Immigration laws:  what an H-1B visa is and how it affects America. Congressman Bob McEwen joins us on this episode of WallBuilders Live to answer a question from one of our listeners, “Rumors are flying about H-1B visa changes. It’d be interesting to hear what Bob McEwen has to say about claims. Do the H-1B visa holders take jobs away from Americans? Or are they a net positive for the country?” We answer this question and more.  So tune in now to get the answer right here on WallBuilders Live!
Guests:Â Bob McEwen, David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton
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Transcription note: Â As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Â However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Â Additionally, names may be misspelled because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.
Welcome
Rick:
Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture, WallBuilders Live! Where we”re talking about these hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, always looking at it from Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.
We’re here with David Barton America’s premiere historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Â Also Tim Barton with us today national speaker, pastor. Â And my name’s Rick Green. Â I’m a former Texas state legislator.
Find out more about us at our websites WallBuilders.com and WallBuildersLive.com. Â That second one, WallBuildersLive.com is our radio site. Â You can get a list of all the stations we’re on. Check out some of the recent programs in recent weeks. Â It has a lot of other great information.
Also, WallBuilders.com, without the “live.” There is a ton of information. Â A new website, really bringing the WallBuilders library to life. Â Lots of great videos on there, all kinds of documents you can review of the Founding Fathers. Â Just a lot of great stuff. Â Go check it out at WallBuilders.com.
David, Tim Barton, we’re always looking at things all throughout the culture. One of those areas that we’ve talked a lot of, especially when Trump made it such a big part of his campaign and now his presidency, is this issue of immigration.
They”re Trying To Manipulate What”s Really Happening
David:
Yeah, Rick, that has been a really big issue. It”s created a lot of controversy on it. Certainly, it was something that a lot of folks who voted for Trump were very concerned about. They wanted the higher vetting that should be on these groups.
So Trump said, “Look, we’ve got seven nations where we have a high percentage of terrorists are coming out of these nations. The majority Muslim nations, let’s not invite the possibility of more terrorists until we get them vetted.”
Tim:
And let me point out, one of the things that’s been labeled with this is that people who are anti-Muslim with this. The fact, is we’re not anti anybody, we”re pro-America. Â Let’s make sure Americans are safe.
Government’s job is to protect the people, protect that nation. Â And even Biblically, that the purpose of government is to protect the rights that God has given to man. Â It’s to protect us against those foreigners that would want to come do us harm, and even from individuals among us who want to do us harm.
And so, if there are nations that are set to destroy us it’s not about, “We don’t like people.” Â It’s about we want to make sure that we are safe and protect our citizens. This has been labeled, “It’s hate and they’re anti-Muslim.” Well, that’s not this idea at all. It”s just the media trying to control and manipulate. Â And the Democrats are trying to control and manipulate. But the reality is, the people that elected Trump, they want to be safe. That’s really what it was about.
The Real Reason World Relief Is Putting Up A Fight
David:
And we talked about before, how this extreme vetting, as they called it, is not that big of a deal. I talked about that I helped run an organization for the last several years and over the last year and a half or so we’ve helped 14,000 people out of Syria, Iraq, elsewhere that are refugees. But we cannot send them to America because they are Christians.
So, what happens is last year you had 100,000 Somali Muslims come in. Somalia hates America. And so we take 100,000 Somali Muslims in, but we took only 53 Christians in last year.
So, these 14,000 we help. Â We send them to Brazil, or to Australia, to Canada, or wherever that country wants them. Â We send them there and we’d do the extreme vetting. We have former CIA guys and we have former SEAL team members and all these guys who know this and we’re only moving Christians.
We’re specifically moving the Christians that ISIS is trying to kill. Â And even in those groups, we’re able to detect that we’ve had guys get in there and they’re Christians and, “Yeah, they go to church.” No, they were ISIS members trying to get into these other countries.
We were able to find that it’s not a hard deal to do. So, all the nonsense about how difficult this is and you can’t do- we do it all the time because we as an organization don’t want to send refugees to another country and find out one of our “Christian” refugees ends up being a terrorist and kills 70 people. Â So we do that extreme vetting.
But it’s interesting that the reaction against this, World Relief came out. Â World Relief, you probably know the organization and the name, they’re into World Relief. They came out and had 500 ministers lined up on how bad this is. Now they got 63,000 supporters. You know, there’s a little problem with that.
