Specter's Bill - The Final Nail on the Coffin

Specter's Bill - The Final Nail on the Coffin

Date: Sunday, March 19, 2006 3:56 PM




JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

March 19, 2006 No. 1440


In the previous newsletter I discussed how Bill Gates will be visiting
Washington DC to push for Specter's bill. Bill Gates is very interested in
promoting the H-1B provisions in Specter's bill for the obvious reason that
it will insure that Microsoft has an unlimited supply of cheap foreign
labor.

I haven't seen any news articles that make the connection between Bill
Gates' lobbying effort and Specter's bill. You heard it here folks!

Unfortunately Sen. Arlen Specter's bill is alive and well in the Judiciary
Committee. In this newsletter I include commentary from three different
sources - NumbersUSA, FAIR, and Dr. Norm Matloff, and an article in the
IndiaTimes.

Matloff's statement below is not an exaggeration. Specter's bill, if passed
with the H-1B increase will mean Armaggedon day has arrived for all
American workers in high-tech. It goes without saying that his bill spells
doom to all other American middle class workers as they are forced into
global labor arbitrage.

If you don't have the time to read all of Matloff's newsletter, just
remember this paragraph:

This is a highly complex bill. What will get it the
most press, of course, is its proposal of a very broad
guest worker program, but it has other sections which
would have huge implications for programmers and engineers
who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
To describe the effect the bill would have on American
techies, let's put it this way:

The phrase, "final nail on the coffin" immediately comes to mind.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

NumbersUSA 3/18/2006

But it is fairly apparent that the Judicary Committee will return on March
27 (Shirley's and my 36th wedding anniversary, by the way) and vote out a
bill with an amnesty for 10-20 million illegal aliens, a foreign guest
worker program of at least hundreds of thousands a year and probably an
additional 800,000 to a million additional permanent greencards for
immigrants a year.

Sometime that same week, Senate Majority Leader Frist (R-TN) plans to have
the full Senate begin an immigration debate with hopes of passing an
immigration bill by mid-April.

Sen. Frist introduced his own bill at the end of the week. At first, he
seemed like a hero in that he announced he was going to introduce an
enforcement-first bill without guestworker or amnesty. That was good news.
But the bill now appears to have most of Specter's million increases in
annual greencards! And Frist also sounds like he expects that some time
during the debate Specter will be able to successfully add his amnesty and
guestworker provisions.

We and our allies are quite confused about whether Frist is going to be as
bad as he sounded on Friday or if he is just doing a horrible job of
communicating.

In essence, it appears that most of the provisions of the McCain-Kennedy
bill will be coming to a vote on the floor of the Senate in April. Click
here to view a side-by-side comparison chart of the McCain/Kennedy, the
Specter, the House-passed H.R. 4437 and the Cornyn/Kyl major immigration
proposals.

http://www.numbersusa.com/PDFs/SensenbrennerSpecterMcCainCornyn.pdf

Are we facing horrendous possibilities in the Senate? Yes.

Are we going to give you all kinds of ways to express outrage to try to
slow down this train wreck? Yes (by the end of the weekend).

Is there any hope? Yes. Is anything that all of you are doing making a
difference? Yes.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FAIR 3/16/2006


Sad, But True-Cornyn and Kennedy Team Up On Guest Worker Amnesty, Sell Out
American Workers
Today the Senate Judiciary Committee met to again consider the guest worker
amnesty proposal put forward by Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter
(R-PA). No amendments were offered, only discussion of how the committee
should proceed. What follows is a summary of today's proceedings.

Maybe We Should Outsource the Senate Judiciary Committee!
The session began 10 minutes late, but was well attended with most members
present for most of the time.

Sen. Specter (R-PA) opened the discussion by complaining about news
coverage disparaging the slow progress of the committee and the fact that
in four sessions the committee was unable to agree on even the least
controversial provisions of the bill.
Sen. Specter (R-PA) then suggested the committee meet again tomorrow or
Monday 27th with the hope of reaching agreement on major issues and
changing the majority leader's mind about bringing up an enforcement-only
bill on the floor.
The members agreed that on such short notice, it was unlikely they could
get a quorum tomorrow and decided to meet on March 27th.
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ), while approving of a deadline to pressure the committee to
act in a timely fashion, he complained that Majority Leader Frist (R-TN)
had gone a bit too far.
Sen. Kyl asked Sen. Grassley (R-IA) if the social security and tax
amendments offered earlier could be moved forward in the Finance Committee
expeditiously. The Senate Finance Committee claims jurisdiction over these
matters and Grassley is the committee chairman.
Sen. Grassley offered that he had directed his Finance Committee staff and
his Judiciary Committee staff to work with members on these matters.
Sen. Specter asked Grassley if these matters, once resolved, could be taken
up in the Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Grassley responded that he had not yet decided, but that with the
agreement of 11 members of the Finance Committee, he would consent to a
floor amendment on these matters which would be managed by the Finance
Committee.
McCain-Kennedy/Cornyn-Kyl-Who is the Fairest Guest Worker Amnesty of Them
All?
Sen. Specter (R-PA), as he has during previous sessions, voiced his view
that it would be unfair to allow those who are currently present in the
U.S. illegally to jump in line in front of those who were patiently
applying for their green cards through legal channels.
Sen. Durbin (R-IL) asked that there be a vote on the McCain-Kennedy amnesty
guest worker program as a substitute amendment for the Specter amnesty
guest worker program.
Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) replied that the good work of the committee should not
be effectively rejected by taking up McCain-Kennedy and that the committee
should focus on the guest worker program, but not the amnesty.
Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Durbin argued that the committee needed to decide
where it stood regarding "path to citizenship" for illegal aliens-amnesty.
Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) was recognized by Chairman Specter to make a statement
on a possible compromise. He gave an impassioned speech on the need for
amnesty to bring illegal aliens out of the shadows. He asserted that the
McCain-Kennedy bill would not let illegal aliens jump the line, because it
required them to wait 6 years for green card status.
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) rebutted the Kennedy argument by pointing out that allowing
illegal aliens to stay and work in the U.S. for 6 years while awaiting
their green cards was tantamount to giving them a green card at the outset.

Sen. Cornyn (R-TX) agreed with Sen. Kyl and argued that the Cornyn-Kyl
amnesty guest worker bill is superior to McCain-Kennedy amnesty guest
worker program and is not an amnesty.
Sen. Durbin (D-IL) asserted that McCain-Kennedy did not let people jump the
line and called it "tough, but fair."
Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) asked Kennedy about the background checks required by
his bill and indicated she did not believe DHS could complete all the
background checks under his bill.
Sen. Brownback (R-KS) commented that deferred mandatory departure in the
Cornyn-Kyl bill also allowed aliens to remain in the country.
Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) replied by saying that while this is true, illegal aliens
were not given the same legal status as under the McCain-Kennedy bill.
Sen. Specter (R-PA) announced that the committee would meet again on March
27 at 10:00 a.m. for another session to try and reach agreement on an
amnesty guest worker bill.
Sen. Specter announced that there would be votes on a McCain-Kennedy
amnesty guest worker program substitute amendment and a Cornyn-Kyl amnesty
guest worker program substitute amendment to the Specter amnesty guest
worker program proposal.
But We Forgot Amnesty for Agricultural Workers!
Sen. Feinstein (D-CA) inquired of Sen. Kennedy why the definition of guest
worker in his bill didn't include agricultural workers.
Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) replied by saying Sen. Larry Craig's AgJobs amnesty
guest worker bill covered these workers and suggested that the bill would
be offered as a floor amendment.
Saving the Worst For Last-A Cornyn-Kennedy Compromise Guest Worker Amnesty
Sen. Specter (R-PA) announced just before ending the session that Sens.
Cornyn and Kennedy had reached a tentative agreement on a guest worker
program that would allow workers to stay for 2 years, go home for 1 year,
and then return for 6 years. The annual number would be capped at 400,000.
Specter asserted that this agreement had 9 firm votes of the 18 members of
the committee.
Keep Those Calls Coming
Be sure to contact the members of the Committee if you haven't already done
so. Their contact information is listed below.

Main Senate Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Senate Judiciary Committee:
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) - 202-224-4254
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) - 202-224-5251
Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA) - 202-224-3744
Sen. Jon L. Kyl (R-AZ) - 202-224-4521
Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) - 202-224-2315
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) - 202-224-4124
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC) - 202-224-5972
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) - 202-224-2934
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) - 202-224-6521
Sen. Thomas A. Coburn (R-OK) - 202-224-5754
Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) - 202-224-4242
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) - 202-224-4543
Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) - 202-224-5042
Sen. Herbert H. Kohl (D-WI) - 202-224-5653
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) - 202-224-3841
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) - 202-224-5323
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) - 202-224-6542
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) - 202-224-2152


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Dr. Norm Matloff 3/15/2006


Last week I reported on a far-reaching immigration reform bill by Sen.
Arlen Specter, currently being marked up in the Senate. See

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/SpecterBill.txt

I noted that the bill did not have a number yet, and thus was on Congress'
Web page, http://thomas.loc.gov There has been some information on the
bill in the press and on the Web sites of some immigration reform
organizations, but both are very short on details. And as they say, "the
devil is in the details."

Yet the Beltway insiders seem to have no problem getting copies of the
bill. The immigration attorney and industry lobbies clearly have this
access, as does at least one of the immigration reform organizations.

But the rest of us are on the outside looking in.

Fortunately, immigration attorney Greg Siskind obtained a copy and has
published his analysis of it in the enclosed article. Some of its
provisions are startling, aspects not mentioned in the San Francisco
Chronicle article or on the immigration reform organization Web pages.

This is a highly complex bill. What will get it the most press, of course,
is its proposal of a very broad guest worker program, but it has other
sections which would have huge implications for programmers and engineers
who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents. To describe the effect the
bill would have on American techies, let's put it this way: The phrase,
"final nail on the coffin" immediately comes to mind.

By the way, for those of you readers who are techies, if you ever thought
that all these guest worker proposals are aimed at undocumented people
working as farm workers and hotel maids, think again. More than a year
ago, I predicted what would happen. See

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/MajorChangePoint.txt

I predicted that the guest worker bill program would really NOT be about
illegal immigration, but instead would really be about importing cheap
labor from around the world to fill all types of jobs, especially the white
collar ones. Well, that is exactly what is in the Specter bill.

First of all, note that Specter's bill sets up TWO guest worker programs,
one for illegals and the other general. See, I told ya so! It really is
much broader than for the illegals.

Second, Specter's general guest worker program, which he would name H-2C,
would indeed cover many techie jobs. Here's what I said last year:

* And even the programmer and engineer jobs would be vulnerable. Sure,
* the program structure could include a provision saying something like,
* "Not for jobs normally requiring a Bachelor's degree," but so what? The
* employers would suddenly decide that many programming and engineering
* jobs don't need a Bachelor's. If it weren't so sad, it would be comical
* to watch, say, Sun Microsystems, use this new program to hire
* sub-Bachelor's workers for the same jobs that Sun is now insisting
* require a Bachelor's degree (the requirement for H-1B).

Sure enough, it turns out that the only restriction Specter's H-2C has on
job type is that the job not be covered by H-1B (and a couple of other
ingredients in the nonimmigrant visa alphabet soup). Well, as I
mentioned last year, the only requirement H-1B has is that the job requires
a Bachelor's degree. So, another prediction come true.

And I didn't choose Sun Micro out of the blue. On the contrary, Sun has
proudly discussed its community college program for hiring system
administrators. In other words, people with only Associate of Arts
degrees. And get this: Sun hires lots of H-1Bs as system administrators,
implying that Sun considers it to be a job requiring a Bachelor's degree.
In other words, they're having it both ways, and with H-2C
they'd be in clover.

Now, let's discuss the bill's provisions regarding H-1B and
employer-sponsored green cards. I'll introduce each one by quoting from
Siskind's article, starting with this:

* The Spector bill makes important changes regarding student
* visas. First, F-1 optional practical training time is now extended
* from one year to 24 months. (Section 408). A new F-4 student visa
* is created for students pursuing advanced degrees in math,
* engineering, technology or the physical sciences. F-4 students would
* need to either return to their country of origin or remain in the US
* and pursue a job in their field and then pursue permanent residency.
* F-4s will be dual intent and the status can be extended while
* the applicant pursues permanent residency through a labor
* certification or other means. The alien must be working in his
* field as well to qualify to adjust status.

That OPT provision seems inoccuous but is very significant. Here's why:

For the last 5-10 years, it has been typical in the industry to have a
policy in which it is very difficult for a new graduate to get a software
development job without having had internship/co-op experience. And if you
don't get into a development position at the beginning, it is quite
difficult to get one later. In other words, internship/co-op experience is
crucial to being able to have a development career.

Moreover, often in internship/co-op positions a bond develops between the
employer and student, making it much easier for the student to get a
permanent job with the employer after graduation.

Again: Internship/co-op positions play a key role in getting good jobs in
this field.

But internship/co-op experience is difficult to come by these days. Yet
many of these jobs are taken by foreign students, who have the right to
work via OPT.

The main thing which has served as a damper on that effect is that OPT has
been limited to one year. Many foreign students have been reluctant to use
any of that one-year time, because they want it to apply to their permanent
job in the U.S. after graduation. If H-1B visas are in short supply when
they graduate, employers can still hire them under OPT.

In other words, this doubling of OPT time is (a) specifically aimed at
enhancing the ability of foreign students to work in the U.S. and thus
reduce job opportunities for American students, and (b) would have the
additional effect of literally making it impossible for many American
students to ever enter the software development field.

And the following provision means that they don't have to use any of their
OPT time for their internship/co-op work:

* Section 407 also would allow F-1 and F-4 students to accept
* off-campus jobs outside of the students field if the student is
* enrolled and in good standing at their educational institution, an
* employer provides...

So after graduation, the employer would not need to use up an H-1B visa on
the foreign student for a full two years.

The "dual intent" provision would reverse a long-held tenet of the student
visa concept. When a student in another country applies for a visa to
attend a U.S. school, she is asked to confirm that she intends
to return home after graduation. Of course, many have no such intention,
and sadly, the U.S. system is forcing them to lie in their very first
contact with the U.S. Dual intent, which means they also
wish to become permanent residents of the U.S., at least would make them
honest, but again the overall aim here is to enhance the ability of foreign
students to get U.S. jobs.

Now here is a real shocker:

* Section 409 waives the labor certification recruitment requirement for
* those with advanced degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering
* or math from American universities.

As I've said before, the current labor certification process is riddled
with loopholes. As I've pointed out countless times, immigration attorney
Joel Stewart has said, "Employers who favor aliens have an
arsenal of legal means to reject all U.S. workers who apply" ("Legal
Rejection of U.S. Workers," Immigration Daily, April 24, 2000; available at
www.ilw.com/articles/2000,0424-Stewart.shtm). Yet, to do away with the
labor certification process entirely, as this provision of the Specter bill
would do, is simply outrageous.

And it would create its own demand, of students abroad who would say, "Hey,
it's that easy?"

Keep in mind, (a) we are overproducing people with MS/PhDs as it is, and
(b) the vast majority of the foreign graduate students are NOT "the best
and the brightest." See

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/ProposedMSPhDExemption.txt

This next one is equally onerous, but not shocking, since I predicted it
the other day:

* Section 409 exempts aliens who have earned advanced degrees in
* science, technology, engineering or math and have been working in
* their fields under a non-immigrant visa in the three years prior to
* filing for adjustment, recipients of national interest waivers,
* immediate relatives of aliens granted employment-based immigrant visas
* are exempt from green card quotas.

The key phrase here is "working...in the three years." Here is what I
wrote the other day, before I knew the details. The San Francisco
Chronicle article had simply said that "Other provisions include a new
F-4 visa category for students pursuing advanced degrees in science,
technology, engineering or mathematics. These students would be granted
permanent residence if they find a job in their field and pay a $1,000 fee
toward scholarships and training of U.S. workers." I commented:

* How exactly would this provision of Specter's bill work? If the foreign
* student really can petition for a green card on his own, without
* employer sponsorship, that would remove a lot of the exploitability of
* the H-1Bs. That would be great if it were the case, but the article
* here says the student must get a job in the field. This implies some
* role for the employer in the green card process, and you can bet that
* the industry lobbyists will vigorously push Congress to make that role
* just as strong as it is now. If the bill passes, they'll then push BCIS
* (formerly INS) to write the regulations this way too. The result will
* be that the the H-1Bs with U.S. graduate degrees will be exploited just
* as much as before.

So, as you can see from Siskind's summary, there indeed is an employer tie.
The foreign worker will have to have been "working in the field" for three
years. He must put in that time. What happens if the firm he is working
for goes out of business? How long does he have to find another job? You
can bet that he'll look for the most stable job, and stick with it even if
he's being paid low wages. Remember, all the foreign worker has to do is
find SOME job in his field SOMEWHERE. So he becomes the Web site operator
for the local sidewalk peanut vendor, literally and figuratively working
for peanuts, sticks with it for three years, and gets his green card. I am
not exaggerating much when I talk about peanut vendors here.

* The H-1B cap is lifted for three years to 115,000. (Section 409).
* After that, the cap will remain at 115,000 but may rise up to 20% per
* year if the whole cap is used up in the prior year. If the cap is not
* reached, then the cap the next year will remain the same as the
* current year.

An obvious disaster for American programmers and engineers. I keep hearing
from readers that every time the H-1B cap is exhausted they start getting
calls from recruiters.

* Title V Backlog Reduction

* Allows recapture of unused visa numbers and increases employment-based
* green cards from 140,000 to 290,000. Visas for spouses and children
* shall not be counted against the numerical limits.
...
* The per country limits are raised from 7% to 10%. (Section 502).

As I've said before, these would actually be good things, as they would
reduce the window of exploitability for the H-1Bs, and thus make them less
attractive to employers in the first place.

* Subtitle B Grant Programs to Assist Nonimmigrant Workers

* Provides funding for grants and to underwrite various education and
* training campaigns.

Can you believe this????

Norm


Siskind's article
http://www.ilw.com/articles/2006,0315-siskind.shtm
Immigration Daily: the news source for legal professionals
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act Of 2006

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1455626.cms

High skills immigration number one thing for Microsoft: Gates

PTI[ SUNDAY, MARCH 19, 2006 08:31:59 PM]

WASHINGTON: Lobbying for increase in the number of H1B visas, Microsoft
chief Bill Gates has put high-skills immigration as the "number one thing"
for the software giant and said it was ironic that Indians have to go back
due to visa shortages despite graduating from American computer science
institutions.

"It's kind of ironic to have somebody graduate from Stanford Computer
Science Department and there's not enough H1B visas, so they have to go
back to India...And I have people who have been hired who are just sitting
on the border waiting," Gates, who was here last week to personally lobby
the US Senate on a proposal to increase H1B visas, told The Washington
Post.

"High skills immigration issue is by far the Number One thing" on the
Washington agenda of Microsoft and for the electronics industry generally,
and "this is gigantic for us," said Gates.

His comments came ahead of discussion in the Senate on a proposal to have
the number of H1B visas increased from the current 65,000 to 115,000, with
a 20 per cent increase built in annually. The bill will be considered when
Congress gets back from recess on March 28.

The frustration in the industry has been that the existing numbers are far
below the demand and that the visas available for fiscal 2006 were utilised
by August 2005--which means that the programme has been essentially shut
down for 14 months until October of this year.

Gates said he has a hard time understanding the logic of those who
criticise outsourcing of American jobs and yet are reluctant to facilitate
bringing in high skills people who are catalysts for American economic
growth.


www.ZaZona.com
Support this Newsletter and ZaZona.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Subscribe, Unsubscribe or to view the Archive go to:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm





Back to archives