H-1B Program Gets More Heat

Date: Monday, November 25, 2002 11:30 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Harris Miller has been very public about his desire to lobby Congress during
the 2003 legislative session in order to maintain the current level of H-1B
visas. He is very upset that the number of visas will drop from it's current
level of 195,000 per year to 65,000 in 2004.

In May of this year he said that 195,000 H-1Bs a year wouldn't be enough to
fill 600,000 high-tech job vacancies in 2002, and over a million job
openings within 12 months.

Now Miller is saying that he might not lobby for the increased limit.
Perhaps Miller is saying this because he wants to deflect some of the heavy
criticisms he has come under lately but I doubt that his corporate donors
will tell him to back down. It's a safe bet that Harris Miller will be
working our politicians soon.

This article also mentions Guy Santiglia's complaints to the DOL and DOJ
concerning the blatant worker replacing that is going on at Sun
Microsystems. Guy recently told me that his complaints to the EEOC, DOL, and
DOJ have all been turned down. Once again these agencies have shown that
their real agenda is to protect aliens and the employers that hire them.

Investor's Business Daily
November 20, 2002

H-1B Program Gets More Heat; Touchy Issue For Tech;
Visa program Brings in Skilled Foreign Workers,

Angering U.S. Jobless After so many layoffs, U.S. tech employees are
increasingly wary about losing jobs to foreign workers.

Many companies bring in workers from overseas through the H-1B visa program.
It lets employers hire qualified foreign staff when they can't find suitable
U.S. workers.

Once viewed as a way to keep U.S. companies competitive, the H-1B program is
drawing heavy criticism. U.S. workers say they're being replaced by
lower-paid foreign labor. And H-1B workers are voicing concerns about the
system. That's led to new government scrutiny.

It's going to remain controversial," said Harris Miller, president of the
lobbying group Information Technology Association of America. ITAA was one
of many lobbying groups that two years ago successfully got Congress to
allow more H-1B workers into the U.S. than in previous years.

A total of 195,000 H-1B workers can be allowed into the U.S. each year, vs.
115,000 previously.

About 890,000 H-1B visa holders are in the U.S. Some work in education,
medicine and the service sector, but most are in tech. That's due in large
part to the oft-cited lack of skilled U.S. tech workers.

In May, the ITAA said about half of the 1.1 million U.S. tech jobs to be
created in the next 12 months would go unfilled due to a lack of skilled
workers.

But Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of
California, Davis, disputes that claim. He says the availability of computer
science graduates in the U.S. rises and falls directly with the need for
jobs. "The industry has claimed a tech labor shortage to bring in more H-1B
workers," Matloff said. "The real reason is so they can have cheap labor."

As the tech downturn continues, the ITAA has revised its figure regarding
new tech jobs. It now figures only 800,000 new tech jobs will be created. It
didn't say how many of those would go unfilled.

Congress will vote next year whether to keep the current limit on H-1B visa
holders. Miller says the ITAA hasn't decided if it will support boosting the
number.

Regardless, he says, the program is working. He cites the fact that only
about 80,000 H-1B visas have been issued this year. That means the supply of
foreign workers is adjusting to the fall in tech jobs, he says.

Don't fault those workers for the economic downturn, Miller says. "There's a
tradition in this country of blaming immigrants," he said.

Before being allowed to bring an H-1B visa holder, an employer has to hire a
U.S. worker. Employers aren't allowed to replace a U.S. worker with an H-1B
worker.

That's the issue being investigated at server maker Sun Microsystems Inc. A
former Sun employee alleges he was replaced by an H-1B worker. The Justice
Department is reportedly looking into the case.

The Labor Department recently sent a letter to Sun saying it failed to
properly post notices to employees about Sun's H-1B applications.

But H-1B workers have their own problems with the system. Arthur Shaw, a
programmer from India, complained to the Labor Department his employer, Cap
Gemini Ernst & Young, failed to pay him.

Murali Devorakonda, a director of the Immigrant Supports Network, says it's
common for H-1B workers to be exploited by employers.

The life of a H-1B worker can be dodgy. The employer actually holds the
visa. And it can decide at any time if it doesn't want that employee to
remain in the country.

Once you hire me on an H-1B, my legal status is at your mercy," Devorakonda
said.

Devorakonda says companies have shifted over the years from helping
noncitizen employees get green cards, which are basically permanent, to the
temporary H-1B visa.

It's easy for companies to underpay H-1B visa holders, some say.

In many cases, employers go through what's derisively called a "body shop."
These are companies that act as intermediaries between H-1B visa holders and
employers.

They can, in some cases, take large percentages of the salaries paid to H-1B
visa holders as a commission.

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