Know your enemy, and when you can, take revenge.
From Breitbart: In January of 2015, a handful of Senators quietly introduced new legislation in Congress that would allow for virtually unlimited Muslim immigration into the United States – lifting caps entirely on several categories of visas favored by immigrants from Muslim countries.
The Mark Zuckerberg-backed legislation, S.153, is called the Immigration Innovation Act (or I-Squared), and it has taken on new significance following the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino. Those attacks were only possible due to Muslim immigration: Syed Farook is reportedly the child of Pakistani immigrants, and his jihadi bride, Tashfeen Malik, was reportedly born in Pakistan.
The I-Squared bill is significant for a second reason. One of the Senators who introduced the bill is also running for President: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). And several of Rubio’s most prominent financial backers are among the bill’s boosters.
I-Squared would expand five major visa categories used by Muslim migrants: the F-1 foreign student visa, green cards for foreign students, green cards for their family members, the H-1B foreign worker visa, and the H-4 spousal visa.
THE F-1 VISA
Under current law, the F-1 student visa operates under the assumption that foreign students have no intention of abandoning their home countries. It is intended to operate similar to a foreign exchange program, where the students return home after their studies are concluded. Current statute reads that an F-1 visa holder is “an alien having a residence in a foreign country which he has no intention of abandoning…” 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(F)(i) [emphasis added]
The I-Squared bill turns that on its head by removing the presumption that F-1 visa applicants return to their home country—rendering admissible a larger pool of foreign applicants, who openly and explicitly have no intention of returning home following their studies. It then allows an unlimited number of foreign students to get lifetime green cards (Section 303). Because the F-1 visa is uncapped, these changes are revolutionary…
>According to an April 2015 Brookings Institution report, Seattle is one of the nation’s top ten metropolitan areas with the biggest share of H-1B workers. The Puget Sound Business Journal similarly notes: “The Washington state chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) estimates more than 30,000 Muslims live in the greater Seattle area.”
The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Seattle’s local government and businesses have had to work to accommodate the growing influx of Muslims who observe sharia law. For instance, the Business Journal notes that Seattle Mayor Ed Murray’s housing committee released recommendations earlier this year, which “would help followers of Sharia law buy houses.”
The Business Journal writes that the influx of sharia-adherent Muslims has been acutely felt throughout Seattle’s tech sector, such as at corporations like Microsoft. Microsoft—according to USCIS data analyzed by Computerworld’s Patrick Thibodeau—is the 12th largest user of the H-1B program, having brought in 1,048 foreign workers on H-1Bs in 2013. In a report highlighting how a “new Seattle company helps Muslim tech employees save for retirement,” the Journal writes:
It’s estimated that more than 1,000 Muslims in the Puget Sound region work for Microsoft… and for those who closely follow their faith, it can be difficult to participate in the company’s retirement plan. That’s because Sharia law forbids them from investing in funds with holdings in companies that peddle pornography, alcohol and other vices. It’s almost impossible for retirement funds to guarantee all their investments are free from those kinds of businesses. This has become an issue for workers at other tech companies, too.
Other reports have separately documented the struggle to integrate large flows of unassimilated Muslim migrants into Seattle and its surrounding area. According to the Population Research Bureau, there are 25,000 girls and women in Washington state at risk of suffering the anti-Western practice of Female Genital Mutilation. That number could increase dramatically under Rubio’s vision.
Microsoft has extensively pushed for expanding the H-1B program— and has lobbied for I-Squared. Moreover, Bill Gates is also a founding member of Zuckerberg’s immigration lobbying firm that has endorsed I-Squared—describing the bill as “our gold standard for high tech reform.” As the Washington Examiner’s Byron York has reported, last year Microsoft was lobbying to increase the H-1B guest worker program at the same it had announced plans to lay off 18,000 workers.
Microsoft has also been the second largest contributor to Marco Rubio’s campaign committee since 2011—having donated $33,100, according to Open Secrets.
