Thread: Anti H-1B visa bill introduced in U.S. Senate

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Anti H-1B visa bill introduced in U.S. Senate

By siliconindia news bureau

Wednesday,10 June 2009

Bangalore: Two months after introducing the Durbin-Grassley visa reform bill in India and the U.S., the bill has once again been brought before the U.S. Senate. The bill if legalized will have serious implications for Indian IT companies as well as Indians seeking H-1B visas.


The bill, introduced by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Charles Grassley, contains specifications that companies will have to follow to attain U.S. work visas called H-1Bs and L-1s. The bill according to the Senate's website has officially been logged as, S. 887; A bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to reform and reduce fraud and abuse in certain visa programs for aliens working temporarily.

The most controversial of these stipulations is the '50/50' provision which would prohibit companies from obtaining any additional work visas if they have more than 50 U.S. employees and more than 50 percent of their entire U.S. workforce is made up of H-1B or L-1 visa holders. The provision could prevent companies like Wipro and Infosys from hiring more Indian workers to work in the U.S.

Rising unemployment in the U.S. has been cited as a reason for introducing the bill. Claiming that the provision would help protect American jobs, Grassley says, "The original rationale was that we needed to allow importation of managers and technical people when there weren't enough Americans available. It seems to me ridiculous that companies now have more than half of their workers on these visas when there are certainly a lot of workers in the U.S. who can fill in some of those positions."

There have been numerous outcries against the bill. Opponents in the U.S. for instance called the bill a piece of socialist legislature and a sign of growing U.S. protectionism. Top executives at firms like Tata and Infosys have said that the argument over the legislation could eventually lead to a trade dispute between India and the U.S.


Reader's comments(1

1: I'm a US citizen - one of the few who worked for Infy in India and also the US. It is easy for those of us that are unemployed (as I currently am, myself) to take it out on you guys. Deep down, we in the US know that you guys are being screwed over by the rich corporations (both the big IT body shops in India and the US corps. that hire them) the same as us. It is easier for angry Americans to lash out at you guys, instead of the companies, though you don't deserve all the blame.

We techies need to work together. American IT workers need to be assertive when it comes to flooding our labor market with non-experienced and maybe less intelligent workers who do data entry and other jobs that could most easily be filled by Americans.

On the other hand, I know a lot of you guys are very good developers, and deserve the chance to work and earn a US salary. However, you must put your foot down and not accept such bad working conditions both in the US and India.

For example, when I was in Bangalore, many of the companies were planning on implementing a six day work week. Furthermore, you guys need to realize that it is not appropriate working more than 8 hours a day - no more staying 'till 8pm every night in order to make us Americans appear lazy.

NONE OF US will be better off if all us IT workers end up earning the average wage you guys make now. You guys in India need to improve your working conditions, instead of allowing the rich companies to drag all of us down together.

Good Luck...
Posted by: Bob - 11:53 PM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 2:bob, i fully agree with u
we must all act together
dron replied to: Bob
post - 01:55 AM Jun 11, ' 09
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3: This 50/50 clause and other measures will not prevent the flow of IT jobs to any other offshore development centers. It will only impact the profit margin of outsourcing companies based outside US.
If a company is based in US, naturally its US based employee strength will be higher. So they can bring people in H1L1B1 for Knowledge Transition. Once that is done they can ship that job to outside. For non-US based companies, they will hire a few locally and continue there operations. So ultimately nothing is going to happen.
Now one question. In 2008 itself there was an estimated Job loss of 2.6 million in US. How many of these were caused by H1L1 Visas? (there was only 65000 H1s)
And why aren't any one talking about the job loss in manufacturing sector. There are cases where the entire manufacturing plant is shipped out of US... Nobody is worried...
Posted by: Aneesh - 07:04 PM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 4:If it will not affect business then why is India so concerned then?
Levine replied to: Aneesh
post - 03:54 AM Jun 11, ' 09
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5: I can see lot's of good discussion going on. I truly respect the feelings of US people and I will restrict my self from any judgmental comments. I Live in US and probably I have got more friends who are U.S. citizen and less Indians or any other region.
Personally I don’t see any great advantage of introducing Anti H-1B visa bill. It’s just a political stunt to gain confidence of people. I guess these politicians have learnt such drama and stunt from Indian politicians. All these IT companies are simply a business people who may be only bother about their business. When I look at U.S companies, they are also bothered about their business not about U.S citizens. And because of cost saving they are operating their many business in many different countries. One should understand the fact that even in US, companies may be hiring H1B candidate because of low cost. Also recession has not impacted this IT industry a lot as compared to other business unit. The bottom line is H1B people are in U.S. because of their high skill and low cost. I guess in this world of globalization no one can stop any skilled person to work anywhere in this world. But Yes I completely agree that there is some misuse and abuse of H1B visa where few small companies are involved and playing up and down games. Personally I know few companies like H2H solution, Youngsoft and few more in Michigan who are involved. There are many more companies in New Jersey. In my opinion Federal government and INS should take strong action against such companies and the situation will become smooth.
Posted by: patrik - 11:40 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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6: We need Indian IT companies to abide by the Equal Opportunity laws of the United States first. Satyam, Infosys, and Tata have a U.S. workforce that is 90% Indian, the companies don't even try to hire U.S. citizens for jobs on U.S. soil, unless pressured by the United States Congress.

Clearly, these companies are not competing on talent, but rather on a monopolistic tactic of underselling the competition, by introducing sub-wage workers into the U.S. domestic labor pool, and carrying on a massive discrimination program against the ethnic type known as U.S. citizen.

