What Does CIR Do for Foreign Teachers? Nothing

By John Miano on April 25, 2014

In Texas and Maryland teachers on H-1B visas are getting the bad news: they have to go home.

They were lured to the United States with promises of green cards. They were forced to pay fees and kickbacks to keep their jobs.

After investing years and thousands of dollars, these foreign teachers have nothing. (My colleague David North has written extensively on this issue.)

This is yet another example of how our immigration system needs reform. In fact, I have set down principles for reform that address the very problems faced by these foreign teachers.

You might ask: What does "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" do to address the problems faced by these foreign teachers?

The answer is simple: nothing.

Too many benefit from the current broken system and they have successfully fought to preserve it. Brokers can extort fees from workers, employers can keep foreign employers under their thumbs, and lawyers can suck down fees bouncing aliens among visas.

As long as these groups maintain control over the bill writing process, the immigration system will remain broken.

I call again for:

  1. Making the immigration system simple so that a foreign teacher can understand it.

  2. Removing employers from the immigration process and allowing immigrants to process visa applications on their own behalf. Employers should sponsor guestworkers. Immigrants should sponsor themselves.

  3. Having clear paths so that aliens know their immigration fate when they arrive on our shores.

If the immigration system made sense, no one would need a lawyer to make a visa application.