All Spin Zone notices a little something tucked away into the new immigration “reform” bill:

For those of you unfamiliar with H-1B’s, here’s a quick primer. The H-1B visa program allows American companies and universities to import foreign scientists, engineers and programmers. H1B work visas allows these foreign skilled workers to enter the U.S. for up to a 6-year period, supposedly on the premise that an employer can’t find suitable Americans to fill open skilled/tech positions. While the arguments have been raging over the past few days about “jobs Americans don’t want”, the back door issue is one of supressing wages of skilled labor and tech jobs that Americans do want.

Yesterday evening, the Senate approved a stripped down version of the House bill on immigration reform, which removed penalties for individuals and charitable organizations that helped illegal workers. What the bill also did (and which has gone almost completely unreported) is that the Senate version of the bill authorized almost a twofold increase in the H-1B visa quota. [...]

Who’s been clamoring for the increase in the H-1B quota? A very powerful business lobby, fronted by noneother than Bill Gates. And I challenge you to find much mention of this in the American press. Most of the reporting on Gate’s lobbying efforts has been confined to the press in India.

Coincidence? That’s for you to decide. But make no mistake about it, this issue was never about poor Mexicans looking for work.