Clearly companies that never intend to even look to hire domestically in the United States, forfeit any right to claim to need an H-1b or L-1 visa.

The truth is 1-in-5 H-1b visas are fraudulent. Many jobs adds are H-1b only, people of ethnic background "U.S. citizen" need not apply.

What is good for the United States, is for all companies to embrace the full diversity of the United States, and actively recruit from the domestic labor pool, and in doing so truly look for the best candidate.

What no country or company needs are companies that close their mind to the domestic labor pool as potential source for any position within a company, yet Indian IT companies are doing exactly this, and likely hamstringing the future growth of companies that contract with them. Which is something we cannot allow, as it is both destructive to jobs, and morally wrong because it is racial discrimination, and that is something we in the United States abhor.
Posted by: jake leone - 08:09 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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7: The bill will not help highly QUALITY professioanalS
Posted by: regunaath - 07:10 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 8:"highly QUALITY professioanalS"?

LOL

typical H-1b
Tim replied to: regunaath
post - 09:57 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 9: This bill if passes will increase offshoring because of difference in cost in between US operations and Indian operations which is much worst then people on H1B who pay taxes and living expenses in US and hence boost the economy.
Tin replied to: Tim
post - 04:48 PM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 10: Trutly , highly QUALITY professioanalS. I have seen typical H1B's are 30% more efficient then normal americans and if this at reduced cost that means silicon valley
John replied to: Tim
post - 04:45 PM Jun 10, ' 09
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11: THe recession is not the cause of high unemployment.

High unemployment is the CAUSE of the recession.

This bill will address this and passage of this bill will be the start of the recovery.
Mark my words.
Posted by: Observer - 05:38 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 12:Well , the real enemy is OUTSOURCING and not H1B since they actually allow to keep the projects in US.If you have cheap and good resources in US then why would you want to move the projects to cheap locations.So outsourcing can only be cut by H1B's or else this recovery will leave painful marks which will keep bleeing for a long time to come.
George replied to: Observer
post - 04:55 PM Jun 10, ' 09
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13: This bill will pass. India Inc. does not vote for senators or congressmen. Displaced and unemployed U.S. workers and their family members and neighbors vote.

Any senator or congressman who votes against this bill will have to explain why they do not want to reduce fraud and abuse, or why they are against protecting U.S. workers jobs.

The bill did not pass the last time because it was part of a larger controversial CIR bill which had many other proposals the U.S. citizens did not like, such as amnesty.

By itself it will pass. The test of the bill was in the TARP bill, which passed overwhelmingly. Elected officials know which side their bread is buttered on, and they all want to be re-elected.
Posted by: Pete - 05:31 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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14: You can never tell. The Democrats owe it to their voters to create jobs. It is no way justifiable that a US company being subsidized by US taxpayers money should prefer outsourcing to hiring local candidates. Are you going to start explaining economics and free trade to a laid off US IT worker?
Posted by: Rex - 05:27 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 15:50/50 is still too high. 10% h1b is enough.
AAA replied to: Rex
post - 05:16 PM Jun 10, ' 09
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16: I can bet this bill wont pass. i am sure there is enough pressure from India Inc to not to do so.
Posted by: kriti sharma - 04:18 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 17:is this also tring to restrict the # of L1 visas also? otherwise all the compines are going to send the people thru teir L1 visa
Subra replied to: kriti sharma
post - 07:53 AM Jun 10, ' 09
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Cancel 18: I actually bet this bill is gonna passed. The reason US companies are outsourcing to india or any other countries is because the US govt. doesn't provide tax exemptions to them. Like in India we have IT/industrial zones which provide tax exemption if they have their facility in that zone. for IT its STPI (software technology parks of india). So if JPMorgan has its premises in the STPI, it gets an tax waiver...may be US govt need to have such a kind of policy to attract the local companies.
shrikant shivpuje replied to: Subra
post - 04:34 AM Jun 11, ' 09

As I keep my eye on the adversary's board, Immigrationvoice.org, I am amazed at how many of them fall out of legal status to stay here, yet they remain. And, their fellow IV-ers are full of advice on how to skirt the law, fly under the radar, and get past scrutiny. Not only that, a number of lawyers frequent that board, and while they may lecture one of them from time to time, they are also full of advice for people who really should have gone home promptly once the jobs that were the reason for being here were taken away. So, these folks are not the 'legal immigrants' they claim to be. First, they are not immigrants, but temporary guest workers, and second, many of them are not legal.

BetsyRoss

I hope when you see that kind of chatter on the board you forward it to your Congress Critters AND ICE.

A friend of mine told me today Sun Trust is outsourcing jobs to India and she may lose her job at ST.I told her to let me know if she loses her job and I will call them,cancel my account and tell them why.

If we all would move our bank accounts to small locally owned banks who normally hire locals we could change the outsourcing mentality of the Big Guys.It is all about greed.take away their money & take away their incentive to outsource !

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

First, they are not immigrants, but temporary guest workers, and second, many of them are not legal.

One of them claimed to be here on two H-1B visas so he could make more money, something I thought would be illegal. Apparently he did this to hold down two jobs. One job was full time and the other was part time, but some how he managed to get a full time salary out of the second job even though he only worked "part-time". When he started to explain how he got this loop hole to work from an immigration lawyer, another IV member cautioned him to stop explaining what was going on and they both shut up.

It is this out of control immigration racket that has driven this country into a depression.