Foreign workers replacing Americans: Michael Reagan.

By Raif Karerat

WASHINGTON, DC: While California’s unemployment rate continues to hover at a full percentage point higher than the national average, the state has taken the controversial and somewhat ironic step of hiring Indian nationals to process its unemployment claims.

According to ABC’s Sacramento affiliate, News10, “with the exception of two managers, everyone inside the office is from outside of the U.S. They are employed by Deloitte, a major U.S. IT company hired by the state to create and manage its Unemployment Insurance Modernization project. The mostly Indian nationals are allowed to work here under a visa program called H-1B.”

Right wing pundits are rallying against the move and using it as ammo against President Obama’s immigration reform, and H1-B visas in particular.

Computerworld reports “information technology workers at Southern California Edison (SCE) are being laid off and replaced by workers from India. Some employees are training the H-1B visa holding replacements, and many have already lost their jobs.”

According to Michael Reagan, son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan: “That’s really pouring salt in the wound. First the company makes you train the foreign workers replacing you then, after you’re fired, more foreign workers process your unemployment claim.”

Reagan also argues that the wage scale for STEM related fields will be lowered if U.S. companies continue to support the influx of foreign nationals working in the United States. He cites Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Republican out of Alabama, who claims 75 percent of U.S. citizens with STEM degrees are working in completely unrelated positions.

Conversely, major tech companies are among the strongest proponents for H1-B expansion. Major industry players regularly endorse and finance lobbying groups such as FWD.us that claim further immigration reform would create millions of jobs, reduce deficit, and keep the United States globally competitive.