From: Roy Beck, President, NumbersUSA
Date: Friday 8DEC06 1:30 a.m. EST

Cornyn/Microsoft blocked last night -- Phone to stop again today!

UPDATE

Are you ready to go toe-to-toe again with the Microsoft and other tech industry lobbyists?

No. 1: The good news is that the Senators went to bed Thursday night again without taking up Sen. Cornyn's SKIL bill to nearly double H-1B temporary visas and permanent employment-based green cards.

The bad news is the same -- they went to bed without doing anything, and Cornyn has not withdrawn. That means more work for all of us. We have to join the battle again today.

No. 2: Dawn-to-dusk phoning by citizens yesterday saved the day. We cannot let the Senate staffers think that was just a one-day wonder.

The phones must start ringing by 8:30 and continue until Cornyn announces he has given up or the Senate adjourns for the year.

No. 3: In many congressional offices where Members and staff truly want to stand up for American households against the threat of higher foreign labor importation, there is an awe that so many of you have taken time from holiday preparations and parties, work and other obligations to create such a powerful voice on Capitol Hill.

Our allies on the Hill want and need our help again today.

I was reviewing all the editorials and news articles in the national media the last few weeks that talked of the incredibly large coalition of business lobbyists who were amassed to push through this foreign worker increase. I looked at all the media endorsement of this.

And I thought: It's going to be tough to beat it.

But you are beating it so far. Truly, all of you combined are the only force that is standing in the way of this increase. Isn't that scary? Isn't that terrifying?

Can you take time out for at least one phone call to help pull off a miracle?

in this email:
1. Thursday phoners found quoting Matloff article really worked; Use it today on YOUR phone calls.

2. Do you disagree with our effort to block increases in skilled foreign workers? -- Some responses

3. American tech worker victims speak out

4.Prof. Matloff's op-ed
actions in brief:
Phone your U.S. Senators and urge them:

"Do NOT entertain debate on Sen. Cornyn's H-1B bill. Oppose all increases in H-1B visas."

Capitol Switchboard
202-224-3121

If you haven't made a call, please do so today -- the earlier, the better.

Don't know your two Senators? Click here:
http://numbersusa.com/myMembers

Call home state offices if you can't get through to Capitol office.

Senate Majority Republican Leaders
Sen. Frist (R-TN) 202-224-3344
Sen. McConnell (R-KY) 202-224-2541
Sen. Santorum (R-PA) 202-224-6324
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) 202-224-4521
Sen. Lott (R-MS) 202-224-6253

Senate Minority Democratic Leaders
Sen. Reid (D-NV) 202-224-3542
Sen. Durbin (D-IL) 202-224-2152
Sen. Dodd (D-CT) 202-224-2823

House Majority Republican Leaders
Rep. Hastert (R-IL) 202-225-2976
Rep. Boehner (R-OH) 202-225-6205
Rep. Blunt (R-MO) 202-225-6536
Rep. Cantor (R-VA) 202-225-2815

House Minority Democratic Leaders
Rep. Pelosi (D-CA) 202-225-4965
Rep. Hoyer (D-MD) 202-225-4131
Rep. Emmanuel (D-IL) 202-225-4061


THURSDAY PHONERS FOUND QUOTING MATLOFF ARTICLE REALLY WORKED

Trust the experience of your colleagues who called yesterday afternoon using the San Francisco Chronicle op-ed by Prof. Matloff that we forwarded mid-day.

They said that the fact they could refer to a published article in a major newspaper and that it was written by a scholar-expert really engaged staffers who apparently felt there was credibility behind the arguments.

Many people just took one or two key facts in the op-ed and built their call around them.

Click here to read the article below.

MANY NUMBERSUSA ACTIVISTS QUESTION STOPPING IMMIGRATION OF HIGH-SKILLED

A lot of you registered with NumbersUSA to fight illegal immigration.

And many of you who did are confused by our intense mobilization in opposition to the increase in LEGAL workers with high skills.

"I called Sen. Cornyn's office. You should know that this bill applies to foreign exchange students who come here for school, get an education from our universities and then are forced to return to their country of origin. Senator Cornyn believes that if we want US companies to compete on US soil, we should keep those students, who our universities are training, right here in the United States."
----------Phyllis S.