World Relief, why would they? Supposedly, this faith-based organization has all of these ministers. So why would they want refugees coming in from these countries? Â What’s the deal?
Well, maybe this little fact helps something. Between 2008 and 2016 guess what? World relief, now we’re talking the Obama administration.  World Relief received 225 million dollars to resettle refugees here in the United States.  So now that President Trump has said, “Let”s let’s do some vetting.”Â
“No, no, no, we don’t want to don”t want to do it.” And by the way, there’s about six organizations that are taking this money from the federal government to move these Muslim refugees in here. As part of their contract they put down that they will not share their faith.
Ok, and let me see. Â You’re a religious organization, and you’re going to bring people in from all over, but you’re not going to share your faith, so why are you a religious organization? This whole thing doesn’t even pass the smell test.
These are the guys who are stirring up a lot of this activity and creating a lot of the clamor over immigration. Yet, this really is nothing more than commonsense immigration. Let’s not bring in people who want to kill us from places who hate us.
We’ve got so many people who want to come to America that love us and that want to be part and want to contribute. So why is it a big- we didn’t shut down immigration from all the world. We only shut it down from seven dangerous nations that don’t like America. And we said, “Let’s just be really sure who we’re getting in.” And this is a controversy? Are you kidding?
Rick:
You would think just protecting the country would not be controversial. Â It would be something everybody would want us to do.Â
Got to take a very quick break. We’ll come back. Â We’ll talk about who our guest is going to be later in the program. And what the president’s policy on these H-1B visas is all about. Â This question from you, Â our audience. Stay with us you’re listening to WallBuilders Live!
Pastors Only Briefing Trip
David:
Hi, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders and I want to encourage all the pastors out there with the unique opportunity that we’re presenting it WallBuilders. We’re doing a special tour just for pastors that you can come and learn more about the spiritual heritage of our nation. Not just seeing the sights but understanding the significance of what they are and what they represent. We get to go to the Capitol at night and we get to see the spiritual heritage of our founding fathers of who we are as a nation where we came from. We bring in Congressman then I’ll tell you the current legislation about our religious liberties and freedom and what’s going on in Washington D.C. if you’re a pastor or if you want to recommend your pastor for this trip you can go to our website at www.WallBuilders.com and there’s a link that’s for scheduling if you click on that link there’s a section for pastors briefing. There’s more information about the dates when it’s going and how it’s going to happen. If you want to know more about our nation our religious liberties our freedom our spiritual heritage. This is a trip you want to be a part of.
Answering One Of Your Questions
Rick:
Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live! We”re talking about immigration today. Later we’re going to have Congressman Bob McEwen with us to help make sense of one particular area of immigration. David, Tim, we’ve never, I don’t think ever covered this topic on on WallBuilders, these specialized visas for the tech field or high skill areas, H-1B visas.
David:
Yeah, there’s a lot of different type of visas. Immigration is really a fairly complicated procedure. Shouldn’t be, shouldn’t need to be, but it is. One type of visa says, “Well, there’s nobody in the United States that we can find that does this job so we need to bring in someone from the outside side.”
People kind of go, “Wait a minute, America, really? There’s nobody here that can do this job? Is that really true?” One of our one of our listeners asked that question, “How about this H-1B visa? Is that really a legit thing? What happens with the kind of wages they get paid, etc?”
We thought, “Well, a guy who really knows this stuff is the guy who has dealt with this very intimately.” And that’s Congressman Bob McEwen. We love him. Â We”d love to have him on more often.
He’s really great on economics, really great on foreign policy, Muslim Brotherhood, and you name it. He was on some of the most elite committees in Congress and therefore very privy to national secrets and all sorts of stuff back in his day with Reagan. And so he’s very familiar with these programs and he’s a great guy to answer the question, “What about this type of visa? Is it really a need that America has?”
Rick:
Yes, what would I do anytime I get a question that I don’t know the answer to?  I have him on speed dial.  Either David Barton or Bob McEwen, if it’s economics or some complicated congressional issue we’ve got to get a hold of  Bob McEwen.
David:
Exactly right.
Rick:
So, Congressman Bob McEwen going to be with us when we return. Stay with us right here on WallBuilders Live!
Moment From American History
This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. The Reverend James Caldwell was a famous minister during the American War for Independence. His sermons taught liberty and God’s opposition to tyranny.
The British hated him and tried to kill him. So for his own protection he would actually take loaded pistols with him into the pulpit and lay them beside his Bible as he preached. In the 1780 battle of Springfield the Americans ran out of wadding for their guns which was like having no ammunition.
