The latest way to make a buck is to get your company some very cheap labor using L-1 visas. You can pay the new workers less than minimum wage - and it's completely legal.

The way the L-1 visa program works is simple. All L-1 employees must have been employed by the company outside of the U.S. for at least one of the three years preceding the transfer. It doesn't matter if the worker was directly employed by the sponsor, or paid through a personnel agency, or even on a freelance basis, provided the sponsor had management and control of the worker during the qualifying year.

The standard of proof for managers and executives is quite strict - they must generally supervise other professional or managerial staff and/or direct and control the day-to-day operations of a significant function, unit, or subdivision of the employer. Specialized knowledge workers, however, qualify relatively easily; any employee possessing familiarity with the employer's specific products, procedures, or methods can qualify.

L-1 visas allow companies to transfer workers from overseas offices to the U.S. for up to seven years, ostensibly to familiarize them with corporate culture or to import workers with "specialized knowledge."

It also lets companies continue to pay workers the same wage they earned in their country of origin. Indian workers receive roughly one-sixth the hourly wage of the average U.S. programmer, who makes about $60 per hour in wages and benefits.

These companies may provide L-1 workers with additional compensation so they can continue to eat in the U.S. and may also pay for housing, transportation, and medical care. Some even claim that the package ends up costing significantly more than hiring a U.S. worker. Ask anyone who works for one of these companies why they don't take this package, if it's such a good deal.

I wonder why the publicly traded companies that use L-1 workers won't disclose how many they import? Many bring in workers through consulting firms, usually Indian companies.

One executive of a public company stated, "I don't think this issue is restricted to 'cheaper' labor, but in many cases, cheaper and better. College graduates in the U.S. have two things going against them: their expectations are too high, and they're not motivated. I blame this largely on colleges and universities that instill an attitude of entitlement in our kids for four years."

Yes, dear executive, our children have come to expect the American dream of owning a home and a car, along with having freedom of choice and the right to pursue happiness. And - unlike L-1 workers - not to have to worry that their boss will wake up one day and decide that today is their last day with the company, at which point they can be quickly thrown out of the U.S. This threat brings the motivation to kiss up to your boss to a whole new level.

The State Department issued 28,098 L-1 visas in the past six months. Charlie Oppenheim, the State Department's chief of immigrant visa control, recently stated that the number of L-1 workers in the U.S. is likely much higher, as each visa allows a worker to enter the U.S. multiple times over several years. There is no limit on the number of L-1 workers companies may import each year.

The L-1 visa program is the single greatest state-sanctioned human injustice in the U.S. since the abolition of slavery. The L-1 visa program creates a class of residents in this country who have none of the opportunities that turned the U.S. into a beacon of freedom to the world. The freedom to do as well as one can - this is what attracted many of the greatest minds of the 19th and 20th centuries to come here - a better life for themselves and their families. It is exactly what made America great.

Think for a moment how different this country would be if the L-1 visa program had been in effect for the past 100 years.

My mother's parents came from Sicily in 1920. If they had come here on an L-1 visa they would have been sent back long before my mother was born, so she would have never met my father, and this editorial wold not exist. The very magazine in your hands would vanish, for the publisher of this magazine is also an immigrant. And probably more important to you - unless your lineage is exclusive to individuals who came to the U.S. before 1903 - you and your family would not exist either.