A couple of months ago at a Google townhall, a Texas woman, Jennifer Wedel confronted Obama about his claims the economy was booming. She pointed out he was an engineer and had been out of work several years. She blamed the H1-B visas program for this. Bi-partisan support for this visa program has decimated the US IT industry. The Pharaoh asked her to give him her husband’s resume and he was stunned he hadn’t found work. He claims his Theban Priests (advisers) had told him things were great for engineers. Well two months after this meeting, Jennifer Wedel’s husband is still out of work.
FORT WORTH — More than two months after President Barack Obama asked for Darin Wedel’s résumé, the phone is quiet, e-mails are no longer flooding in and the long-sought-after job interviews — which had begun to be scheduled — have petered out.
“Not even recruiting companies are calling anymore,” said Jennifer Wedel, the Fort Worth mother of two who chatted online this year with Obama about her out-of-work husband.
She says his job search has been hurt by a program to hire skilled foreign workers.[….]
Jennifer Wedel said the whole reason she participated in the chat was to draw attention to her concern about H-1B visas, which she believes are preventing workers like her husband from getting hired.
Supporters say this type of visa is needed to fill jobs that otherwise might be left vacant. Critics say that there’s no worker shortage, that countless highly skilled U.S. workers are unemployed and that companies are choosing to hire foreign workers at lower salaries through the program.
Jennifer Wedel’s conversation with the president prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to send Obama a letter asking him to support a bill geared to reform the visa program.
“Your response to Ms. Wedel leads me to believe that you don’t understand the plight of many unemployed high-skilled Americans,” the letter said.
The H1-B visa program should be ended. It should only be implemented if there’s a labor shortage. Clearly Mr. Wedel’s situation proves the Obama Boom is myth.
Tags: Darin Wedel, H1-B Visas, Jennifer Wedel