"I'm a big fan of your NumbersUSA. I have to say, though, it may not be a good idea to go after the H1-B Visa. I've heard over a period of years pre-eminent scientists such as Michio Kaku alluding to the fact that the H1-B Visa program is one of the best programs the United States has in our efforts to keep at the top of the technological and knowledge industries- in the fact that it tends to act like a magnet- drawing the brightest and most innovative minds to our country. I'm way behind you on the illegal immigration controversy, however, on this one, I'm not sure that we might be killing one of our golden geese by trying to kill a good program."
----------Tom P.

Our Help Desk folks responded to Tom with information similar to what you can see in Prof. Matloff's article. Tom P. responded back:

"Thanks for the fast reply- and a great reply. I'm glad to hear that everyone there is aware of the good points of the H-1B visas. It sounds to me like you and the rest of NumbersUSA are well thought out (as usual) in your protest against turning H-1B into a cattle gate.
----------Tom P.

For those of you who are having some difficulty with this fight against H-1B visas, please consider these points:

1. There are so many different immigration issues, we don't expect or ask that users of our NumbersUSA faxing/mobilization system agree on everything.

We appreciate that many of you have simply said that you respectfully disagree with us, rather than pledging to quit altogether.

On the NumbersUSA website, you can use the tools to support and oppose the things you believe in, regardless of what we believe in.

2. We are NOT opposed to bringing in truly skilled international level workers -- particularly on a rotating, reciprocal arrangement.

3. We are NOT opposed to the H-1B program. The base level is 60,000 temporary visas per year. We definitely do NOT believe there is a need to almost double that level, which is the issue at hand.

The 60,000 base may be too high, but we are willing to live with that base level for now if 1) no H-1B visa is left uncounted outside the cap, 2) true safeguards are adopted to ensure that the visas go to the highest caliber of foreign workers, and 3) American workers are effectively protected from losing their job, from depressed wages and from being passed over for new jobs.

4. We do NOT regard foreign students who graduate from our universities as prizes that should never return to their home countries. I believe Sen. Cornyn's attitude about that is greedy and insensitive to the needs of usually less-developed countries that really need their college-trained students to return home.

I also believe Sen. Cornyn's argument ignores the futures of American-born students whose careers are being impeded and even blocked because the foreign students are being allowed to stay and take one of the shrinking number of high-tech jobs.

MORE PHONE POINTS FROM PROF. MATLOFF

Prof. Matloff wrote to me last night and thanked NumbersUSA activists for making such good use of his op-ed. He noted, however, that he wished he could have made a few more important points in response to another op-ed in the Chronicle by Stuart Anderson, who has made a career out of raising big donations from corporations to put out pseudo-academic research to support corporate stances on importing foreign labor.

Dr. Matloff told me:

Stuart Anderson wrote -- correctly -- that the GAO found that violations (by corporations) of the (H-1B) law are rare.

But the point is that employers don't have to violate the law in order to underpay H-1Bs, because they can use loopholes for this.

(While Anderson's op-ed made a big deal about the entrepreneurial spirit of H-1B foreign workers), I should have mentioned that on a per capita basis, the natives in Silicon Valley have been MORE entrepreneurial than the immigrants.

I asked Dr. Matloff about the Cornyn office argument that H-1B visas keep foreign students from going back home to compete with us. He answered back:

My answer to that has always been very simple: If we are worried about that, WE SHOULD NOT BRING THEM HERE FOR SCHOOL IN THE FIRST PLACE.

This point is underscored by the fact that even if we give them green cards, they STILL compete with us. Prof. AnnaLee Saxenian of University California, Berkeley, a longtime supporter of Silicon Valley industry and associated immigration policies, has found in her research that "Overall, the majority of Silicon Valley's Indian (76%) and Chinese (73%) immigrant professionals reported that they would consider starting businesses in their native countries in the future." (See http://www.ppic.org/main/pressrelease.asp?i=281) And I think everyone knows that the offshoring companies in India have to a large extent been founded by Indian immigrants in the U.S.

