Thread: Lobbying campaign for H-1B increase to begin soon

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1722 -- 7/03/2007 >>>>>

Immigration reform groups are rejoicing because the amnesty bill in the
Senate was defeated. This is being viewed as a huge victory for democracy
and grass roots activism. I hate to ruin the party by saying there may be
other reasons the bill went down in flames -- like for instance the fact
that Microsoft soured on the bill. This is what Microsoft had to say just
before the Senate voted against cloture:

Microsoft's director of federal affairs, E. John Krumholtz,
told the New York Times the Senate's version of immigration
reform, when it comes to H-1B visas, is worse than the
status quo, and the status quo is a disaster. This is
nonsensical.

Microsoft wasn't the only one to complain about the CIR. Opposition to the
bill came from all sides. This is just another of many examples of the
powerful interests who didn't support the bill:

David Isaacs, director of federal affairs at the
Hewlett-Packard Company, said in a letter to the Senate that
"a ?merit-based system? would take the hiring decision out
of our hands and place it squarely in the hands of the
federal government."

Could it be that the defeat of CIR had more to do with the cheap labor
lobby than the immigration reform groups who opposed amnesty?

One thing for sure, the battle over increasing the H-1B cap is far from
over this year. The next H-1B juggernaut may be impossible to stop if the
corporate power players can unite behind a bill such as SKIL.

Don't think for a second that the cheap labor lobby is conceding defeat --
some of them view the defeat of Comprehensive Immigration bill as momentary
setback and others view it as a victory just like we do.

H-1B proponents have a "Plan B" that will resume as early as July 10 when
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, helps to launch a new lobbying blitz.

The cheap labor lobby has several options for increasing H-1B.

1) Lobbying Congress to pass stand-alone legislation such as the Securing
Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act (SKIL). Another possibility would
be the STRIVE bill, and of course a totally new bill could emerge.

2) Sneaking an amendment onto an omnibus spending bill. Since last year
Congress hasn't done their Constitutional duty to pass a budget. Expect
something to happen by November because if a budget isn't passed the
government could shut down. Emergencies like that are very good cover to
slip in things like H-1B increases. That approach has worked more than once
and it could succeed again.

3) Tacking an H-1B increase to another bill. Robert Hoffman, vice president
for government and public affairs at Oracle and co-chair of Compete
America, said they might create a cap increase by creating a "carve out" in
another bill. One possibility might be the Democratic majority's Innovation
Agenda. Any other bill that claims to improve science and engineering
education might also be a target for an amendment.


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Articles Included
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http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... leBasic&ta
xonomyId=10&articleId=9025894&intsrc=hm_topic
Immigration bill's defeat will prompt 'Plan B' from H-1B proponents


http://www.competeamerica.org/news/alli ... _vows.html
Compete America Vows to Press On in Wake of Senate Vote


http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,15 ... 105,00.asp
H-1B Bump: Not Dead Yet


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... PQOIK11.DT
L
Immigration vote sinks H-1B visa deal


http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/ar ... hp/3686181
H1-B Visa Increase Nixed With Immigration Bill


http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/c ... urce=email
Needed: Skilled immigrants
High tech industry needs less damaging `reform.'


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 0PTP971.DT
L&feed=rss.business
Immigrant plan isn't loved by H-1B fans


http://www.mercurynews.com/immigrationdebate/ci_5946740
Employers rip Senate bill on immigrants


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http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... leBasic&ta
xonomyId=10&articleId=9025894&intsrc=hm_topic

Immigration bill's defeat will prompt 'Plan B' from H-1B proponents
Patrick Thibodeau
June 28, 2007 (Computerworld)

The demise of the U.S. Senate's comprehensive immigration reform
legislation is a setback for the technology industry's push to increase the
annual cap on H-1B visas. But count on a Plan B from H-1B proponents.

The Senate bill was the primary vehicle for efforts to raise the H-1B cap
from its current limit of 65,000 visas per year, plus another 20,000 visas
that are set aside for foreign workers who have advanced degrees from U.S.
universities.

