Hilda Solis (the new Labor Secretary) and H-1b visa rules

Its a big shift, for those of you who may be keeping track of such things: if Rep. Solis has her way, there is going to be a much tighter requirement for employers to vet the local pool of qualified job applicants before looking abroad - Dick Durbin's H-1b reform bill may stand a good chance of quick passage.

This is good for local workers who will now be assured of not losing their jobs to "some IT dude from India" so that the company can get a bigger profit. Who this is NOT good for obviously, are the scores of "some IT dude from India"s, unless of course they are truly the most qualified in the field. Unless they do something about the current H-1b issues though, we'll continue to hear stories of underpaid and abused H-1b workers who are constantly under the fear of having their visa snatched away from them.

Update: Dailykos has an interesting diary on this. Read through the comments section for a fascinating window into the arguments presented back and forth.

Update 2: A video well worth watching that makes you reflect on the situation from a very different perspective...