My detailed analysis of the proposals which the Conryn bill and others make was published by CIS earlier this year; see:

www.cis.org/articles/2001/back301.html

My section-by-section analysis of Conryn's bill may be read at
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/SKILAct.txt

Callers to Cornyn's office should tell the staff that they are outraged that the staff tried to hoodwink them.
----------Norm Matloff

AMERICAN TECH VICTIMS SPEAK

As has been true for the entire 9.5 years of NumbersUSA's existence, we have been hearing from a number of skilled Americans who work in occupations increasingly filled by H-1B foreignworkers.

I hope all of you will think about putting yourself in their shoes before assuming that the tech industry is right when it says its success is dependent on lots of foreign workers.

Here's one example:

I just wanted to give you my reaction to your email about members believing we don't have enough skilled workers in the US.

I am a high tech worker whose job was replaced 5 years ago by an Indian who I trained for a year, with the company telling me that this person was just extra help. I then spent three years unemployed, and then the last two underemployed.

I am a college graduate with an engineering degree, and since I couldn't get by on what little work I was finding, I started working on my masters degree so that financial aid would help me get by for a while.

So, please tell the members that think there are not enough skilled workers that I am here, constantly looking and waiting for a job. I should note that when I offer to work for the same wages as they pay the foreign workers, I am told I am crazy, defective or called desperate. I just need to pay my bills, that is all. We need to try to change the perceptions that there are no skilled workers in the US. I have lots of friends who lost thier jobs and had to go into other fields to get by. Its just not good for us tech workers, and I doubt it will get better.
----------D. Miller

Brandon Ebeling has seen the destruction of individuals and families from various angles. After he wrote to Sen. Boxer (D-CA), she wrote back explaining that the tech industry has a fast-growing need for more skilled workers and that America's education system is failing to produce enough. So, she calls for more educational funding while filling today's jobs with foreign workers.

You may want to borrow some information from Brandon's excellent letter back to Sen. Boxer:

Dear Senator Boxer:

First, CPC is my professional designation, not my name. As a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC), I have a pretty good handle on the state of the staffing needs in this country. As a parent of college educated children in the high-tech job market, and children still in school, I also know the challenges that Americans are facing from global [CHEEP> professional labor. Coming from a blue collar background, the first in my family to get a college degree, I’m really familiar with the devastation of construction and other trade oriented jobs.

Senator Boxer…you just don’t get it…do you?

There are literally hundreds of thousands of Americans displaced from…first the manufacturing industry, then meat packing, and construction, etc. The spin was that Americans would be retrained…retrained for technology jobs. Sooorrryyy…but those affected along with the prospective future blue collar worker in America, citizens with only some college, or high school educations [or less> are being displaced at an alarming and accelerating pace by illegal aliens. Moreover, the technology jobs are going increasingly to “professionals” in the over populated third world where only a small percentage of workers are educated, while the masses remain totally illiterate.

Sadly, America cannot continue to feed, educate, and employ the world’s underprivileged masses. Americans shouldn’t have to continue to pay [jobs, fraud, healthcare, infrastructure, their lives, etc.>. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?

Your way of thinking and acting [or NOT> is destroying the American middle class, and will eventually destroy its economy.

The sad thing is, that it is virtually impossible for you to not know the truth of the matter. But just in case, I’ve attached [below> an article for you, written by U.C. Davis Computer Science Professor Norman Matloff, which might shed some light on the issue for you.

Our founding fathers, while not always on the same page…were all patriots…patriots that [I’m certain> must be rolling over in their graves, as is every veteran who’s fought for American sovereignty and the protection of its borders.

Shame on you, and PLEASE reconsider your position !

----------Brandon Ebeling, American Incite

As a stock holder in Microsoft, I sent an e-mail to them expressing my outrage on their lobbying. I also asked them if they felt their stockholders would like to know what they are up to. I suggest you ask stockholders to do as I did and put pressure on Microsoft.
----------K. O'Shea

Tell Roy that there is no sound reason for visas for software developers. Microsoft can employ them globally. My nephew worked from his laptop for a firm in N. Carolina while traveling in Europe and living in Kiev. Their work is done on computer and can be networked to anywhere. These brilliant ones are all over the states just waiting for a shot at work. We don't need outside workers coming to fill those opportunities for our own. Just wanted to expose this angle because it makes one wonder WHY they want more visas at all. . . . Keep up the good work. I'm calling my senators right now.
----------Katherine T.

