we can and will because we are north carolina strong. thank you. may god bless you and the state. [applause] in. >> coming up the biden speaks of the state department on his administration's foreign policy record before the end of his term critical live coverage 2:00 p.m. eastern on cspan2. so. >> c-span, democracy unfiltered funded by these television companies and more including comcast. >> you think it's just a community center? is way more than that partnering with 1000 committee centers to create wi-fi enabled listen the students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything.

>> 's past sports spent as a television provider giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> welcome back. we are joined by david, the director at the cato institute. thank you for joining us. i to follow up, the social security fairness act about 4:00 eastern but we are seeing live on c-span but we are here with you to talk about.

>> a guestworker visa, temporary status that allows skilled workers in the united states and we have once united states you can extend definitely until you're able to obtain a green card and that is the main gateway for skilled workers opened the door in the u.s. labor market and start their career. >> how does somebody qualify and how long does the process take? >> the qualifications and specialty field you have to be a

for your occupation and level and the employer has to pay 50000 in legal fees to the government or the application on your half. if you look at it, 85000 visas made00 available, for-profit companies and they have to enter a lottery exceeding the 85000 number n so much so 40% of the applicantspl received visa throh the lottery. >> and they were qualified in the process.

what kind of industries rely on this programun? >> look at the nationality, it's about 56% people from india and chinese about 14%. and other countries. if you look at the industries, that's what they are doing and where you will see discussions on the labor market. >> 85000 of those, 65000

irregular ones and 20000 limited to graduate degrees, highly skilled workers here. >> overall about 70% so 20000 are guaranteeing and the rest are like 50/50. if you have a masters, your increasing the odds and they start as international students, the majority of the students already in the united states and graduated the university and will stay on a company that hired them out of grad school.

it is a chance to win the lottery. >> there is an envisioned process and it can adjust so green card companies have to sponsor the workers so they are sponsored again to get a green card. if you look at it, only half of the workers sponsored and they can continue on indefinitely

until they are able to obtain a green card and you look at the green card process, it is highly restricted so you have about 140,000 available and immigrants of all types. it's not just people outside the u.s., it's people international and 140,000 and half of those 140,000 of the workers themselves. you end up with the backlog and 1.5 million immigrants sponsored cards right now and the backlog.

it is not nationalities being treated equally and the most common recipients but if you look at how the green card process works, 70% can go to any nationality. they get 7% of the green card and 90% of people waiting and backlog. in the united states and renewing the conversation. ...

>> and so looking forward where processing people who were tried in 2012 but there's this huge 1.4 million person backlog that is developed since then mainly from india, and if you look forward we're going to have about a century weight for new indian applicants. basically if you're from india applying for green card today you will likely never to get a green card through unless there's some reform. >> one of the reasons this is in the news recently is because of discussions happening amongst members of the republican party as well as new advisors to

president-elect trump. i will point to a poster from elon musk who says the reason i'm in america along with so many critical people who built spacex, tesla and hundreds of other companies that made a construct is because of h-1b. can you talk about why musk finds himself opposed to some other republicans on this issue? >> if you look at his story became initially as an international student, then he got started a company and went onto h-1b. there's a bit of of a gap in the status that the "washington post" has reported on. >> you saying the overstayed his visa? >> right. he didn't actually go to school. he just started a company which isn't he is supposed to be doing. then he was able to then get on to h-1b once he started his company and the company then

sponsored him for the visa. that this process he went through and many other founders of companies, look at 55% of the billion-dollar started in the united states were founded by immigrants. if you look at artificial intelligence companies, 65% of those companies were started by founders, and when he's talking about critical positions, ceos, ct owes, chief technology officers. these positions overwhelmingly filled by immigrants, , skilled immigrant workers. 80% of these billion-dollar startups had at least one immigrant in one of these positions within the company. extremely important to the growth of these types of companies in the united states. >> host: why are some republicans oppose to this