But the proposed legislation, which also would have mandated the
development of a national electronic employment verification system, died
an early death on Thursday after its sponsors failed to garner enough
support for a procedural motion that sought to end debate on the bill and
bring it to a vote. The motion got only 46 of the 60 "yes" votes that it
needed in order to be approved.

However, the high-tech industry has other options for pursuing an increase
in the visa cap, according to various policy analysts within the IT
industry.

"There are several options -- it's just a matter of making the case," said
Robert Hoffman, vice president of government and public affairs at Oracle
Corp. and co-chair of Compete America, a Washington-based lobbying group
that today vowed to continue its efforts to increase the H-1B cap.

The H-1B cap for the federal government's next fiscal year, which starts in
October, was exhausted on the first day that the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting visa applications in April.
The USCIS received about 150,000 applications that day, and Hoffman said he
thinks the strong demand for visas makes a compelling case for why an
increase in the cap is urgently needed.

Option one for H-1B proponents: stand-alone legislation such as the
so-called SKIL bill, which was reintroduced in both the House and Senate in
April after failing to win approval last year. The bill -- officially
called the Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act -- would raise
the cap to 115,000 visas and provide market-based mechanisms for further
hikes. But a separate measure may be the least attractive option for H-1B
backers because it could become a magnet for all sorts of bill-killing
amendments related to immigration reform.

Option two: increasing the cap through an amendment to a spending bill.
That approach has worked in the past.

Option three: adding an H-1B provision to one of a number of bills that
Congress is considering as part of the Democratic majority's so-called
Innovation Agenda -- such as legislation intended to improve science and
engineering training programs. But the IT industry isn't likely to embrace
legislation that is seen as partisan because it has backers for increasing
the H-1B cap from both parties.

The Senate's action on the immigration reform bill means attention on the
H-1B issue will shift to the House of Representatives, said Ken Wasch,
president of the Software & Information Industry Association. The
Washington-based SIIA issued a statement today saying that the high-tech
industry will have trouble finding enough skilled workers if the H-1B cap
isn't raised (download PDF).

At this point, Wasch said he isn't sure what the next step will be for H-1B
proponents. But like Hoffman, he said that visa relief is needed. "Our
companies have a huge problem," Wasch said. "And if the immigration problem
is not solved, we create an enormous incentive for our companies to do more
of their development work where talent is being developed."

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http://www.competeamerica.org/news/alli ... _vows.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2007


Compete America Vows to Press On in Wake of Senate Vote

Coalition Will Continue to Pursue Key Element of American Innovation Agenda

Washington, D.C. -- Compete America expressed disappointment in today?s
cloture vote on the Senate?s Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, as it
will likely delay much-needed reform to the H-1B visa and employment-based
green card systems for highly educated foreign professionals.

"Innovation is the key to America?s economic leadership, yet we are in
danger of falling behind our international competitors in many critical
areas," said Robert Hoffman, Vice President for Government and Public
Affairs at Oracle and Co-Chair of Compete America. "The challenges U.S.
employers face to remain innovation leaders will require Compete America to
continue to seek congressional action to fix the outdated visa system for
top international talent."

Compete America has been supportive of the Senate process as the debate on
comprehensive immigration reform has evolved, and attributed today?s vote
to issues unrelated to H-1B visa and EB green card reform -- which passed
the Senate by a wide bipartisan margin last year.

"Today?s vote is not the end of the line, as we will redouble our efforts
in both the House and Senate to help ensure that U.S. employers have both
the tools and the educated workforce necessary for the U.S. economy to
innovate and grow," Hoffman concluded.

For more information on how highly educated immigration benefits America,
please visit www.competeamerica.org.

Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of corporations,
educators, research institutions and trade associations concerned about
legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the
United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure
continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.

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http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,15 ... 105,00.asp

H-1B Bump: Not Dead Yet

July 2, 2007

By Larry Barrett, Baseline
When the Senate's sweeping immigration reform bill went down in flames last
week, it also meant the end for a proposed amendment that would have given
American high-tech companies the ability hire more foreign-born workers.

The amendment, proposed by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Maria Cantwell
(D-Wash.), would have almost doubled the number of H-1B visas and green
cards available for scientists and engineers born outside the U.S.


