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Editorial voices from across the country

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Editorial voices from newspapers across the United States:

While most of the fiery debate over illegal immigration and its impact on jobs in the United States has focused in areas such as the dairy industry, poultry and meat production, farming, construction labor and the service industry, another fight has been brewing in the high-tech computer industry over foreign worker visas.

As reported recently by CBS in a “60 Minutes” episode, the H-1B visa program was created 27 years ago by Congress to allow U.S. companies to bring in foreign workers to fill gaps in the U.S. workforce when highly-skilled workers couldn’t be found. But it has been turned into a nightmare by companies which have abused its intent.

Not only have some companies used the H-1B visa program to fire American workers from their computer jobs and bring in younger, cheaper temporary replacements – mostly from India – but they have required the American workers to sit side by side and train those replacements if they want to get severance pay.

This month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers urged President Trump to sanction the companies that had set the outsourcing ploy in motion; the group also introduced legislation to close H-1B loopholes, and to overhaul the visa programs by requiring employers to make a good-faith effort to hire American workers before bringing in guest workers.

Those reforms are overdue and highly welcome. There is a purpose and a need for some companies to bring in foreign workers for some highly skilled jobs, but it never should have been used to fire long-time American workers as a cost-cutting measure. Congress should make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The idea that “it takes a village” to rear strong, resilient children is unpopular in certain circles.

Fair enough. Healthy families place much less stress on the village.

As children return to school this fall, it’s worth reflecting that the reverse also is true. Living in a healthy community benefits children and families in ways that often are not noticed except in their absence.

Many of the foundational components of a healthy community are obvious: jobs that pay a living wage, high-quality, affordable health care and child care, dependable public safety, a library, recreational amenities, welcoming churches, good schools.

Children notice what adults do, and they notice whether adults care. As students return to the classroom, think about more than just watching for kids at crosswalks and stopping for buses. Think about what children see in our community, and consider whether it’s what we want them to emulate.

Nearly 1,000 people are fatally shot by police in the United States annually, but no one knows exactly how many – or more importantly why.

We know about 1,000 people died only because The Washington Post started an officer-involved shooting database in 2015.

It’s almost inconceivable in an era of Big Data, but no national, government-run database exists. This summer the FBI started a pilot program to collect data on all police use-of-force incidents from about 50 police agencies, and the FBI is expected to expand the program nationwide next year. But so far, there is no requirement that police agencies cooperate.

The aim of having reliable and comprehensive information is simple – to help reduce deadly police encounters by getting a clearer picture of what happened.

“We don’t have a comprehensive system to learn more about these events so that we can better prevent them in the future,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post’s tally for deadly officer-involved shootings is on pace to match those from the past two years – about 1,000.

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