Pastor Caldwell ran inside a nearby church and returned with an armload of watts hymnals, the pages of which would provide the much needed wadding. He took this great Bible based hymnal, raised in the air, and shouted to the troops, “Now put to watts into them boys!” This pastor’s ingenuity saved the day for the Americans.
For more information or Pastor James Caldwell and other colonial patrons go to WallBuilders.com
The Rules To The H-1B Visa
Rick:
Welcome back. Â Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Â Our good friend former Congressman Bob McEwen with us. Congressman, always good to have you, Sir. Â Thanks for your time today.
Bob:
Same here. Â It’s my pleasure.
Rick:
I’m going to read a question to you from our audience. What he basically is saying is that this subject is too tough for you, Rick. Â We need Bob McEwen’s input on this, which is usually the case.
It deals with these H-1B visa changes the Trump administration is thinking about. Â Here’s what he said, “Rumors are flying about H-1B visa changes. It’d be interesting to hear what Bob McEwen has to say about claims. Do the H-1B visa holders take jobs away from Americans? Or are they a net positive for the country?”
Congressman McEwen, this is one we haven’t covered on this program so we thought it would be great to get you on to get your thoughts.
Bob:
Well, the H-1B visa is for a specialty. Â It’s where they can’t find anyone to fill that need. And if you get in line to get a visa it takes several years. And so an H-1B is one that for a specific length of time to perform a specific task for a particular employer then you get you get a visa to do that.
They’re very hard to get, only 65,000 a year. They’re eaten up rapidly and they tend to be in very technical areas. A lot of money in California for the development that’s going on in electronics.
My sister needed one, runs a chemical company and had this particular fellow that was just the most skilled. She never was able to get one. Â She had to set up an office in Britain and they would try to go back and forth to work on the development that they were working on. But that’s what the H-1B it is all about.
Rick:
So, quick question before you go on. We’re not talking about illegal immigration at all. We’re talking about people that wait in line with a very specific skill set. Employers saying, “We can’t even find anybody here to fill this. We need to bring somebody in to do it and we want to do it the right way, legally. Â We know who they are. Â They got permission, and they’re here for a set time.”
Wherever There”s Corruption There”s Poverty
Bob:
And the companies have to prove that they’ve advertised all over the country and they’ve made all kinds of accommodations to try to fill that position and that they just cannot get a person legally in the United States that is able to meet their criteria. Then they can apply apply for this.
The thing is that immigration is not a problem. It never has been a problem. But chaos is always a problem. I don’t care if it’s a third grader’s birthday party or a fourth grade class or the Congress of the United States if you don’t operate according to the rules you have chaos. Beginning with George Bush particularly and then following through the Clintons and Obama they just have not decided to enforce the law on immigration.
So you have people running over the borders. Â You have all the consequences that come from that. Subsequently, the American people, particularly in the Midwest, just revulsed at people who are looking for jobs and can’t find them. People that are here illegally are getting paid under the table.
America is successful because of the degree to which it has the rule of law. And the reason I always ask people when I speak to groups and they come to say that they don’t want to be deported and they think it is unfair and all. I”ll ask, “Why did you come here? What country did you come from?” They say a particular country. “Why did you come?”Â
“It”s poor.”Â
“Why do you think that country is poor?” Â And they never come up with the answer. Â I gotta drive it through them. If you live in a country where you can bribe people to get permits and advantages and this is corruption. Wherever there’s corruption there’s poverty.
When you don’t have the rule of law, you have poverty. People don’t want to invest there because there are no jobs. Now, if you take that template and you apply it to America and you do it in Chicago or Detroit you get the same thing.
Americans don’t want that. So all you have to do is simply abide by the law, enforce the law, and elect people that when they put their hand on the Bible and swear in from the capital they’re going to enforce the Constitution, actually do it.
When you do that then these things separate themselves out. We’re glad to have immigrants. Â We’re very pleased to be the lighthouse for which talented, capable, people want to come. And that’s what the H-1B visa does. It brings the smartest and best minds to fill in the holes in our system or in our economy. But the whole thing is upside down when we elect presidents who will not enforce the law.
The Rule Of Law
Rick:
You know, Congressman, even just talking about the rule of law, when I read old speeches, or old text books, or certainly the Founders’ writings, and that sort of thing, you hear that phrase a lot. That is not a phrase that is used very often in our culture today. People don’t necessarily value the concept of the rule of law like we used to.
