WebProNews

People and companies hire lawyers for their judgment and advice. How stupid do you have to be to make these comments in a public forum, videotape them, and then post them on the internet?
Oh yeah, I want these people as my lawyers.

This is just FYI with regards to the Green Card Fraud & Abuse exposed by Cohen & Grigsby and the Programmers Guild earlier this week.

As the story evolved in the press, I noted a collection of key articles and then went back to review the readers comments to gain more insight into the immigration process. Of course Cohen & Grigsby provided an Immigration Attorneys' perspective. And, one of the article's reader comments includes the perspective of an employee working in an LCA office. The readers comment was posted anonymously but I am trying to reach out to this person to come forward by contacting on the Programmers Guild board members or simply joining the Programmers Guild.

This article's URL is... http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=19990519...

Towards the end of the comment list is

the comment (below) from a someone who worked in a labor certification program office…

The anonymous post is from user name "None At All"...

· None at all
commented on Jun 19, 2007 11:27:01 PM

For 30 years I worked in the labor certification program at the state level. Our job was to "assist" the employer in making a "good faith" effort to recruit and hire a US worker. It did not take me long to realize how crooked most immigration attorneys were. They earned big fees to help employers get out of admitting that there was a US worker available who was qualified. The job descriptions they whipped up often did not exist or carried such strange requirements that no American would qualify. They would advertise in publications that no one truly desirous of locating an American worker would advertise in. The Department of Labor, which ruled on the quality of the advertising usually paid no attention to any of the obvious misreprestations in the certification applications and its requirements and conditions. They rarely challenged any of the rejections of US workers. There were many occasions when employers would reject over one hundred US workers who applied for a job by stating that the workers were not qualified, failed to show up for appointments, etc., etc. On rare occasions, when the rejected US workers were contacted and provided information that contradicted the employer (his attorney, actually), the employer would withdraw the application and refile it, hoping for a better set of circumstances later. Many attorneys actually represent the alien, who pays for the employer's advertising and expenses. Sometimes they have even interviewed the US workers who were referred to the job they hold. The alien labor certification system is corrupt from the top to the bottom, even more so now that the applications are reviewed by a computer. It is time for people to realize that this program, and other immigration programs being proposed, are just part of an overall scheme to load up our country with low- and lesser skilled workers. I have worked with prior immigration programs where aliens had to document their past work experience here, their qualifications, and their attachment to the labor market. I have never seen so much fraud. New programs will just make more attorneys and document fraudsters richer and richer. Our country is selling out the middle class, and from what I can see, it is too late for us to survive the onslaught. We will be a third world country in no time.

· None at all
commented on Jun 20, 2007 10:30:36 PM

As I indicated in an earlier post, I worked in the labor certification program in the state labor office in California for 30 years. Employers who advertised for US workers prior to filing the alien's labor certification application would file the application with a request that required advertising be waived based on the fact that they had advertised already and had found no qualified workers. The Department of Labor would accept this statement despite the fact that the alien showed no special skills. For example, an employer advertised for a Market Research Analyst, stating that a BS degree in business was required. The recruitment results would state that no qualified US worker applied. This was a lie. There were always US workers available with business degrees, even with foreign language ability. Another misrepresentation is that an ordinary business degree does not equip one to do true market research work. DOL would not question this, not the fact that the alien had only a basic degree. Often the jobs would be in small businesses where the alien would be working for a company that had only a handful of employees. When we had the opportunity to really study the job offer and the business we would often find that the alien was the owner of the company, or a relative, or maybe had even paid the employer to offer him the job. I remember studying one attorney who was savvy enough to locate failing businesses whom he contacted with an offer to locate an alien with money who would bail out the company in exchange for a green card for the alien. The attorney took a 30K share for his effort. How about the half dozen heating companies in the Los Angeles area who found just the right aliens to install furnaces in residences. The job duties were that the alien would dismantle coal and wood burning furnaces in LA area homes and change them into gas furnaces. What? Coal and wood furnaces in LA? These were totally bogus jobs. They did not exist.

Looking at a different aspect, I often would see the resumes of US workers (a US/American worker is a citizen or permanent resident alien) who had applied for the job through a post office box that was controlled by the labor department staff who would then forward the applications to the employers. That's where the attorneys earned their money - ingeniously rejecting American workers. It was heartbreaking to read some of those resumes. The American workers thought they were really applying for a job. They would pour their hearts out to the employer, pleading for a chance at the job, showing how qualified they were and how they would be a benefit to the company. Read 20 or 30 or up to a hundred of those resumes and then process the application knowing that the alien would get the nod from the Department of Labor who would believe the employer (read attorney) before believing US workers. It was sickening. Attorneys had all sorts of tricks on how to dump US workers while making DOL think they were actually making a good faith recruitment effort. I remember seeing a letter from an attorney that was accidentally submitted to the state in an application for certification. The letter advised the employer that the regulations required that he "post" the job notice on his premises so that others at the site could see that .an opening was available. The employer, however, could get around that requirement by poking a pin through the top of the notice, and submitting the original notice with the hole in it as proof that the job was posted. That attorney got his knuckles rapped - but I'm sure that he was not the only one doing it.

Although the recruitment factor was not involved with the temporary applications, many of these jobs are bogus too, and they generally lead to a permanent labor certification application, with a green card at the end of the process. There have been a number of incidents of attorneys and immigration consultants prosecuted and convicted for labor certification fraud and misrepresentation. You can find them on Google, using key words. Even the US DOL's Inspector General's site mentions a few, but information on this is almost always kept secret.

This program is hopeless. I have tried to call much of this to the attention of my senators and Department of Labor officials, to no avail. I hate to use the word conspiracy - but there is a conspiracy to pack this country with aliens, and the labor certification program is doing its part.

END