For now, any changes to either the number of visas available or the
qualifications required of potential visa recipients will have to be
revisited in future legislation or spending bills that are currently
winding their way through the Senate.

Tech companies and their lobbyists say the temporary setback means the
industry will continue to be hamstrung by a shortage of highly skilled tech
workers. Meanwhile, opponents of the current visa program say there are
plenty of American workers who can fill these high-tech positions and that
some companies are abusing the system to hire cheap labor.

"Yesterday's vote was unfortunate because it interrupted the momentum and
direction we feel is needed for the H-1B visa and green card programs,"
says Robert Hoffman, an Oracle lobbyist based in Washington, D.C. "We were
never able to have a full-fledged discussion about the crisis we're facing
in terms of hiring highly skilled workers."

The failed immigration bill and Kyl-Cantwell amendment included provisions
to raise the current H-1B visa quota from 85,000 - 65,000 visas and another
20,000 exemptions for foreign students with advanced degrees from U.S.
universities - to more than 115,000 in 2008. That figure could have
eventually been increased to an annual limit of 180,000 visas based on
labor market needs.

Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of
California-Davis, says the death of the immigration reform bill will only
delay an inevitable increase in the number of H-1B visas and green cards,
giving high-tech companies the opportunity to further exploit the system.

"There's no shortage of American workers for these jobs," Matloff says. "I
don't like being lied to and the tech industry is lying to us. They simply
want access to cheap labor."

Matloff and other opponents support a proposal submitted by Sens. Richard
Durbin (D-Ill.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that would overhaul the visa
program to give priority to American workers.

Under current law, only companies that employ H-1B visa holders as a large
percentage of their U.S. workforce are required to pledge that they have
attempted to find American workers before hiring foreign workers. The
Durbin-Grassley bill requires all employers to make a good-faith effort to
hire American workers first, and that H-1B visa holders will not displace
American workers.

Tech-industry leaders, including Intel chairman Craig Barrett and Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer, have appeared before Congress in recent months arguing
the need for more H-1B visas and green card exemptions.

"Our priority is to increase caps to make more H-1B visas and green cards
available," says David LeDuc, a spokesman for the Software & Information
Industry Association, a trade association representing more than 800
software and digital-content companies. "There isn't any question that
there's a preference to hire Americans with advanced degrees in engineering
and mathematics. But presently, it's just not a realistic scenario."

Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, a Summit, N.J.-based
advocacy organization for computer programmers and technology workers, says
high-tech companies are overstating the dearth of qualified American
workers needed to fill job openings.

"The biggest proponents of raising the H-1B caps are Oracle, Microsoft and
Google," he says. "Are you kidding? It is very competitive getting hired at
these places."

While this version of immigration reform appears to be dead at least until
the presidential election in November 2008, Matloff and Hoffman agree that
H-1B visa caps will likely be raised as part of an appropriations bill
sometime this year. In 2004, Congress approved the H-1B exemption for
foreign students with advanced degrees as part of a larger spending bill.

Copyright (c) 2007 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... PQOIK11.DT
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Immigration vote sinks H-1B visa deal

Collapse of Senate bill derails tech's bid for more foreigners
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 30, 2007

When senators killed a comprehensive immigration bill this week they
derailed a last-minute compromise that would have roughly doubled the
number of H-1B visas issued each year in return for reforms to prevent
Americans from being pushed out of white-collar jobs.

This program, though a hot topic in Silicon Valley, was just a tiny wrinkle
in the huge immigration mess that revolved mainly around the 12 million
undocumented workers who do everything from pick grapes to watch babies.

But with the collapse of the Senate bill that might have solved the issue
of legal, skilled workers, tech leaders must now seek other ways to achieve
the increased hiring ability they had sought, while critics of the
controversial program have lost oversight rules designed to prevent H-1B
visas from being abused.

The Senate failure also shifts the spotlight to the House of
Representatives, where Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, will be at the center
of the lobbying blitz that is expected to resume July 10 after lawmakers
return to Capitol Hill after a brief recess.

Lofgren issued a statement after the Senate vote saying the bill's demise
effectively ends chances for comprehensive immigration reform. But she left
open the prospect that House leaders would consider "whether anything can
be done" to fix the dysfunctional immigration system.

