January 1, 2019

An open letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc. and the leaders of the Business Roundtable

Mr. Cook:

In reply to your Letter to the Department of Homeland Security on Immigration Policies, you, and the other leaders of the Business Roundtable are in violation of, and are advocating further violation of US Federal immigration law.

Contrary to popular opinion, it is completely illegal to admit any foreign national for skilled or unskilled work to the United States, if doing so "adversely affects the wages or working conditions of American workers".

Specifically:

8 U.S. Code § 1182 - Inadmissible aliens (5) Labor certification and qualifications for certain immigrants (A) Labor certification (i) In general Any alien who seeks to enter the United States for the purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor is inadmissible, unless the Secretary of Labor has determined and certified to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General that— (I) there are not sufficient workers who are able, willing, qualified (or equally qualified in the case of an alien described in clause (ii)) and available at the time of application for a visa and admission to the United States and at the place where the alien is to perform such skilled or unskilled labor, and (II) the employment of such alien will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the United States similarly employed.

Note subparagraph (II). Note that it is illegal to employ any foreign worker in the US even if they are more skilled than Americans if doing so adversely affects the wages or working conditions of American workers similarly employed.

Replacing American workers at Apple or at other companies with foreign guest workers is completely illegal as long as American workers are available.

In short, American workers must be hired first, if they are available. Period. That is Federal law and you and the other leaders of the Business Roundtable are required by law to obey it.

So why are multitudes of foreign workers currently employed at Apple when 95 million American workers are available?

Clearly Apple is in violation of Federal immigration law.

Furthermore, since the prevailaing wage of a US software engineer is currently around $72,000 according to the Dept. of Labor, and as evidenced by many LCAs in the Dept.'s LCA database, importing more foreign workers is obviously driving the prevailing wage down, since it was twice that number twenty years ago. Adjusted for inflation, the prevailing wage has actualy declined in that time period.

Manipulating wages via immigration amounts to wage-fixing, which is also illegal under Federal law. Yet that is exactly what you and other CEOs are engaging in when you advocate for more immigration when American workers are available.

Lobbying in Washington DC by high tech firms to increase the supply of foreign workers when an oversupply of skilled American workers is available amounts to collusion on the part of high tech firms and is illegal under Federal law.

Amazon now has over 100 tech lobbyists in Washington, DC.

Apple's lobbying expenditures in DC since Steve's death have almost tripled.



Even further, training any foreign H-1B or immigrant worker entering the US on a skilled work visa is also illegal since those visas are only legal if the same skills cannot already be found in the American workforce. If Americans are training foreign workers, then obviously Americans have those skills. That makes the foreign workers they are training inadmissible aliens - which means they entered the US illegally as the above law shows.

Obviosuly if an American worker is training their foreign replacement at Apple or at any other US corporation, corporate executives are engaging in illegal visa fraud.

Fraud is a criminal act under Federal law.

We are certain neither you nor any other American executive advocates engaging in fraud. Correct?

Federal law is very clear: it is illegal to even admit any foreign national to the United States for work if doing so adversely affects American workers. Driving down the "prevailing wage", or replacing skilled American workers by training their foreign replacements is patently illegal under Federal law.

Always.

The ratio of labor enforcement agents to U.S. workers has decreased tenfold since the inception of the FLSA from one for every 11,000 workers in 1941[29] to one for every 123,000 workers in 2014.[28], according to this Wikipedia article.

We hope the United States Government will take every possible action to ensure that Federal immigration laws are not being violated by Apple, Inc. or any other US corporation, which clearly appears to be the case.

What you and the Business Roundtable are advocating, is quite simply, illegal under current Federal law.

We are certain you will agree with us, and take corrective action at Apple and at other US companies.

"Hate and division" are not the issue. Federal law is. You are violating it Mr Cook.

And this is the result of what your "openness" agenda is doing to America:

Don't be a bystander for those whom you are welcoming who hate America, Mr. Cook.

Thank You,

Skilled Americans for Immigration Fairness