Bob:
It’s closed down many of the hospitals along the borders, you know there in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The overwhelming consequences that come with the school systems and all the rest.
When we approached this question with George W. Bush his response was always, not, “I’m supposed to enforce the law, I put my hand on the Bible. I said I would do it.”Â
His response was, “Ask a Texas farmer.” That was always his response, “Ask a Texas farmer,” as though that was the substitute for the rule of law. It has done permanent damage. It”s done serious damage to our nation. And quite frankly, I’m delighted to see that we’re starting to right the ship at the moment.
Rick:
Yeah, it’s almost like it’s the same thing as the whole moral relativism versus moral absolute ideas. Rule of law says, “There’s a truth. There’s a law that the people have agreed to.”
But then if you end up with an exception, you’d have heart strings, and people get emotional, and all that. Then they say, “Well, we don’t necessarily want to abide by that truth or that law.  we want this relativism. So in this circumstance we want to go around it.”Â
Instead of actually changing the law they just say, “We just don’t want to abide by the laws.” It kind of ties to this whole concept of, “just do what feels good and what feels right at the moment,” rather than having fixed truth or rule of law.
Bob:
Which then leads to poverty. When abandoned God, abandoned right and wrong, you get, “I feel good. Feels good to me at the moment.” And no one is safe and liberty suffers.
Why We Don”t Need To Reform Our Immigration Laws
Rick:
Before I let you go, you think this that there’s a chance with this administration and this current Congress that perhaps we can get a restoration of that rule of law and maybe get it less chaos in some common sense into these immigration laws?
Bob:
There’s nothing wrong. Â If someone is interested in this issue, there’s a book called, “Leadership” written by Rudy Giuliani. In which, I don’t know if I can do this in 90 seconds or not, but he just simply said that on the first day when you came up out of the Lincoln Tunnel people sprinkled dust on your windshield and spray water on it and hold your hand out and you had to pay for them to wash your window with their squeegee. They were called squeegee man. And if you didn’t pay them then they would keep your car when you drove off. You are a mugged the second you reached, you entered New York City.
He said, “I want those people arrested.” And all the people said, “No you can’t do that. They’re poor and trying to get money.” And he said, “No, no, no. The second they set their foot off the sidewalk they’re jaywalking. I want him fingerprinted with mug shots.”
They found out that there are only 83 men that had the entire millions of people of New York held hostage. Once they enforced the law, put a stop to it, then they said, “We want the people to jumping the turnstiles.” “Well, those are the poor.”Â
“No no. A law breaker is a law breaker.”
So they began to arrest the people that jumped the turnstile onto the subway. And they got the fingerprints and mugshots. Found out on the very first day they solved five murders because a law breaker is a law breaker.
We don”t need big comprehensive traffic legislation. We don’t need comprehensive immigration legislation. All we need is a leader who is honest to enforce the law and it corrects itself overnight.
There’s nothing wrong with our immigration laws. Â They”ve worked perfectly in the past, and they don’t need to be reformed. We just need a man of character and integrity to enforce them.
Rick:
Powerfully said, Brother. As always, learned a ton when you’re on the program. Appreciate you being here! What website can we send folks to?
Bob:
BobMcEwen.com
Rick:
We’ll have links to make it easy at WallBuildersLive.com. Congressman, always a pleasure, Sir. Have a great one.
Bob:
Goodbye, Rick, all the best
Rick:
Stay with us, folks. Â Be right back with David and Tim Barton.
Moment From American History
This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. What is the purpose of government? Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth believed he knew. Oliver Ellsworth was a delegate at the convention which formed the Constitution and later he became the chief justice of the US Supreme Court.
Concerning the purpose of government, Oliver Ellsworth declared, “The primary objects of government are the peace, order, and prosperity of society.” Yet, how are these goals to be achieved?
Ellsworth explained, “To the promotion of these objects, good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals are therefore objects of legislative provision and support. And among these religious institutions are eminently useful and important.”
Founding Father Oliver Ellsworth believed government could never reach its goals apart from the help of religious institutions. Â
For more information on God’s hand in American history contact WallBuilders at 1 800 8 REBUILD.
Catching The Small Crimes
Rick:
Welcome back. Â Thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live! Thanks to former Congressman Bob McEwen for joining us as well. Find out more about Congressman McEwen at his website BobMcEwen.com. Some great materials there as well.
