Dim outlook for H-1B changes in this Congress?
Updated at 12:57 p.m. PDT to add the Democratic leadership's comments.
WASHINGTON--The U.S. Congress won't be beefing up the number of H-1B visas anytime soon, the chief legal adviser to an influential Republican predicted Monday.
Proposals to raise the annual H-1B cap would sail through Congress if called up for a floor vote, but political considerations mean that probably won't happen anytime soon, said George Fishman, chief counsel to the Republican side of a U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee panel on immigration.
That's because the Democratic leadership, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has given the Congressional Hispanic Caucus "veto power" over any immigration-related bill that comes to the House floor, regardless of its popularity, Fishman said at a panel discussion here hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that supports an increase in the H-1B cap.
"The Hispanic Caucus sees it as a bargaining chip to get what they want, which is comprehensive immigration reform, amnesty for illegal immigrants, whatever you want to call it," Fishman said. "Until the Democratic leadership allows legislation (related to H-1Bs) to go to the floor on its own merits, that's the situation we have here."
Fishman's boss, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and has proposed an "emergency" H-1B increase to 195,000 in 2008 and 2009--the highest level since its peak between 2001 and 2003.
Still, increasing the cap is hardly a one-sided issue, with a number of Democrats--particularly those in districts with prominent high-tech companies--onboard as well.
"Democrats are committed to working together toward balanced immigration reform, including H-1B visas, and we are continuing to hold hearings in order to move this issue forward," an aide to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told CNET News.com on Monday.
H-1Bs are temporary work permits that allow foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree in their area of specialty to work in the United States for up to six years. Currently, the annual cap stands at 65,000, with an additional 20,000 for foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities. This year, U.S. immigration officials reported receiving more than 163,000 petitions for next year's slots within the first five days and are no longer accepting new applications.
Seated alongside Fishman at the Heritage event were two other H-1B proponents similarly pessimistic about changes occurring this year: Kelly Krieger Hunt, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's senior manager for immigration policy, and James Sherk, a Heritage Foundation labor policy fellow. Sherk pointed to a study he and a colleague recently conducted, which estimated the United States will take in an extra $69 billion in tax revenue if 100,000 additional H-1B visaholders are allowed to work each year for the next eight years.
But those positive depictions of H-1Bs are not without controversy. During the question-and-answer session, a representative from a group called the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports more restrictive immigration policies, asked why the panel had been stacked with pro-H1B advocates and suggested every employer applying for the visas should be subject to a full, on-site investigation to verify its authenticity.
Although Smith's brief "emergency" H-1B bill doesn't propose new checks on the system, Fishman said his boss is aware of concerns about their abuse and wants to strike a balance. On the one hand, high-tech companies like Microsoft and Google prize H-1B visas because they say those work permits allow them to fill gaps in their operations for which there is a shortage of qualified Americans. On the other hand, some American programmers say abuse of the system has displaced American workers and depressed their wages.
There's truth to both perspectives, Fishman said, adding that the Department of Labor isn't as well-equipped to fight suspected fraud in the H-1B program as it could be. Part of the reason, he said, is that the system is based on "attestations" from employers that they're hiring employees with the proper qualifications and at the requisite wage levels, and the Labor Department "has to wait around for some to complain" before it opens an investigation, Fishman said.
"The H-1B program can and usually does operate to the benefit of both American high-tech companies and American workers," he said. "It is the job of Congress to ensure that it always does."
There're many highly talented immigrants who hold advanced degrees (esp PhDs) from top USA schools. USA universities have provided financial aid to most of these people. They represent part of USA's investment towards USA talent pool and therefore its economy. What would be a real waste is to just send them back to where they came from just because they were not born in USA. "Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" without discrimination is a one of the founding ideals of USA and it's to the benefit of all USA people to provide opportunities to those people who are good at what they do.
I agree that there should be tighter controls against possible fraud and abuse which would also benefit the rightful applicants. However, claiming that H-1b works at the expense of American people is absurd.
There should be a way to reimplement H-1b so that most of the talent USA has raised stays in the country while those people who are hired as cheap work force effectively filtered out.
I am in the same boat as Knight, and finding incredibly hard to find a job. When companies use ambiguous states like, "we cannot hire you because you are not qualified for the job," it is easy for job seeker to get furious with the H-1B visa program. That statement can mean anything from "you applied to a job that is nowhere close to what you are actually qualified for," to "you know how to use Dreamweaver and we are looking for someone who knows how to use Ruby on Rails," or even "you are qualified, but we just do not want to hire you." Then as far as qualifications go, if any US citizen applies for a job, by definition of the law, it is suppose to go to the US citizen regardless of how much more qualified a foreign worker is.