"The approach that the Senate took is clearly dead," said Oracle Corp.
lobbyist Robert Hoffman, who also represents the employer coalition Compete
America. "We find ourselves in an emergency," Hoffman said, because the
current year's allotment of H-1B visas has already been exhausted while
industry says it has skilled positions that can't be filled.

The H-1B program has allowed U.S. employers to hire an average of about
130,000 college-educated foreign nationals each year during the past six
years for which U.S. immigration statistics are available. H-1B visa
holders can work in the United States for up to six years before either
returning home or applying for a green card.

While tech employers look for ways to either pass a separate bill on H-1B
issues or attach their wish list to some other legislation, critics of the
program can kiss goodbye the last-minute Senate compromise that had
acknowledged some of their complaints.

According to a Senate staffer involved in the talks, Sen. Maria Cantwell,
D-Washington, who was negotiating for tech leaders, struck a bargain with
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who had led the effort to force more
oversight of the program.

That now-dead deal would have authorized U.S. employers to hire 225,000 to
290,000 H-1B workers per year -- pleasing tech employers -- while forcing
reforms aimed at so-called job shops that employ large numbers of H-1B
workers as contract programmers.

Now, H-1B critics such as Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Ron
Hira and Sacramento programmer Kim Berry -- who forced the job shop issue
into the Senate debate -- must redirect their arguments to Lofgren and
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both of whom are close to Silicon Valley.

Also left in limbo by the Senate meltdown are an estimated 1.1 million
legal, foreign-born workers and their family members -- a plurality of whom
are from India. These legal workers are stuck in a backlog of H-1B
recipients who face long waits for green cards. Jwalant Pradhan of
Immigration Voice, which lobbies for these frustrated temporary workers,
said his group was not sad to see the Senate bill die because lawmakers
seemed to be solving the problems of undocumented workers at the expense of
legal guest workers like themselves.

"They threw us under the bus," Pradhan said of the Senate leaders.

Now, House leaders will face demands from tech lobbyists, farm industry
honchos and other powerful interests that had some stake in the Senate
bill. Any sense of which lobby might get what will have to wait until
lawmakers return from their recess.

"The House will not sit on its hands," one key staffer said. "But what will
get done is still up in the air."

E-mail Tom Abate at tabate@sfchronicle.com.

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http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/ar ... hp/3686181

H1-B Visa Increase Nixed With Immigration Bill
By Roy Mark
June 28, 2007


Unable to muster 60 votes to cut off debate, Senate Democrats today tabled
their efforts to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill, including
provisions that would have raised the cap on H1-B visas from the current
65,000 to 115,000.

A favorite of the technology industry, H1-B visas allow U.S. companies to
sponsor foreign born U.S. graduates in science, engineering and math for up
to six years of U.S. employment. Tech executives and lobbyists insist an
increase in H1-B visas is necessary to fill what it claims is a chronic
shortfall in American IT talent.

"We have been supportive of the Senate process on immigration reform, and
are therefore disappointed in today's vote," Compete America, a coalition
of high tech companies, said in said in an e-mail statement to
internetnews.com.

Pamela Passman, Microsoft's vice president for global corporate affairs,
said the company was disappointed in the Senate vote.

"The nation continues to witness a dramatic decline in the number of native
born computer science graduates," Passman said in a statement sent to
internetnews.com. "Technology companies like Microsoft rely on the H-1B
visa and employment-based green card programs to deliver an adequate supply
of highly qualified employees to help maintain our competitive position."

Passman added, "It is our hope that the Congress will prioritize finding a
solution to these urgent issues before the end of the year."


Although the U.S. House has yet to take up the immigration issue, the
Senate failure to move the legislation forward is widely considered to be
the death knell for immigration reform in the 110th Congress.

It might not, however, be the end of the tech push to increase the H1-B
visa cap.

"The challenges we face to remain an innovation leader require us to press
on and seek other legislative vehicles to fix an outdated visa system for
highly educated foreign professionals," Compete America said in its
statement.

Robert Hoffman, vice president for government and public affairs at Oracle
and co-chair of Compete America, told internetnews.com it was still
possible to create a cap increase by creating a "carve out" in another
bill.