We’re back now with David and Tim. As usual, he simplified the issue for me and helped me to understand that this is actually a unique area. This is where we can’t find people qualified to do the job and you literally go through a rigorous application process. They’re coming in legally. Â We know who they are. Â We know where they are, and it’s for a limited time. Very different.
David:
Yeah, it’s interesting. I had no clue that they have to show the documentation that they”ve searched all over the country for their skill set and they can’t find it. You have to prove that there is nobody in America we can find anywhere that will do this job.
And as he said about his sister, they had to set up an office in Great Britain to be able to get somebody there to be able to do what they needed in America. So it is a skill set that is difficult needed. It is a limited time visa, it”s for a very specific purpose.
In talking about immigration in general he was just talking about how that up to now we’ve decided not to enforce laws on immigration. These are laws we’ve had on the books for years and years and last few administrations have just decided not to enforce the law. That is a really bad deal.
I was reminded of the verse in Ecclesiastes 8:11 where the Bible says, “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.” And if you’re not going to enforce the law then it encourages people to keep breaking the law. And if you can break this one law then you keep breaking other laws.
That’s why I thought his account of what he said with Rudy Giuliani went after the little bitty law breakers because if you break one law you’re liable to break all sorts of others and just going after the small guys solve the murder problem.
Disregarding The Law
Tim:
That was the amazing part! Just catching the guys that were jumping and getting these illegal essentially passes or rides-
David:
Jumping the turnstiles-
Tim:
On the Metro, the tram or whatever it is. And they caught 5 murders. Oh, my goodness. But the point that I thought they explained so well is, “If you have a disregard for law in general, well, then that’s the law across the board.”
So, if you find people breaking laws if you will enforce laws you will solve bigger law problems. Which is even the thing we’ve often argued even about gun control. When you say, “No guns inside city limits.” Well, who obeys laws? Law abiding citizens. Who doesn’t obey laws? Criminals and lawbreakers. So all you will have done is effectively disarm law abiding citizens.
Well, this is that same thought. If you can find people that disregard the law, that the people that disobey the law, they’re always going to disobey it. Â So if you catch them on little things it has bigger implications on bigger things.
David:
You think about immigration. If you’re an illegal immigrant then your first act in your new country was to break the law. That”s your initial starting place. How does it go uphill from there?
It could and some of these folks are not perpetual law breakers but a bunch of them are. And so if your mentality is, “I don”t mind breaking the law to get in that country.” Then you won’t mind breaking laws after you’re in the country.
That mentality is right. We have not been enforcing immigration laws. Therefore, we encourage people to come in who are willing to break the law and once they get here they’re willing to break all sorts of laws. That’s not everybody, but that’s a tendency.
Twisting The Truth For Money
Tim:
It could depend on the situation you were running from, right? Like if you lived across the border in Canada and some mass murderers chasing you with an ax, a machete and you run across the border because he’s on your tail you’re seeking safety that’s a little different scenario than if you think, “You know what, they’re giving out free stuff. Let me go get a piece.”
And it’s not that we’re against people wanting to better themselves. But the reason that America gives the opportunity for people to better themselves is because we have a set of laws in place that allow free market competition, that allow hard work to be productive, and to prosper. You can be productive and there’s nothing you can accomplish in the American system. But in the midst of that you have to have people that understand and believe in that. And part of that is the rule of law that allows that to take place.
If you remove or disregard for the rule of law, or if in removing this idea that anybody can come to America- we do a lot of military shows and we have had many military guys on even recently-we do more for illegal immigrants than we do for military veterans.
This is where we’re so mixed up. But if we would just uphold basic standards including, “ There are boundaries and borders and there are legal ways to come in. We’re ok with people coming in, but legally. We could solve a lot bigger problems that we started with little ones.”
David:
We want law abiding folks. Â We don’t want law breaking folks. Let’s start out on the right foot. So just follow the laws we’ve had in place for decades. Including presidents ought to be enforcing the law we’ve had on the books for decades.
That would create a whole different climate with this situation, this issue. So answering the question on that H-1B visa but also looking at immigration stuff in general. There’s rarely simple solutions to these what are perceived to be really complicated problems but they’re really not. If you can keep the political aspect out of it like World Relief who’s leading this crusade to condemn Trump for what he does when it’s actually money in their pocket that they may be losing that may cause them to complain that way.
Rick:
Special thanks to Bob McEwen for joining us today. Â His website, BobMcEwen.com. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live!
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