program? >> guest: really it's because of the messaging that they see from the america first maga movement in the united states. well, we have to put u.s. workers first and the only policy should be that americans do all of the jobs in the economy and that any job that goes to a foreign worker then takes away from a job for american workers. that's that really how it works. it's not just that they are found to companies which there are .2 jumpers of americans through the process but also if the worker comes in they create value for the country. they produce something of value and then they spend the earnings in the united states and that creates jobs for americans in other positions, and other areas. if you look within the tech fields that have been so inundated with h-1b, if you look at the jobs that use workers are doing, they can to move up in

the management positions while they are managing h-1b labor force that come in and more of the entry-level jobs in that industry. >> host: we will be taking your questions about the h-1b visa program and high skill immigration. our number for democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001. and independence at 202-748-8002. in addition to some republican pushback against the h-1b visa program there's also some cautions that across the aisle but from independent senator bernie sanders who said on x elon musk is wrong. the main function of the h-1b visa program is not to hire quote the best and the brightest but rather to replace good paying american jobs with low wage indentured servants from abroad. the cheaper labor they hire, the

more money the billionaires make. your thoughts on that as well. >> guest: so they're not indentured. they are obviously highly paid workers. if you look at their median income or median wage for h-1b worker is about $120,000 a year. that is the 90th percentile. for all u.s. workers meaning they are higher paid than about 90% of workers in the united states. it's inaccurate to call them low-wage. if the purpose of the h-1b visa was to cut labor costs and replace american workers you would see the h-1b request increase when unemployment goes up. we see the opposite. h-1b requests go down when unappointed increases so in 2009-2010 the wasn't even a lottery to allocate the h-1b visas because demand went way h-1b visas because demand went

way down during the great recession. it increased again after that as unemployment went away and demand for workers increased. the other thing you would see if it is all about low-wage workers is that the h-1b would be paid less than comparable u.s. workers. we don't see that either. in fact, we see they are generally paid more than comparable u.s. workers at the same level of education and experience. in their field. the last thing you would see is they would be paid the exact mandatory minimum. as as a mentioned there's a mandatory minimum wage, a prevailing wage which is based on use worker wages. if you look at what they are actually paying, they are paying higher wages than the mandatory minimum which means they are paying something based on what the negotiated. the workers themselves agreed to. not just whatever the government mandated. i don't see it as a replacement

for. it's a compliment to american workers and it increases the opportunities for americans both within tech and outside of tech. if you are talking about the top 10% of earners come into these jobs, increasing employment at the high-end, what is he doing? they are spinning their incomes in the united states and that is increasing employment and demand for workers and the rest of the economy. so all of the 90% benefit by having more workers in the top 10% category. i see it as a benefit to u.s. workers, not something that's going to harm them or take jobs away from them. >> host: the federation for american immigration reform, the group that is pretty close to white house incoming, incoming white house deputy chief of staff stephan miller who also had a strong role in a first trump administration has this group the federation for american immigration reform, has

-- in particular, and one, prevent employers from paying h-1b visas workers less and americans in the same role, reward applicants who earned a masters degree or higher from an american university. require employers to demonstrate that they sought american workers and offered positions to qualified funds before turning to h-1b workers, which is something similar to the other visas for lower skilled workers. implement more effective enforcement mechanisms and increase investigations including random audits, and then the h-1b guest worker program would be for temporary workers and should not be a pathway to citizenship. what do you think of some of those supposedly rules? >> guest: overall it's objectionable because it's all about increasing the restrictions on the visas. a lot of it is duplicative. they are already required to be paid prevailing wage which of basalt use paid for the same

positions, controlling for skill and location, and all the rest. most of it is unnecessary. you already reward master degree applicants from universities. we talked about that with a lottery. the last one is one that's the most dangerous proposal, is making the h-1b purely permanent and essentially forcing out skilled workers after that come in and even working in the united states and contributing to the companies and fendi want to branch out, start a new business. the one with allies and get promotions and move on to more productive positions. that would be extremely dangerous. we talked about all of the companies that of informed and founded, or there are plenty of critical role as the ceo, cto in these different companies. that would be extremely dangerous to our u.s. economy if we adopted the proposal.