"The kinds of things we are proposing are for skilled workers," Hoffman
said. "Unfortunately, other controversial issues that bring out the
passions in people dominated the debate."

As the Senate struggled with the more controversial measures of immigration
reform like amnesty and border security, high profile tech executives
quietly worked the Senate throughout the spring to urge lawmakers to
include an increase in H1-B visas in the legislation. Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates even told the Senate the H1-B visa cap should be entirely
eliminated.

Google stumped for the increase by highlighting the fact that its
co-founder Sergey Brin and the company's principal scientist, Krishna
Bharat, are both U.S. educated and foreign-born.

>From the tech industry's perspective, the need for a cap increase was
underscored in April when the 2008 allotment of 85,000 H1-B visas were all
allotted in a single day. The 2007 allotment took a month to exhaust the
supply.

Although Hoffman stressed a cap increase is "widely non-partisan," there
are opponents in Congress, as Compete America learned in the Senate debate.


U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced
legislation earlier this year to overhaul the entire program to give
American workers priority over H1-B visa workers and crack down on
employers who misuse the visas, including paying the foreign workers
salaries less than the U.S. prevailing rate.

"Our immigration policy should seek to complement our U.S. workforce, not
replace it," Durbin said in a joint statement with Grassley. "Some
employers have abused the H-1B [program]... to bypass qualified American
job applicants. This bill will set up safeguards for American workers."

The legislation would require all employers seeking to hire an H1-B worker
to certify they have made a good faith effort to hire American workers
first and that the H1-B visa holder would not displace an American worker.
Under the bill, employers must first advertise the job opening for 30 days
on a Department of Labor Web site before applying for H1-B workers.

Even of Grassley and Durbin's concerns can be dealt with, the price for a
cap increase may still come high for tech.

Over the strenuous objections of the tech lobby, Sen. Bernie Sanders
(I-Vt.) amended the now dormant immigration bill to increase H1-B visa fees
for employers to $5,000 per application, $3,500 more than the current fee.
Proceeds from the fee hike would be used to fund scholarships for Americans
seeking degrees in math, technology and health-related fields. The Senate
approved the amendment, 59-35.

Sanders said the fees raised could fund 65,000 scholarships of $15,000 each
to American students. Sanders originally sought a fee of $10,000 per
application.

"What many of us have come to understand is that these H-1B visas are not
being used to supplement the American workforce where we have shortages
but, rather, H1-B visas are being used to replace American workers with
lower cost foreign workers," Sanders said during the floor debate on the
amendment.

Compete America, which includes Microsoft and Intel as members of its
coalition of corporations, educators and trade groups pushing for an
increase in H1-B visas, called the Sanders amendment an "outrageous and
onerous tax" on tech.

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http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/c ... urce=email

Needed: Skilled immigrants
High tech industry needs less damaging `reform.'
Article Launched:

Leaders of high-technology companies say they urgently need skilled foreign
workers, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates says his company alone has
unfilled openings for 3,000 computer engineers. Yet Congress won't get out
of the way.
That is just one of the frustrations in the national debate about
immigration. Lawmakers fail to agree on how to stop masses of unskilled
illegal immigrants, while tightening restrictions where they are least
needed and most harmful.

Immigration reform, if that's what it can be called, made some progress
this week in the U.S. Senate. But instead of providing for more visas for
skilled professionals as Gates and others have pleaded for, senators
propose to set them at levels that were too low years ago, and slap $5,000
fees on each visa.

According to immigration legal experts Hope Frye and Martin Lawler, writing
in the Wall Street Journal, the demand for such H-1B visas so exceeds
supply that applications have turned into a grabfest. They have to be doled
out by lottery.

Until 1990, there were no limits on the number of visas for highly skilled
immigrants and at one point 195,000 a year were granted. The limit now is
65,000, plus 20,000 for those who have U.S. advanced degrees. (Bill Gates,
a college dropout, would be in trouble if he had to depend on an H-1B.)

More than 50 percent of the high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley were
founded or cofounded by immigrants. Throughout the state, these businesses
account for $52 billion in revenue and 450,000 jobs in direct employment.

