Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, June 20, 2020

12

OPINION: 

 Mountain Views News Saturday, June 20, 2020 


MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

PRODUCTION

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

CONTRIBUTORS

Stuart Tolchin 

Audrey Swanson

Mary Lou Caldwell

Kevin McGuire

Chris Leclerc

Bob Eklund

Howard Hays

Paul Carpenter

Kim Clymer-Kelley

Christopher Nyerges

Peter Dills 

Rich Johnson

Lori Ann Harris

Rev. James Snyder

Katie Hopkins

Deanne Davis

Despina Arouzman

Jeff Brown

Marc Garlett

Keely Toten

Dan Golden

Rebecca Wright

Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee

STUART TOLCHIN


THE SYMPHONY IS STILL PLAYING EVEN 
IF I CAN’T HEAR THE MUSIC

 Last night as I watched one of the late cable news 
programs I heard that over 50% of Americans report 
themselves as being unhappy. In contrast to the surrounding 
negativity I am feeling pretty good. The last two days my wife 
and I have been able to spend time with our granddaughter. 
Last week the baby had just began to crawl and this week she 
is speeding around exploring every corner of the room. Somewhere along 
the line she has learned to imitate a lion and my favorite moment of yesterday 
occurred when my wife was lying on the ground and my granddaughter 
approached her from one side and I approached her from above. Together 
my granddaughter and I roared like savage beasts and my granddaughter 
scaled the loving human mountain and together all three of us screamed in 
celebration. Really, that is plenty of fun for all of us and frankly we do not 
need amusement parks or luxury cruises or even individual motor vehicles.

 Like many males I was busy trying to earn a living, fighting to keep 
a marriage together when my own kids were babies. The marriage broke up 
and when my daughter was the same age as her daughter is now I was living 
in a furnished one room apartment with a dog and my books. For years the 
books were my major salvation especially since I didn’t sleep much then. A 
few years later I obtained custody of both my kids and all three of us and the 
books moved to Sierra Madre. Forty some years later the kids have grown up 
and live in their own places and I remarried and live in the paradise of Sierra 
Madre with my wife surrounded by my old friends the books. About twelve 
years ago I wrote an article which I called the Symphony of Books. By that I 
meant that I could look around at the books on the shelves and appreciate their 
wonderful contents as if they were a private symphony playing continuously 
for me. Along the way I have gotten pretty old and really don’t remember 
much of what was in the books but still, even, today just looking at the names 
of the books brings back the magical feelings of when I read them and was 
moved by their silent music. Despite almost never leaving the house for 
months the combination of my appreciation of my granddaughter, my wife, 
the beauty of our canyon and the continual unheard music of the books has 
allowed me to accept the pleasure that is all around me.

 That is my message. Sure, the present situation is unimaginably 
difficult but every moment presents an opportunity to appreciate that which 
we never, or almost never, had the time or energy to notice. Please listen to 
your symphonies, that are still in your memory, heard or unheard.

 Enjoy what there is to be enjoyed.


JOE GUZZARDI

GOP JOINS BIG 

COMPANIES IN PUSH FOR 
MORE IMMIGRANTS


If a contest were held to name the visas 
most hurtful to American workers among 
the 25-odd federally issued ones that include 
employment authorization, the likely 
outcome would be a tie. The overwhelming 
majority of employment-based visas 
mean that an American job will be lost to 
a foreign national or that a qualified U.S. 
candidate will be denied job opportunities 
because craven employers have such easy 
access to the cheap labor that visa holders 
provide.

Even visas that specifically deny employment 
are illegally and fraudulently substituted 
for work permits. Infosys Limited, an Indian outsourcing company, hired 
B-1 visa holders to perform skilled and unskilled labor that denied chances to 
Americans even though that visa is designated for temporary entry only. An 
estimated 1 million Indian nationals – predominantly lawful, white-collar IT 
workers – prevent American citizens from obtaining gainful employment.

Recently, President Donald Trump has been making noise about extending 
his April 22 immigration Executive Order to ban several employment-based 
visa categories from entry, at least for the immediate future. So far, nothing has 
come from the president’s ramblings, and rumors of further restrictions may 
be just more Trumpian smoke and mirrors.

Nevertheless, Capitol Hill chatter persists that the president’s expanded proclamation 
could bar U.S. entry for H-1B, H-2B, L-1 and J-1 visa applicants. 
Those visa categories represent, respectively, H-1B tech workers, H-2B seasonal 
nonagricultural workers, L-1 international transfers and J-1 Exchange 
Visitor programs that include au pairs, summer work-travel participants and 
interns, as well as high school and university student exchanges, and medical 
professionals.

Trump’s premise that more foreign nationals entering the devastated U.S. 
economy represents “a risk” is indisputable. After all, more than 40 million 
Americans are jobless, and their prospects are dim. The National Bureau of 
Economic Research estimates that more than 100,000 small businesses have 
closed forever. The economy is slowly reopening, but only at partial capacity. 
Even though the 40 million-plus total and the brutal reality that the U.S. is 
facing one of its most devastating economic turndowns are inarguable facts, 
immigration advocates and congressional globalists aren’t fazed one iota.

The Fortune 500 lobby wrote a whiny letter to Trump and the departments of 
Labor, State and Homeland Security, signed by 324 employers, trade, industry 
and higher education associations, including profiteers Google, Facebook 
and Amazon. Collectively, the lobbyists pleaded with the president to keep 
their incoming cheap labor stream flowing, arguing ineffectively and insultingly 
that “constraints on our human capital are likely to result in unintended 
consequences and may cause substantial economic uncertainty if we have to 
recalibrate our personnel based on country of birth.” In other words, if visas 
are put on hold, U.S.-based corporations would actually have to -perish the 
thought – hire Americans.

Given that Congress should be defending Americans, 21 GOP House Representatives 
shamefully joined forces with the Fortune 500 lobby when they sent 
a separate, supportive letter defending the presence of foreign nationals, specifically 
those who are part of the Optional Practical Training program. Never 
congressionally approved, OPT is one of the largest displacers of American 
tech workers. OPT includes thousands of graduates annually, and sidelines an 
equal number of American job aspirants.

Welcome to the world of immigration politics! No intelligent argument can be 
made that within the U.S. au pairs, landscapers, lifeguards and bookkeepers 
can’t be found, especially in this wrecked economy. Most of those jobs would 
be ideal for high school or college students that have recently graduated but 
are unemployed. The J-1, H-2B and L visas have devastated those employment 
categories. Even America’s medical school graduates, more than 35,000, have 
lost out on residency positions, without which they can’t practice as physicians 
because international graduates have entered the country to fill those jobs.

In 2017, a political eternity ago, Trump signed an executive order, “Buy American 
and Hire American,” intended to generate higher wages and greater opportunities 
for U.S. workers. Today, the president has a chance to take a big 
step forward toward reaching that goal. For Trump, now is put-up or shut-up 
time. The president must reject the immigration lobby’s shallow pleas, and 
keep his promise to put Americans first.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written 
about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@
pfirdc.org

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Case number GS004724: 
for the City of Sierra 
Madre; in Court Case 
GS005940 and for the 
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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com