Thread: More on H1Bs - from Lou Dobbs

Partial transcript from Lou Dobbs Tonight, Apr 5, 2007

More proof tonight that business is fragrantly abusing America's visa program to replace hard-working Americans with cheap foreign labor. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services now reports that big business snatched up the annual quota of 65,000 new H1B visas for foreign worker visas in just one day this week.

As Bill Tucker now reports, corporate America wants even more cheap labor entering the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): H1B workers are irresistible to American business. Claims by the corporate elite that it's not about the cheap labor don't ring true.

A soon-to-be-released study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds that wages reported for H1B workers averaged $12,000 below the median wage for the U.S. worker in the same occupation and in the same location in 2005. It was $16,000 less for computer workers. No wonder America's richest man recently told Congress the program should be expanded.

BILL GATES, FMR. CEO, MICROSOFT: I don't think there should be any limit.

TUCKER: What Bill Gates knows and isn't saying, but what a former director at ICE will say is that for some, there is no limit.

VICTOR CERDA, FMR. CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT DIR.: Homeland Security is announcing that the cap was met, the 65,000 cap. That doesn't include necessarily the 20,000, the first 20,000 who earned masters degrees in U.S. universities. They're excluded.

TUCKER: Also excluded are universities and nonprofit research organizations. They are unlimited.

Nor do H1B workers call in any one category. All the worker needs is a college degree. Even fashion models can apply. The biggest group under the cap are tech workers.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service recently released data on H1B approvals in 2004 and 2005. Nearly 117,000 visa applications were approved for the fiscal year 2004, 130,000 for 2005. Both years a far cry from 65,000.

And a company doesn't have to be American to apply.

KIM BERRY, THE PROGRAMMERS GUILD: The industry's created this perception that there's this great need, and that's why we bring in the workers. What's happening, the top three users are foreign consulting firms. First, they bring in the workers, and then they aggressively try to find work for these workers.

TUCKER: Those three companies are India's Infosys Technologies, Wipro, and Cognizant Technology Solutions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TUCKER: And as you might expect, India's National Association of Software and Services Companies was quick to complain.

The organization, known as NASSCOM, is made up of 1,100 companies in India, many of whom make their money off work outsourced to India, and engineers working on H1B visas. NASSCOM thinks the cap should be large enough for "market forces to operate freely," Lou, as it did when the cap was 195,000, just about three years ago.

DOBBS: You know, it's a competitive world. I give those Indian companies all the credit in the world.

TUCKER: Absolutely.

DOBBS: My complaint are with the idiots who run the United States government and who permit this kind of conduct. I mean, I love the fact that we can't even control the number of H1B visas. Even with the cap, they overrun it by, say, double.

TUCKER: Right.

DOBBS: Which is ludicrous to begin with.

No one really has a clear count on the number of these visas out there, or how many people are still in the country with them. That's your Citizenship and Immigration Services at work.

And then you have people like Bill Gates saying it should be unlimited. Guess what, Bill, old buddy -- it is unlimited the way this government is operated. And the people being punished, American workers as a result.

TUCKER: And it's not like we don't know, Lou. There have been studies going back to 1995 from the government telling us that.

DOBBS: Well, and they were supposed to be, by the way, providing accurate reporting on that every year since. But mysteriously, that just has not quite happened.

We should point out -- you mentioned those three Indian companies. We should point out that 70 percent of -- 70 percent of all of those visa applications are originating with those Indian corporations. Those aren't American corporations seeking those workers.

Now, the other side of this is, I'm thrilled to have some people in this country who want to come here, even temporarily, who have college educations and can provide necessary skills. But if corporate America really wants to back it up, and if those fine folks from India want to back it up with emphasis, (INAUDIBLE), and so forth, maybe they ought to lift their wages up to the prevailing American wage, and then we wouldn't be so skeptical of their intent.

Bill Tucker, thank you very much.

These son of a guns. We'll get them.

Here are the facts about H1B :

There are 65K for people with Bachelors degree.

There are 20K for people with US Masters degree. This came about only a couple of years back.

These form the bulk of the H1Bs. There are probably a couple of thousand in other categories like Professors, non-profit organizations. Its not as if even fashion models can apply Only nationally/internationally renowned can apply in what is called H-1B3 visa. Seriously, I hardly know of any person who has been here like that.

I know how that 117,000 or 130,000 visa approvals would have come about. Remember a H1B can be for a maximum of 6 years after which they can extend by 1 year each if they have applied for permanent residency. Otherwise, they will have to leave. What many people do not know is that this 6 year is split in to 3 years each. If I get my H1B approved, I will have it approved only for 3 years. Then, I have 'petition' the government again to extend it for another 3 years. Or probably, I will change jobs. Every time I change a job, I re-apply for H1B which is an existing transfer of H1B. I will not be counted against the cap of 65K the second time because I have already been counted once.

When people talk about 117000 visas, it should be that some people would have re-applied after 3 years or some people might have changed jobs. Although, they are not counted against the cap, they still have to petition the INS and INS keeps a count of the number of 'petitions' for that particular year. They will not subtract the repetitive applications from their number of petitions approved for that year.

Guys, let me tell you how hard it is to step foot in US. Give some credit to those people in the USCIS, DHS and INS. They make it really tough, which is good. It is difficult to have a fool-proof system and instead of poking fun at them, people should really commend them. It is easy to criticize but really difficult for those people working there who have to be very careful all the time.

Originally Posted by h1b

Guys, let me tell you how hard it is to step foot in US. Give some credit to those people in the USCIS, DHS and INS. They make it really tough, which is good. It is difficult to have a fool-proof system and instead of poking fun at them, people should really commend them. It is easy to criticize but really difficult for those people working there who have to be very careful all the time.

I guess that's why there are so many overstays, including some of the 9/11 terrorists. The numbers of visa overstays are astonishing:

Significant numbers of foreign visitors overstay their authorized periods of admission. Based in part on its long-standing I-94 system for tracking arrivals and departures, the Department of Homeland Security estimated the overstay population for January 2000 at 2.3 million.

LINK

I think it is quite easy to criticize employees of these agencies and that it's absurd to claim that it is difficult to get into the US or to disappear into the woodwork once someone gets here.