>> host: lets get your questions about the h-1b visa program. starting with diane in sun city center in florida on our line for republicans. the morning. and can you turn down the volume on your tv and then go ahead with your question. thank you, thank you. other sponsors responsible for the indians that at our college is causing these problems? >> host: which problems are you referencing first, diane? >> caller: the flags outside from different countries instead of the united states. >> guest: well, i mean, just to back up, the h-1b the visa is only for people who are employer-sponsored, that are not for college students. they have a different process where the college is the sponsor for that type of visa. so it wouldn't be responsible that it wouldn't be the companies responsible for anything that's happened on a college campus.

>> host: okay. let's go to marshal in park ridge, illinois, on our line for independents. good morning, marshall. >> caller: good morning. thank you for having this topic. i'm calling because i feel strongly that i think this is an expert of american jobs that are about to be shipped, not offshore but they're bringing the people here, but i worked as an administrator in several medical centers in the chicago area and witness firsthand as the person processing h-1b visas, we brought in some really wonderful individuals, very talented individuals from india and china. and contrary to what your guest is saying they were not being paid prevailing prev. they were being paid at a level that was akin to a graduate student. i think for them having the chance to be an american and bring their families up in america was just a golden

ticket. they weren't being paid 120, $150,000. they were being paid more like $30,000. i just see that this is something listed and the president and his advisers allow this to go through, this will be just a detriment to all the american people out there, particularly the nba's that are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and only define their neck and people with individuals got their credentials overseas and are now here essentially working for $30,000. i thank you for line me to speak. >> guest: it's important to understand there are some different visa programs. mainly if you are a postgrad doing postgraduate training you will be on the k-1 visa program which is -- j1 -- it's a

different program for postgraduate training specifically, different requirements, different rules. i don't know what wages data you are looking at but they are going to be paid what postgraduate people postgraduate training are typically paid for those types of positions. if you look at the bulk of h-1b employment like i said its computer, beth and engineering 80% of this type of program. if you look at software developers in particular that's the most common occupational category. that category has doubled in employment over the last decade. we have had 100% increase growth in that category, and all that increase caught two-thirds, have come from u.s. workers, one-third has come from foreign workers. we sit huge increase in foreign worker employment in the most common h-1b category and we've also seen a huge increase in h1,

or for u.s. worker employment in that same category. i don't see displacement. i see complementarity between the two come to u.s. workers and foreign workers are both entering the same category whether such great demand for employment. >> host: one of the more outspoken folks opposing the h-1b visa program is former trump advisors stephen bannon who accused the tech companies that are supporting this program of doing so at the expense of american workers. here's the clip of him on tuesday on his podcast. >> here you've gone to nj school, try to get, they're going to import on a bald-faced lie higher skilled foreign workers, i skilled foreign workers. the skills are not any different than american citizens. don't sit there and lie. you can't fill the spots. you go out of your way. you go out of your way to gun

deck the entire things he could do that because the more complaint. the reason to have got to be compliant in point for central america we have indentured servitude? as much as that was a scar on the country in the 19 century and we're doing here? in front of your eyes and with billionaires that are worth a fortune coffee will sit and look at you all, you're a liar. sure enough respect for the citizens of this country to be honest. let's have a debate. you want lower wages, i got that, i understand it. it's not going happen but i understand it. >> host: the counter argument to that coming from another trump advisor vivek ramaswamy who is sent to potentially be a part of the doge commission who sit on x the reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over native americans isn't because of an innate american iq deficit, a lazy long excavation,

exclamation, key part of it comes down to the c word, culture. tough questions demand tough answers and if we are serious about fixing the problems we have to confront the truth. our american culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long, at least since the '90s and likely longer. that doesn't start in college. it starts young, a culture that celebrates the prom queen of the mess olympia champ for the jock over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers. two very different thoughts on this program on the h-1b visa program. what should americans take from this? >> guest: i don't really agree with either one of those explanations for why it's happening. like i said the top fields for the h-1b visa is software developers. we've seen two-thirds of increase over the last decade have come from u.s. workers. u.s. workers are entering this