Immigrants and Job Losses- Are they to blame?

It seems that in the midst of this economic crisis, many other large issues, such as immigration, are being overlooked, when these issues are, in fact, all very connected. As we studied in class, during times of economic downturn, people tend to point at a scapegoat as the cause of job losses. It seems to me that today's main scapegoats are those who handed out and received the AIG bonuses, as they seem to embody the irresponsibility that has plagued our nation's economy. However, I was curious to see what Americans' attitudes are towards immigration, because immigrants have always been an identifiable, vulnerable scapegoat.
When the issue of Mexican immigration arises, many Americans like to point out that these people simply cross the border and take jobs from hardworking and deserving Americans. This is a much debated point; however, I found an article that proves that immigrants coming to the U.S. to work temporarily really are not having a large impact on our economy and causing job losses. According to a report by an American public policy organization, H-1B visa-holders, the temporary work visa, represent a mere seven in 10,000 civilian workers in the U.S. Nonetheless, United States lawmakers are continuing to find ways to put restrictions on the visa, and the Senate "recently cleared a bill that restricts hiring of H1-B visa holders by financial services firm receiving government bailout funds." The report from the NAFP (National Foundation for American Policy) proves that the U.S. "backlash against H-1B visa usage" is unnecessary, and according to an executive at a large Indian IT firm that figured among the top 10 H1B users, "There are over 5 million unemployed people in the US. How can 65,000 H-1B visa holders be held responsible for job losses?"
While these are tough times, and we all want to see hardworking Americans get back on their feet, it's time we stopped pointing fingers. These immigrants, especially the ones with a visa, have done nothing wrong. Like the classic "American Dream," they have come to our country looking to improve their lives, go from rags to riches, or if not riches, at least a decent life for themselves and their families. We live in a culture where it is almost instinctive to want to climb from poverty to privilege, and when we see others, such as immigrants, making their trek more successfully than us, we tend to blame them for our own problems. Americans need to wake up and see that these immigrants are not causing job losses, and, as Duke University professor and Harvard researcher Vivek Wadwa says, "While the xenophobes go on their witch-hunt and blame immigrants for the loss of jobs, the best and the brightest are leaving the US and taking the economic recovery with them." Adopting protectionist policies would deter many foreigners with great potential to help aid this country, and according to the article, Chinese and Indian professors are turning back to their home countries and finding greater opportunities now than ever before. Our economy is a competitive one, especially today. However, as we should have learn from past experiences, scapegoating is rarely the solution to a problem, and by significantly reducing the number of visas our government will grant, which would neither provide significantly more Americans with jobs (because as we saw, the numbers were too low for it to have an impact), and would push away some valuable, even ingenious foreigners, which would be detrimental to our country in the long run.