Anti-H-1B senator to head immigration panel

Sessions calls claims of a highly skill labor shortage a 'hoax'
Patrick Thibodeau By Patrick Thibodeau FOLLOW
Computerworld | Jan 22, 2015 12:03 PM PT
The biggest enemy facing U.S. Senate Republicans in raising the H-1B cap are Senate Republicans.


The Senate's two top Republican critics of temporary worker immigration, specifically the H-1B and L-1 visas, now hold the two most important immigration posts in the Senate.


They are Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who heads the Senate's Judiciary Committee, and his committee underling, Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who was appointed by Grassley on Thursday to head the immigration subcommittee.


Grassley has been the Republican's most tenacious and unwavering critic of the H-1B program and has tried to curb use by offshore outsourcers, in particular. Sessions, however, may emerge as the Senate's most vociferous and fiery H-1B opponent.


Sessions, late Thursday, issued a statement about his new role as immigration subcommittee chairman, and said the committee "will give voice to those whose voice has been shut out,” and that includes “the voice of the American IT workers who are being replaced with guest workers."


Sessions last week accused the tech industry of perpetuating a "hoax" by claiming there is a shortage of qualified U.S. tech workers.


"The tech industry's promotion of expanded temporary visas -- such as the H-1B -- and green cards is driven by its desire for cheap, young and immobile labor," wrote Sessions, in a memo he sent last week to fellow lawmakers.


Last summer, Sessions attacked Microsoft's push for more H-1B visas as it laid off 18,000 employees. Now, as subcommittee chairman, Sessions will have the ability to conduct investigations and hold oversight hearings.


That Senate memo was Sessions' rebuttal to efforts by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, who is seeking an H-1B increase.


The contrast between Sessions and Hatch on this issue could not be sharper. Hatch said, "Our high-skilled worker shortage has become a crisis." Sessions, meanwhile, responded: "Not only is there no shortage of qualified Americans ready, able, and eager to fill these jobs, there is a huge surplus of Americans trained in these fields who are unable to find employment."


Hatch introduced legislation, with the support of some Democratic lawmakers, to raise the H-1B cap from 85,000 to 195,000. But the bill creates what may be an unlimited influx of foreign workers by eliminating a cap on people who earn an advanced degree in a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) field from a U.S. school. The IEEE-USA says the bill will destroy the U.S. tech workforce.


Many people who graduate with STEM degrees don't get jobs in the field. An Economic Policy Institute study last year found that the supply of STEM graduates exceeds by 2-to-1 the number of graduates who get hired.


Patrick Thibodeau — Reporter


Patrick Thibodeau covers cloud computing and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld.

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No more H1B visas and here's why. We listen to politicians and business leaders whine and whine about increasing the number of visas for high skilled and/or multiple degree immigrants while yammering about raising the standard of living in other countries to reduce global poverty. How can nations overcome the problems that drive their poverty if we're importing their educated, high skilled and high multiple degree citizens into the United States? These people are citizens of another country and they owe it to their homelands to stay home and use their educations and skills to help fix their own countries. Why would we want to brain drain other nations while putting our own brains in the unemployment line? Why would we want to entice these people to come to the US as immigrants when they will clearly be well-paid and highly-respected part of their own nation, part of the elite of their own country?

Increasing H1B visas is not right or proper. In fact, we should lower the existing number dramatically.

Until patriots can see that there is a will to reserve American jobs for American workers, we're probably better off opposing H1B's.

In the meantime we should be pressing for Universal E-Verify.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade