B-1 Oil Riggers

Date: Friday, November 07, 2003 6:44 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

I usually only post "Horror Stories" on the website, but this letter is
so compelling I thought it should be shared with everyone that receives
this newsletter. To read Horror Stories, and I haven't had time to
update them recently, go to:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/Horror.htm (If you sent me a Horror
Story please be patient!)

This is the worst case of B-1 visa abuse I have heard about since the
story about the Tulsa welders (see the 6/22/2002 newsletter "Tulsa: The
American Dream Turned Nightmare").

In order to make sense of the letter it's first necessary to understand
that B-1 visas are to be used for temporary business trips. These visas
are supposedly used by businessmen that need to to come to the U.S. for
short periods of time to make investments, to purchase goods, or to
conduct other temporary work on behalf of a non-U.S. employer. Visa
holders cannot be employed or be paid by a source inside the U.S. The
B-1 visa is for a maximum of one year with 6-month extensions. There
are no limits on the number of visas that can be issued.

B-1 DOESN'T REQUIRE LABOR CERTIFICATIONS OR PROTECTIONS FOR AMERICAN
WORKERS - and that is why they are ripe for fraud and abuse. B-1 is an
ideal visa for oil riggers who want to defraud our immigration system
because they typically go out to sea for a fixed number of months and
then come back home for a rest period.

In this case, B-1 visa holders from a Dutch company are being used to
underbid U.S. based oil riggers because they circumvent our payroll tax
system and social security. These visas should be used for business
trips, not for routine labor. The Dutch company is taking advantage of
the fact that the BCIS has no incentive to investigate how companies
use these visas.

When I received Paul Baumgardner's letter I was astonished at the
specific details he gave. For his privacy I asked if he wanted to
delete some of the details and here is his reply:

Yes, use my name and company name. As a matter of fact I have
sent letters to the INS and the IRS, as well as various
congressmen using my name and company letterhead. Also of
possible interest to you, these people are going out in the
Gulf of Mexico and working on offshore drilling rigs. Some of
these rigs have over one hundred people working on them. The
opportunity for terrorism is a definite possibility. And after
all, the shoe bomber was a British citizen.

We are definitely loosing business to these foreign "guests" and
American citizens working for my company are loosing work. The
INS is doing nothing. The companies contracting these people are
major oil companies and drilling contractors.

Baumgardner said that it's tough to compete with these B-1 visa holders
because they don't pay taxes, and his workers do. With such a huge cost
advantage they can simply underbid American contractors. There was one
nagging question I had to have an answer to before I published this
newsletter: If foreign workers were getting paid by a Dutch company,
they would have to pay much higher taxes in Europe - so how do these
B-1 worker avoid taxes? The answer was another example of globalism
that is out of control:

In answer to your question, these workers are either Dutch or
British. They bank in the Channel Islands and are paid there,
usually by companies registered there. The workers report no
income to their countries of residence and pay no income tax
to any country as the Channel Islands do not tax them.

I am the owner of a small engineering consulting firm (Veritas
Associates, Inc.). We primarily furnish services to the oil industry.
We employee twenty people as consultants. We compete on an
international basis with a Dutch company named MODUSPPEC. MODUSPEC
regularly brings consulting personnel into the US on various visas
mainly on B-1 visas. These visas are for the purpose of doing business
in the US, not working. However these consultants come into the US as
tourists or for business purposes. They then go out to offshore
drilling platforms to work. They do not pay US taxes nor does MODUSPEC
pay payroll tax or FICA. They compete directly with our people and can
work cheaper as they don't pay tax.

This company is hired to do work by large US oil companies, drilling
contractors and offshore construction companies.

When we have complained to the INS we were told that these people are
coming over on business and tourist visas, "all perfectly legal", and
they did not have to pay US taxes as they are taxed in their home
country. However, they in fact bank in the Channel Isles and pay taxes
to no one. This cheap and illegal practice may in fact eventually put
us out of business. We get no support from the INS. As a matter of fact
they usually don't return any phone calls.

Paul D Baumgardner
Veritas Associates, Inc
Texas

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