If that was not bad enough, I have even received two letters that said the position was closed after I applied to it for the reason that there was no interest in the job. That statement is obviously a dishonest statement given the fact that I did apply for the jobs. When you factor in the point that US companies have gone from outsourcing to H-1B visas at about the same rate as the decline in the value US dollar, it does sound like companies are partaking in illegal activity.
H1B will never be shut down, however, at the very least, Congress should make tech companies pay to play in the H1B pool. There should be a significant financial contribution made, proportionate to the extent that a company dips into H1B, to School Districts and educational institutions where that company's corporate headquarters are located.
H1B will never be shut down, however, at the very least, Congress should make tech companies pay to play in the H1B pool. There should be a significant financial contribution made, proportionate to the extent that a company dips into H1B, to School Districts and educational institutions where that company's corporate headquarters are located.
These companies have stopped thinking of themselves as 'American' a long time ago, and with it, they don't have concern for the citizens of the U.S.
Continuing to use fees from the H1B program to fund retraining programs for Americans would be my choice...
Where is that proposal to give free education of math and science majors for american students?
The funding must come from H1B fee and those who apply for those visas.
Raise the cap, but allow H1B holders to freely seek employment elsewhere, even if it means they are unemployed for a reasonable length of time. Then watch this so called "demand" dry up as the effective indentured servitude is removed.
This is how globalization works. No boundaries for labour and no boundaries for customers.
And just like every other system, there are going to be issues here too.
I am sure globalization has it's good points besides the loss of jobs. I mean some good point might include toxic toys, polluted pharmaceuticals, and of course foreign manufacturers learning how to make US designed goods so they can pirate them in their home countries. Did I miss anything? Well it will be so nice when the US citizen makes as much as a Chinese or Mexican citizen won't it? That is what globalization is all about isn't it spreading the wealth around. So in the end it destroys our quality of life (middle class American) the corporate executives who push it won't care they will have theirs.
Long Live Pelosi.
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=CA08&VIPID=61
PS: an F is a better grade for bringing in more critical skills for "jobs that Americans won't do" (for the price that Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are willing to pay)
Sure all the other countries allow 'free movement of labor' into their sovereign borders. Try going to Mexico or Germany or India or japan & settle there - there systems are stacked against foreigners entering unless they are super-rich retirees.
Remember the USA is a constitutional republic governed by the express will of its citizens not a corporate office park for anyone to come & live. If the companies cannot find the talent here, they *should* move to where they can find it.
GG_007
H1-B's and L1's are displacing American workers, and depressing those that remian by holding the wages down. This is big corperates way to break the laws of supply and demand, if the demand is really there but the supply is low the wages should go up to attract the talent. But by usage of H1-B's and L1's they can hold those wages steady and displace American workers. I have nothing against the actual workers who fill these positions, they do bring a level of diversity to the workforce that is valuable, but what they recieve as pay is not what they or the rest of the American workers are worth. From an Immigrants perspective its a valuable opportunity, from the Americans perspective its an insult to their profession. IT is an especially demanding field of constant education, no other field evolves as quickly or as much, and I truly believe that no University or degree program can actually keep pace with it. From what I have witnessed, most of the foriegn labor is being utilized as simple IT grunt work, that hardly requires a degree. H1-B's I feel should be limited to only distiguished foriegn individuals who are personally desired for Employment in the US, not general workers. L1's need to be eliminated altogether.
- by dkristoff May 13, 2008 10:19 AM PDT
- Business Week has published two articles in the last few months showing that 3 of the top 5 and 8 of the top 10 users of H-1B visas are Indian outsourcing firms, NOT American companies. I have written both of my senators about this abuse and have received only canned replies about general immigration issues. I have no problems with American companies hiring foreign workers if they can not find comparably skilled American workers, but it is the height of stupidity for America to allow in outsourcers to help reduce our job base.
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- by lpnguyenn May 15, 2008 9:10 AM PDT
- If those Indians are so smart I wonder why their country is still so impoverished?
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (30 Comments)Free trade is justified as an overall win-win between two countries. However, it is too often used to disguise a stupid disregard of our country's self-interest, or, worse, corrupt influence peddling by congresspeople taking foreign lobbyist money. We seem to forget that capitalist economic theory is based on competition between self-interested parties, not on one party giving away the store to benefit others.
U.S. management should remember that they are "overpaid" far more compared to their foreign counterparts than most tech workers . If they persist in the current trends, those jobs will eventually be gone too.