The surest recipe for decline in California is to continue letting
uneducated, unskilled illegals flow into the country while highly educated
entrepreneurs get stopped at the border.

Legislators are listening mainly to anecdotal tales of computer programmers
losing their jobs to immigrants, but, as Frye and Lawler point out, studies
by the Immigration Service and independent groups show there has been
little abuse.

Microsoft's director of federal affairs, E. John Krumholtz, told the New
York Times the Senate's version of immigration reform, when it comes to
H-1B visas, is worse than the status quo, and the status quo is a disaster.
This is nonsensical.

The legislative fumbles are nonpartisan. A socialist from Vermont, Sen.
Bernie Sanders, came up with the latest barriers for the H-1Bs. A Democrat,
Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, and a Republican, Sen. Charles E.
Grassley of Iowa, teamed up on "protective" wage rules that would have the
ridiculous effect of paying immigrants more than comparably skilled
Americans.

Americans deserve better than that.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 0PTP971.DT
L&feed=rss.business

Immigrant plan isn't loved by H-1B fans
Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Silicon Valley leaders say they are disappointed that a huge immigration
reform bill unveiled Thursday did not do more to increase the scope of the
H-1B visa program.

Meanwhile, critics of the program cheered hints that Congress seems to be
asking whether some uses of H-1B visas are pushing U.S. tech workers out of
jobs.

The compromise unveiled Thursday by Sens. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Jon
Kyl, R-Ariz., is primarily designed to legalize an estimated 12 million
undocumented migrants and discourage illegal border crossings.

But the package also contains a provision that initially sounded like a win
for high-tech employers -- an increase in the annual base cap on H-1B visas
from the current 65,000 to 115,000, with adjustments possible to meet
additional demand up to 180,000 per year over time.

But after reviewing drafts of the bill Friday, Oracle lobbyist Robert
Hoffman, who also speaks for an employers group called Compete America,
said the Senate proposal doesn't do enough. Hoffman said the industry is
glad that the Senate proposal retains a current exemption that does not
count hires by university or research institutes against the base cap. The
Senate proposal also retains an exemption that sets aside an additional
20,000 H-1B visas for foreign students who earn master's degrees or better
from U.S. universities.

But Hoffman said the proposal gives industry less than a comparable bill
that passed the Senate last year but died for lack of agreement from the
House of Representatives.

"We're asking them to pass what they passed last year," Hoffman said.

H-1B critics said the mood in the Senate appears to have changed in one key
regard -- Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., have
been trying to figure out how many H-1B visas are going to Indian-owned
firms that may be bringing their own countrymen into the United States as
temps to help ship programming work abroad.

"What's different this time is the scrutiny of these Indian-owned firms,"
said Ron Hira, the professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of
Technology who helped bring this issue to the fore.

Kennedy broached this issue himself, according to a transcript of a news
conference at which he answered a question about the H-1B provisions by
saying that while some senators want to expand the program, others "have
been concerned about the fact that some of the existing H-1B (users) ...
have been more involved in shipping jobs overseas rather than creating jobs
here."

But all sides agree the situation remains fluid as the Senate heads into
floor debate. And while the H-1B provisions are paramount to Silicon
Valley, the skilled-worker debate is politically subordinate to broader
concerns about undocumented migrants mainly from Mexico and Central
America.

Finally, whatever the Senate does on the H-1B issue and the larger bill,
the whole matter must still go to the House of Representatives. There,
high-tech leaders and H-1B critics will focus on Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San
Jose, who heads a subcommittee with jurisdiction over these issues and is a
former immigration attorney.

E-mail Tom Abate at tabate@sfchronicle.com.

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http://www.mercurynews.com/immigrationdebate/ci_5946740

Employers rip Senate bill on immigrants

CRITICS SAY IT HURTS LABOR POOL, FAMILIES
By Robert Pear
New York Times
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:05/21/2007 01:30:09 AM PDT


WASHINGTON - Employers, who helped shape a major immigration bill over the
past three months, said Sunday that they were unhappy with the result
because it would not cure the severe labor shortages they foresee in the
coming decade.

In addition, employers expressed alarm as they learned that the Senate bill
would require them to check a government database to verify that all
current and former employees - immigrants and citizens - are eligible to
work in the United States.

