IEEE-USA endorses Specter Bill

Date: Thursday, April 13, 2006 12:58 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

April 13, 2006 No. 1460

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA) has
officially endorsed the immigration bill that Sen. Specter introduced to
the Senate. Their president, Ralph W. Wyndrum, sent a letter to Specter and
the Judiciary Committee to praise the bill. If you recall, the Senate
didn't pass the Specter bill but will take it up in less than two weeks.

>>> IMPORTANT <<<
I recommend that you read the previous newsletter titled: "Push for Green
Cards and F-4 visas - April 12, 2006 No. 1458" before proceeding with this
one. That newsletter contains very important background information for
this one.

To understand why IEEE-USA is so pleased with the Specter bill, we must
look at some of the numbers. This is a tally of the number of visas Specter
is proposing:

Visa Total Increase per Year

H-1B 100,000
F-4 unlimited
H-5,H-2C 400,000+
GC 150,000
Unused GC 195,000

F-4 and H-5 are new visas that would be created if Specter's bill passed.

GC are employment based green cards. The unused green cards from previous
years will be issued as a one time giveaway.

For those of you not familiar with the IEEE they are the largest
organization of professional engineers. Their membership includes many from
academia, science, computer IT, and other technical fields. This is from
their website at:
http://www.ieeeusa.org/about/default.asp

Our vision is to serve the IEEE U.S. member by being the
technical professional's best resource for achieving life
long career vitality and by providing an effective voice on
policies that promote U.S. prosperity.

If you got this far you are probably wondering how IEEE-USA could be so
stupid. Could they be a bunch of dumb geeks that can't see beyond their bag
of Fritos and can of Dr. Pepper? The answer isn't a simple yes or no.

In the not too distant past, IEEE-USA was one of the first engineering
organizations to come out strongly against the H-1B program. That all
changed in the year 2000. IEEE international, which is the parent
organization, put tremendous pressure on IEEE-USA to adopt a globalist
viewpoint. In the view of IEEE it was more important to serve their members
worldwide than worrying about the problems its U.S. engineers were
experiencing. IEEE operates mostly with corporate money because the dues
cannot cover the operating expenses. IEEE-USA capitulated very quickly when
IEEE threatened to cut their funding.

The final sellout of IEEE-USA occurred when Washington lobbyist Paul
Donnelly was hired to implement a new policy to support instant green
cards. For more information on this sordid story click on these two links:

http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Skunks.htm#IEEE

http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Skunks.htm#IRC

In the letter below, IEEE-USA president, Ralph W. Wyndrum, throws his
support to the Specter bill. The letter contains one disclaimer:

In view of the substantial increases in permanent employment-based
admissions that will result from the above changes, and absent the
inclusion of any reforms needed to fix the badly-broken H-1B
temporary work visa program, IEEE-USA strongly opposes Title IV
provisions calling for an immediate increase in the numerical H-1B
cap from 65,000 to 115,000,

It's worth noting that IEEE-USA is willing to support the Specter H-1B
increase if an unspecified number of reforms are included. You can bet that
Specter can appease them with some loophole-laden regulations. Even if H-1B
wasn't increased, the number of new visas would be catastrophic to the
American workforce.

IEEE purports to support the idea that more American students should take
engineering and yet the Specter bill will make it very difficult for
students to find jobs while they are going to school. Foreign students can
work on a program called OPT, or Optional Practical Training. This is
usually a fancy term for interning, which is increasingly important to for
college students to have if they want to be hired upon graduation.
Extending the period of time foreign students can get OPT will mean that it
will be far more difficult for American students who will have to compete
to find intern positions.

We support Title IV proposals to extend the allowable duration of
Optional Practical Training for F-1 foreign students from
12 to 24 months

The most likely scenario is that the Specter bill will be passed with no
changes in H-1B. The IEEE-USA letter will be used as a propaganda piece as
proof that engineers and other types of techies want more foreign workers
to compete with, and of course they will use it to show that all of us
think there are shortages of Americans that have the brains and education
to program computers.

This is a tragic betrayal of America's engineers that should not be
forgotten or forgiven.

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

http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/POLICY/2006/031506b.pdf

[The same letter was sent to all Members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee.]

15 March 2006
The Honorable Arlen Specter
Chair, Committee on the Judiciary
711 Hart Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Re: Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act Provisions

Dear Senator Specter:

As a long-time proponent of balanced reforms in Americas legal
immigration system, IEEE-USA is very
encouraged by the inclusion of substantive improvements in temporary
student and permanent, employmentbased
admissions programs in the draft Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act
currently being considered
by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We support Title IV proposals to extend the allowable duration of Optional
Practical Training for F-1 foreign
students from 12 to 24 months and to establish a new F-4 visa program for
foreign nationals pursuing
advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and
related fields at American colleges
and universities. Draft bill provisions that would expand employment-based
immigrant admissions programs
by raising numerical limits on permanent admissions (from 140,000 to
290,000); excluding immediate
family members from the limit; recapturing unused immigrant visas from
prior years and exempting
advanced degrees professional from the cap are even more important .Taken
together, these new student
admissions and employment-based immigrant visa provisions will make it much
easier for aspiring advanced
degree professionals to study and work temporarily in the United States
and, if they choose to do so, to adjust
to legal permanent resident status on a fast-track to full-fledged U.S.
citizenship.

In view of the substantial increases in permanent employment-based
admissions that will result from the
above changes, and absent the inclusion of any reforms needed to fix the
badly-broken H-1B temporary work
visa program, IEEE-USA strongly opposes Title IV provisions calling for an
immediate increase in the
numerical H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000, an automatic escalator mechanism
in future years and an
unlimited exemption for foreign nationals with advanced degrees in STEM
fields from U.S schools. Having
established an unlimited exemption for advanced degree professionals in
immigrant admissions programs,
we see no need to do so in the non-immigrant H-1B program.

The attached list of critical studies and reports from key Federal agencies
including the General
Accountability Office, Inspectors General at the Departments of Labor and
Homeland Security and the
White House Office of Management and Budget points to significant
weaknesses in the H-1B program that
must be corrected in order to ensure that U.S workers are not adversely
affected and H-1B workers are not
exploited. As the Administration concluded last year, the program has major
flaws that leave it vulnerable to
fraud and abuse that should be fixed statutorily.

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public
policy interests of more than
220,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members
of the IEEE. IEEE-USA is part
of the IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society with
360,000 members in 150 countries. For
more information, please contact Vin ONeill at (202) 530-8327 and/or go
to http://www.ieeeusa.org.

Sincerely,
Ralph W. Wyndrum, Jr., Eng.Sc.D.
President, IEEE-USA

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