QUOTE FROM THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR PHONE CALLS

Nobody in the country knows more about the high tech job market than Prof. Matloff who has been the best friend that college tech students have for more than a decade, as he tries to protect their ability to get jobs at professional wages in the field of their education.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... LJ5BC1.DTL

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Thursday, December 7, 2006

Should the U.S. increase its H-1B visa program?
CON: Wages belie claims of a labor shortage

By Norman Matloff

Once again, the tech industry is putting heavy pressure on Congress to expand the H-1B visa program. Though the industry says the foreign workers are needed to remedy a tech labor shortage, for most employers the attraction of H-1Bs visa holders is simply cheap labor. The H-1B visa program allows skilled immigrants to work in the United States on a temporary basis.

The program's scope is far more general than just the tech industry. For example, the San Francisco Unified School District has hired a number of H-1B visa-holding school psychologists, elementary school teachers and so on. But the most common field in which employers hire H-1B visa holders is software development. The visas granted in computer-related fields are 10 times more numerous than in the next most common tech field, electrical engineering.

The industry claims that it needs to import workers to remedy a severe labor shortage. Yet this flies in the face of the economic data.

A Business Week article has pointed out that starting salaries for new bachelor's degree graduates in computer science and electrical engineering, adjusted for inflation, have been flat or falling in recent years. This belies the industry's claim of a labor shortage. Additional analysis at the master's degree level shows the same trend, flat wages -- contradicting the industry's claim that workers at the postgraduate level are in especially short supply.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is personally leading the industry's charge for more H-1B visas. Yet Microsoft asked its contract software developers earlier this year to take a seven-day furlough, to save money. And the firm admits that its salaries are not keeping up with inflation. Again, none of this squares with Microsoft's claims of a labor shortage.

The hidden agenda here is industry access to cheap labor. Several university studies and two congressionally commissioned reports have shown that H-1B visa holders are paid less than Americans. Though the law requires H-1B holders to be paid the "prevailing wage," the definition of that term is filled with numerous gaping loopholes, as a 2002 congressional report showed. Yet Congress added even further loopholes in legislation in 2004. Just think tax code, and you'll understand what I mean.

The H-1B program does not require most employers to give hiring priority to qualified U.S. citizens and permanent residents. If the employer is also sponsoring the foreign worker for a green card, there is such a requirement, but again loopholes render the rule meaningless. As prominent immigration attorney Joel Stewart has said, "Employers who favor aliens have an arsenal of legal means to reject all U.S. workers who apply."

The industry says the H-1B holders are needed to maintain its level of innovation. I, too, support facilitating the immigration of "the best and the brightest," but very few H-1B holders in the tech field are in that league. Government data show that the vast majority make, at most, in the $60,000 range (Intel's median is $65,000). Yet even non-techies know that the top talents in this field make more than $100,000. And the vast majority of awards for innovation in the field have gone to U.S.-born workers.

The industry lobbyists highlight some of the famous immigrant entrepreneurs in the industry, such as Jerry Yang and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Yahoo and Google. Yet neither of them immigrated to the United States as an H-1B visa holder; both came to the United States as minors with their parents. Thus they are irrelevant to the H-1B issue. The lobbyists also like to cite Andy Grove, an early Intel employee, yet he came to the United States as a refugee, not under employer sponsorship.

More important, none of these firms has been pivotal to the industry technologically. There are lots of good Web search programs. In fact, Yahoo bought the one it uses, rather than developing its own. Rest assured, we would all still be surfing the Web without Yahoo and Google. And we would have the hardware to do it too, without Intel; IBM could have chosen from many good chip vendors when it introduced the PC in 1981. Indeed, no one firm has been crucial to the tech industry in general.

Why, then, is Congress now poised to accede to the industry's demands on H-1B visa quotas? As the saying goes, "Follow the money." As Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said after Congress enacted the H-1B program expansion in 2000, "There were, in fact, a whole lot of [members of Congress> against it, but because they are tapping the high-tech community for campaign contributions, they don't want to admit that in public." Meanwhile, a reasonable H-1B reform bill by New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell is being ignored, not only by the Republicans but also by his fellow Democrats.

You may have thought that November's election changed things, but they aren't changing that much after all.

Norman Matloff is a professor of computer science at UC Davis.