The Senate begins debating the bill today. Supporters, including the White
House, had hoped that senators would finish it this week, before the
Memorial Day recess.

But members of Congress said Sunday that the bill would take more time and
could face significant hurdles.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the
immigration bill "can't possibly be completed before Memorial Day." On the
ABC News program "This Week," McConnell said the Senate would need at least
two weeks to digest and amend the bill, which he described as "a big,
complicated piece of legislation."

Pelosi's concerns

Meanwhile, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, expressed concern about a
central element of the bill, under which the government would establish a
point system to evaluate would-be immigrants, giving more weight to job
skills and education and less to family ties.

"I have serious objection to the point system that is in the bill now, but
perhaps that can be improved," said Pelosi, D-San Francisco, who asserted
that this part of the bill, ardently sought by the White House and
Republican senators, could undermine "family unification principles which
have been fundamental to American immigration."

The bill would offer legal status to most of the nation's 12 million
illegal immigrants and increase penalties for employers of undocumented
workers.

In the past few years, employers have become a potent force in the debate
on immigration, pleading with Congress to authorize more visas for workers
in both high-skill and low-skill categories.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a co-author of the bill, said the point system
was devised so America "can compete for the best minds that exist in the
world."

Robert Hoffman, a vice president of Oracle, the business software company,
endorsed that goal, but said the bill would not achieve it.

"A merit-based system for allocating green cards may sound good for
business," said Hoffman, who is co-chairman of Compete America, a coalition
of high-tech companies. "But after reviewing the proposal, we have
concluded that it is the wrong approach and will not solve the talent
crisis facing many U.S. businesses. In fact, in some ways, it could leave
American employers in a worse position.

"Under the current system," Hoffman said, "you need an employer to sponsor
you for a green card. Under the point system, you would not need an
employer as a sponsor. An individual would get points for special skills,
but those skills may not match the demand. You can't hire a chemical
engineer to do the work of a software engineer."

Potential mismatch

Business executives said they were in a better position than the government
to decide what talents were needed.

"A `merit-based system' would take the hiring decision out of our hands and
place it squarely in the hands of the federal government," David Isaacs,
director of federal affairs at Hewlett-Packard, said in a letter to the
Senate.

Employers of lower-skilled workers voiced another concern.

"The point system would be skewed in favor of more highly skilled and
educated workers," said Laura Foote Reiff, co-chairwoman of the Essential
Worker Immigration Coalition, whose members employ millions of workers in
hotels, restaurants, nursing homes, hospitals and the construction
industry.

Under a 1986 law, employers are supposed to ask all job applicants for
documents to verify that they are eligible to work in the United States.
The Senate bill goes further, requiring employers to copy the documents and
check a government database.

Susan Meisinger, president of the Society for Human Resource Management,
which represents 215,000 personnel executives, said: "The Senate proposal
would require employers to re-verify the identity and employment
eligibility of 145 million Americans who are currently employed. That's
unworkable."

The government has been testing an employee verification system such as the
one envisioned in the Senate bill. Federal investigators have found a
significant error rate because information in the database is sometimes
inaccurate or outdated.

Randel Johnson, a vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, explained
the reason for employers' keen interest in the issue: "We do not have
enough workers to support a growing economy. We have members who pay good
wages but face worker shortages every day."


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Hi ceelynn, a late 'welcome aboard' to you!

Thanks for posting this. I have suspected that there are 2 groups of corporate [globalists/elitist] types that will push hard right away for their cheap labor agenda:

1. Agricultural workers
2. High-tech/skilled [read H1b] professionals

And, this article does suggest that my hunch is proving correct.

In addition to the things that W has identified to be the focus of our upcoming efforts, I would also like to see some attention given to the limiting of legal importation of workers (and/or, abuse of the legal system) - solely to undermine the living standards of Americans and legal US workers.

As this issue (the importation of foreign workers, especially in low-skilled jobs) has generated divided loyalties among unions and workers rights groups, but, has been one of the strongest bases of support from senate Dems and Independents (Bernie Sanders), I think there is a lot of political 'ground' to be gained by hammering this issue, especially on the Dem side.
Or, stated another way, lobbying against the US worker is not a cause which is likely to gain much support from either or any political party.

