Quota Set to Drop Amid Backlash

Date: Thursday, May 15, 2003 2:44 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Imagine the tears streaming down Harris Miller's face. Between sobs he
stutters, and utterances are discernable that if the H-1B cap goes down
to 65,000 by next April every visa will be used up. That braty boy is
having a temper tantrum just thinking about all the Americans that
might get jobs back!

Pay particular attention to that last paragraph, because the
undemocratic way the House passed the 2000 H-1B increase is a scandal
that needs more media attention. I included an excerpt from a Cox news
report about what happened. This brazen attempt to hide who voted for
H-1B was a success because we still don't know who the betrayors of our
careers were.

The Cox article didn't mention the main reason the House was empty when
the voice vote was made. That was the evening of a general election
presidential debate between Al Gore and George W. Bush. It's a stroke
of luck that this scandalous vote got any press coverage at all since
the nation was focused on the debate.

Cox News Service, dateline October 3, 2000
WASHINGTON - The speed - and stealth - with which the House voted
Tuesday to increase visas for skilled foreign workers left one lawmaker
shaking his head. ``Incredible,'' said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a
major supporter of increased visas...
Doggett, who had co-sponsored a bill to increase the so-called H-1B
visas for foreign workers, gave this account of the evening:

``At about 3:30, it was announced that there would be no further
votes'' on important issues in the House, he said. Because many
lawmakers wanted to get home early to watch the presidential debates,
nearly everyone left, he said.

``But at about 5:30, an e-mail was sent over here'' announcing that an
H-1B debate would begin shortly. ``I didn't see the email until about
6,'' he said. Doggett said he scurried to the House floor, while other
major supporters of the legislation also rushed back to Capitol Hill.

Using various procedural moves, the GOP leaders ended the debate
quickly and called for a voice vote, even though the House was nearly
empty.

http://www.cio.com/archive/051503/tl_washington.html

May. 15, 2003 Issue of CIO

H-1B VISAS

Foreign Worker Quota Set to Drop Amid Backlash

CIOS WHO HAVE RELIED on H-1B visas to keep IT labor costs down may want
to rethink that policy. The quota for H-1Bs, which confer temporary
resident status to foreign technology workers, is set to revert in
October from the current 195,000-a-year limit back to the pre-Internet
boom level of 65,000. Harris Miller, president of the Information
Technology Association of America, which has led efforts to hike the
H-1B quota in the past, says that at current hiring rates, if the quota
decreases as scheduled, the visa allotment could be used up by next
April.

But that may be the least of a CIO's worries. The unemployment rate
among American high-tech workers is pushing 5 percent, which is leading
to a backlash against foreign IT workers and the companies that sponsor
them. One manifestation of this backlash is a recent lawsuit initiated
by a former Sun Microsystems employee who alleges the hardware vendor
deliberately laid off American workers and replaced them with
lower-paid foreigners. More than 500,000 U.S. technology workers lost
their jobs between January 2001 and December 2002. During the same
period, companies sponsored more than this number of high-tech workers
on H-1B and other temporary visas. According to the INS, the median
salary for an H-1B worker is 25 percent less than that of an
American's.

The technology industry is quietly pressing Congress to keep the H-1B
cap high. So far, there isn't a congressional sponsor for the proposal,
but the tech lobby has powerful allies. When the current quota was set
in October 2000, House leaders slipped it through one evening after
many opponents had left for home, and H-1B detractors are convinced the
same thing will happen again. Meanwhile, the controversy won't go away,
and it could affect staff morale. That's already happening, says David
Ray, associate director of the Federation for American Immigration
Reform, which lobbies to keep immigration levels low. "Immigration
should not be a tool to destroy the careers of American workers," says
Ray. Ben Worthen

Cybersecurity Agencies Merge

All content copyright CXO Media Inc., 1994-2001. All rights are
reserved. No material may be reproduced electronically or in print
without written permission from CXO Media, 492 Old Connecticut Path,
Framingham, MA 01701.

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