-1B. Perhaps Dobbs should give Siskind a chance to speak so the
American public can see one of these rich immigration attorneys in
action. I don't think he will fool anyone.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/030602/opinion/2dobbs.htm

Money & Business 6/2/03
By Lou Dobbs
Save the workers

Browse through an archive of columns by Lou Dobbs.

We're in a modest economic recovery, one that is still fragile. And
this recovery is not creating jobs. I'm far more concerned about the
jobless nature of this recovery than the level of interest rates or the
stock market. Government and corporate policies are now sending more
jobs, capital, and American know-how overseas to produce goods and
services more cheaply. The proof is in the numbers: The U.S. trade
deficit last year reached $435 billion--an all-time high. And the
current account deficit, a broader measure that includes things like
income received on foreign assets, swelled to $503 billion in 2002.
That's not the way it was supposed to work. Increased global trade was
supposed to lead to better job prospects and higher standards of
living. But now some people are rethinking the long-held belief that
free trade benefits all nations. And I'm one of them.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, our rising trade deficits
cost 3 million actual and potential jobs in the United States between
1994 and 2000. And the jobs being lost include high-tech, "knowledge"
jobs. A report by Forrester Research predicts that nearly 500,000
information-technology jobs will be moved overseas in the next 13
years.

We're also exporting capital. For example, companies such as Motorola,
General Electric, and Eastman Kodak have invested billions of dollars
in China--the country with the largest trade imbalance with the United
States. Another problem resulting from America's trade gap:
Intellectual capital is being shipped overseas, in some cases raising
national security concerns.

So what's gone wrong? Alan Tonelson, author of Race to the Bottom, says
unequivocally that corporate America is largely to blame. "They sold
America a bill of goods during the 1990s, because they said that all of
these new trade agreements--NAFTA, normalized trade with China--were
going to boost exports from their American factories. And what they've
done is they've used these trade agreements to send production abroad."

Of course, American business needs to look for ways to focus on its
bottom line and to keep costs down. And consumers are most often driven
in their purchases by prices.

New policies. It's not just corporate America that needs to better
adjust to the new competitive pressures of the global marketplace.
Policymakers at both the federal and local level need to recalibrate,
as well.

David Huether, chief economist at the National Association of
Manufacturers, says policymakers need to make sure that the regulatory
environment is conducive to maintaining our competitive edge. "To make
domestic manufacturers more competitive on the international stage," he
says, "we have to make sure that there aren't future increases in
regulation that would push up costs here." He adds that the federal
government should promote trade adjustment assistance as well, to help
displaced workers find new employment.

We also need legislation that encourages companies to keep jobs in the
United States. "The only way we can get in on this game is to . . .
make penalties for those who manufacture overseas and benefits for
those who manufacture in the United States," Sen. Fritz Hollings of the
Senate Commerce Committee told me. "I have a bill to keep the jobs in
this country. It's going to be an uphill fight because we've got to
really change the culture."

Changing the culture won't be easy: The middle class has little
representation in Washington, the multinationals hardly have incentives
to produce here at home, and working men and women in this country are
watching their paychecks shrink in response to the competition of
lower-paid foreign workers.

And Huether says that policymakers also need to lower barriers to trade
overseas, so that American businesses are not at a global disadvantage.
"I think our tariff rates on industrial goods average less than 2
percent," he says. "And the rest of the world, particularly developing
Asia, is a lot higher--in the area of around 10 percent on industrial
goods."

He adds that opening markets, especially in developing Asia and South
America, will be vitally important because growth is probably going to
be very high in these regions during the next several decades.

On the corporate side, Huether says businesses need to be investing in
their employees to ensure that they have skilled and competitive
workforces. "It's incumbent upon businesses, especially manufacturers,
to keep maintaining vigorous training programs for their employees,"
says Huether.

There's no easy corporate or government policy solution to America's
export problem. It's time for corporate leaders and policymakers to
heighten their efforts to keep American jobs from going overseas.

Siskind Immigration Bulletin

Dear readers,

Occasionally I write to journalists when I see or hear reporting on
immigration law that is either right on the mark or terribly
inaccurate. I did just that when I heard one of the most unbalanced,
unfair stories in quite some time on the subject of business
immigration. Kitty Pilgrim of CNN's Lou Dobbs' Moneyline reported on
the supposed crisis with H-1B workers taking the jobs of American
workers. Pilgrim's story ran on the show and then, as is common with
television journalism, the reporter joined the Anchorman to engage in
further discussion of the topic.

The story could not have been more unfair if it were produced by FAIR
itself (FAIR - the Federation for American Immigration Reform, for
those of you who not familiar with that organization, is the most vocal
anti-immigrant organization in the country). First, the story only
interviewed people unhappy with the H-1B program. Not a single advocate
for the H-1B program - the program that played a key role in driving
the American economy to impressive heights over the last decade - was
interviewed.

Several unemployed technology workers interviewed claimed that H-1B
workers took their jobs, but no actual statistical evidence was
presented to back the claim up. The reporters assume that H-1Bs are
causing Americans to lose jobs. Take for example this piece of dialog
from the story:

PILGRIM: And the General Accounting Office is looking into whether the
H1-B visa workers are moving American workers out of their jobs. They
expect to come up with a report by mid-September, and that timing is
critical because Congress decides on the limits on the number of visas
the following month

Lou DOBBS: They're studying whether H1-B visa employees are taking away
jobs from Americans?

PILGRIM: They want to make a study, everything.

DOBBS: It seems like, as they say, a no-brainer.

PILGRIM: Yes. It pretty much is industry knowledge that they are but
they have to make a study of it -- Lou.

The story's clear slant is either a result of a deliberate bias on the
part of Mr. Dobbs and Ms. Pilgrim or laziness. A responsible journalist
would seek out thoughtful individuals to offer varying perspectives on
the issue being covered. A responsible journalist would make a point of
providing hard evidence to back up statements like saying it is a "no
brainer" that H-1B workers are taking jobs from Americans.

I don't believe CNN is biased nearly as much as other networks -
particularly Fox News. Fox seems to regularly air stories on
immigration where only the anti-immigration perspective is presented.
In fact, just this weekend, CNN's In the Money show hosted by Jack
Cafferty had a point-counterpoint discussion on the question of whether
immigration is good or bad for the American economy. Mr. Cafferty had
two well-spoken guests, each representing opposing views on the
immigration question. The questions for each were tough and the debate
was informative and lively and, overall, the story was presented
responsibly.

I encourage readers to not sit back when they see a story in the media
on immigration that they perceive is unfair. Mainstream media outlets
like CNN pride themselves on being fair and balanced. When they fail to
live up to these expectations, they need to be told.

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