[all the above, just IMHO - my 0.02 cents worth]

Also, one thing for sure, is that we'll have to carefully monitor a wider array of bills / amendments going through both houses of Congress for the proverbial 'slip this provision through late on a saturday night' sort of approach too.

Comments or points like the following are priceless:

Until 1990, there were no limits on the number of visas for highly skilled
immigrants and at one point 195,000 a year were granted. The limit now is
65,000, plus 20,000 for those who have U.S. advanced degrees. (Bill Gates,
a college dropout, would be in trouble if he had to depend on an H-1B.)

For someone that cries to get his hands on 'qualified workers' even HE couldn't work at his own company - based upon his academic background.

Yet another FYI:

H-1B proponents have a "Plan B" that will resume as early as July 10 when Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, helps to launch a new lobbying blitz.

Start telling your senators and representatives, that an increase is not needed but reform of the use of the H-1B is needed. If what Lou says is true, they are bringing in non-hi tech workers instead of skilled workers then the issue is that they need to fix the problem not increase the number. They also need to start working on ensuring that an American cannot be found for the job. I know that Microsoft hires americans as part time instead of hiring them full time. This way the can have room for workers from overseas even though they have out sourced a great deal of work already. Microsoft is having it both ways and still not hiring americans. Gates has forgotten that without americans he would not have a company and billions of dollars.

I saw Bill Gates on various TV shows on the subject of the H-1B visa.

Bill Gates has placed billions in his (charitable) foundation which is used to benefit many AROUND THE WORLD.

Should charity not begin at home?

Why doesn't Gates set up a scholarship program for 5,000 computer science (AMERICAN CITIZEN) graduates EACH YEAR, to attend graduate school?

Does Microsoft MAKE EVERY EFFORT to hire CITIZENS first? Just as law firms seek out the brightest and best at law schools, and as companies seek out the brightest and best at engineering schools, etc., does MICROSOFT do this?

Do they advertise in their local newspapers? Or is their advertising comprehensive? Internet? Through college/university/Community College newspapers? With microsoft resources, the latter should be easy to accomplish. There are many ways to reach citizens IF THEY WANT THEM. The question is............why are these companies so adamant that they HAVE TO HAVE FOREIGNERS AND NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS/LEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

On the news this morning it stated that the bombings and attemps recently in England was by Dr. there on a work visa. Appears this doctor wasn't the only professional highly quailified working on a visa and trying to bomb The European Union! Reporter was asking if this is common? Answer was this appears to be so. Why do they think they wouldn't train professionals if they are allowed on work visa's if they are so easy to get? Are they suppose to be quaranteed safe because they are trained?

I agree completely, We got to go after the hb visas. I have had friends on both sides "Democrats, and Republicans" lose their jobs because of the hb visa program.

I'm happy that MOST americans are finally waking up to the FACT that Illegal Immigration hurts ALL of us, and that the hb visa program is just
another way for Businesses "big, and small" to import cheap labor, at the cost of the AMERICAN WORKER.

We also need to go after increases in foreign student visas.

Who knows how many terrorists are lurking in American MD and PhD programs?

Hi Ceelyn,
Happy Independence Day,

If Senators Cornyn and Hillary Rodham have their way, at least half the population of India would be here on H-1B visas.

Regarding H-1B countermeasures.....
Need to remind voters and elected officials of this arrogant and condescending visa-expansion video (previously posted to ALIPAC, but I cant find the link. The PHPBB search engine won't find it.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
In this video, H-1B lawyers, handlers, lobbyists, lunatics, are thumbing their nose at voters. This is the
"fake job ads" video which teaches corporate CEOs how to "legally" turn down qualified American workers in favor of NON-immigrant H-1Bs

Also, this explains a bit about the video.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0702/p15s01-wmgn.htm

Go back to Bangalore, H-1B
No, H-1B, I don't owe you my job;
I don't owe you my livelyhood;
I don't owe you my future;
I don't owe you anything! Now leave!

No, Senator Cornyn, you're wrong! We don't owe them our jobs!