http://www.americanjobscoalition.org/

American Jobs Coalition

At a time when an estimated one million American citizens in the computer industry have lost their jobs, and mass-layoffs due to new off-shoring projects are announced daily, one must question the sense in continuing to import temporary foreign high-tech workers under the H-1B and L-1 visa programs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9 million American citizens are unemployed. At least 17 million skilled and educated Americans are "underemployed" in low-wage jobs outside of their chosen profession. Many are working part-time without benefits.

The H-1B and L-1 visa programs have caused significant losses in wealth and prosperity to middle-class American citizens who have struggled to remain employed in high-tech fields. The glut of high-tech workers these visa programs have dumped into the United States has resulted in career changes for hundreds of thousands of American citizens who have permanently lost their jobs in the high-tech industry. These visa programs are best described as government sponsored American worker replacement programs. They are cleverly designed to create a large expendable pool of cheaper foreign labor in the United States. The ultimate goal for sponsors of the H-1B and L-1 visa programs is to eliminate the preponderance of American high-tech workers expecting to earn an American wage. These non-immigrant guest worker visa programs circumvent the natural market forces of supply and demand, and create an artificial and unfair wage competition against American workers. Companies use H-1B and L-1 visas to systematically replace American citizens with cheaper labor. Not only do these visa programs displace American workers on our own soil, but employers depend upon these visas to send jobs offshore. On the typical offshored project, as many as 40% of the workers are L-1 or H-1B visa holders.

Our government s mismanagement of the H-1B quotas allowed almost one million additional foreign high-tech workers to be admitted to the U.S. in past three years alone (2000-2002). In 2001, 9 out of every 10 new job openings for computer/IT were taken by H-1Bs, and despite record unemployment, the INS issued 382,200 H-1B visas in 2002. Records obtained from the Department of Labor under the Freedom of Information Act show that at least 4 million H-1B visas were certified by the INS between 1998 and 2001.

Studies on the H-1B program have found serious problems that make it one of the most fraudulent government programs ever. Many H-1B workers were found to not have the technical skills their sponsor claimed of them. No employer could be trusted to pay prevailing wage. The rules for calculating prevailing wage make it easy for employers to pay H-1B workers 30-50% less than the American citizens they are replacing. Companies openly ignore H-1B laws and freely replace American citizens with cheaper foreign labor without fear of penalty. American workers do not have protection against this government sponsored American worker replacement program. Any company, once they acquire an H-1B worker, can let an American worker go.

Companies are still importing foreign computer programmers at the same time that American computer programmers are out of work, and thousands more lose their jobs each day. Companies imported H-1Bs and L-1s at historic levels, even as these same companies fired American citizens by the hundreds of thousands. Just last year, high tech companies announced over 605,000 job cuts. Most job cuts are not even announced, so the actual number is much higher. At the same time, high tech companies imported 382,200 new H-1B workers (Congress excluded many employers from the quota, making the quota meaningless). In October of this year, the H-1B quota was allowed to drop from 195,000 to 65,000 per year. There will be fewer H-1B workers imported this year than last. However, employers are now abusing the L-1 visa at historic levels. There is no quota for L-1 visas, no protection for American workers, and companies can legally pay L-1 workers even less than H-1B workers.

Temporary non-immigrant guest workers are not needed. There is not a shortage of American high-tech workers in the computer industry. There never has been. Studies sponsored by the American government have never found a shortage of American workers as the computer industry lobbyists claimed. There is not a shortage of American workers, but instead a shortage of companies willing to pay an American wage. The H-1B and L-1 visa laws are seriously flawed and have not only displaced American workers during a weak economy, but also put national security at risk. Reliance upon foreign sources of labor to build and maintain our country s high-tech infrastructure creates an insecure and unsafe environment, and ultimately creates a weaker economy by eliminating the churn of disposable income back into the economy from Americans earning an American wage.

We must protect the futures of our American high-tech workers, and the futures of our American students seeking advanced technical degrees. We must take away the tools that employers use to replace American workers on our own soil, and the tools employers use to offshore jobs. We must get Americans back to work and our economy once again funded by working Americans. We must eliminate the H-1B and L-1 visa programs.

Richard Armstrong - HAC