I am a software executive with decades of experience, primarily developing products in-house and then marketing and supporting them world-wide. I have never used the H-1B system nor outsourced any functions; I have had a number of foreign-born employees who had "green cards", most had come to the US as graduate students and had stayed with plans to become citizens.

With the exception that our small company has never out-sourced jobs/functions to anywhere, we have been involved through our clients and our partners with almost every other type of employment/contracting/partnering/selling relationship one might imagine in the US and dozens of other countries. While there have been many abuses of the rules, usually exploiting employees everywhere, and the US taxpayer should not be exploited yet again, I think that a complete ban on H-1B hirings by companies receiving bailout money would be a bad idea.

The recent alarmist AP reports that the large banks receiving the bailout were still using H-1B to hire many workers, particularly in areas like HR, accounting, corporate law, and IT. What they and others missed or failed to report (maybe to fan the emotions of their readers) is why this is a very valid on-going need. AP reports an average salary of over $90k for these workers; this indicates the hires were not made to save money by replacing US workers -- something else certainly is going on. Something important. Think about what is really happening.

For example, consider that a US company doing business in Germany or planning to enter that market would need people trained in things like German labor and business law, software localization issues including within-Germany differences concerning normal business practices, special laws, and subtle language differences. To meet that need, they bring workers from their German operating company.

A foreign company doing business in the US has these same issues. Think about how different things are between places in the US.

These workers typically come to the US for a few years to advise and learn from the corporation headquarters in the US with the intention of returning to the country-specific subsidiary. SImilarly, I know of US managers being transfered overseas for several years as part of their training to assume senior multinational positions.

I see this total ban as divisive politics and bad for business, pitting workers against workers while distracting from other issues. H-1B workers and illegal aliens are your new enemies, joing Islamists, welfare queens, gays, labor unions, the ACLU, the NEA, blacks, and communists.