CompeteAmerica Sends Letter to Congress -- Part 1

Date: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 5:57 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1689 -- 5/08/2007 >>>>>

CompeteAmerica and its corporate backers started a new a lobbying campaign
to get an H-1B and green card increase into the Comprehensive Immigration
Reform bill, which is due out of the Senate any day now. Their recent press
release makes it very clear what the new agenda is:

For many U.S. employers, the H-1B is an interim step to permanent
resident status. The shortage of employment-based permanent resident
visas, known as EB green cards is just as severe as the H-1B visa
shortage.

Norm Matloff had a conversation with Rep. Grassley's office that is very
disturbing, especially when put together with the information in the
CompeteAmerica announcements. The bottom line: we can count on an H-1B
increase to be included in the Comprehensive Immigration Bill and there
will probably be a few superficial elements of the Durbin/Grassley bill
thrown in to placate the public.

Be sure to read Matloff's recent newsletter here:

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

If CompeteAmerica can't get the Comprehensive Immigration bill to pass,
they will be more than happy with the alternatives.

The provisions included in Title V of the "STRIVE" Act, which was
recently introduced by Representatives Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and
Jeff Flake (R-AZ), as well as the Securing Knowledge Innovation and
Leadership (SKIL) Bill introduced in the Senate and House by
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ)
respectively, represent positive steps toward meaningful reform.

It's worth noting that CompeteAmerica considers the STRIVE and SKIL bills
to be reform. No mention was made of the Durbin/Grassley bill that actually
has some reforms.

The letter they sent to Congress has an interesting mix of signatories from
125 companies and organizations. I immediately checked to see if IBM and
Intel had signed this monument to hypocrisy, and indeed they had. I know a
rat when I smell it, and this one stinks to high heaven!

Please read the previous newsletter on project LEAN to understand why the
signatures of IBM and Intel are of special interest.

Allow me to be blunt about what is going on here -- employers are firing
American workers while at the same time lobbying for increases in
employment based visas. They have officially declared war on the American
middle class, and they are using the immigration system as the weapon of
choice. The documents are online for all to see but we can't count on the
morons in the mainstream media to understand the hypocrisy unless we hit
them over the head with it! We must fight this propaganda by presenting the
facts.

I titled this newsletter "Part 1" because I need all of you to help with
some research. We need to correlate all of the signatories with recent mass
layoff announcements, or to statements by their executives that there are
dire shortages of qualified American workers.

Please send me any information you can dig up about the signatories, but
read these conditions before you go to work:

1) I can only use published articles. Chat isn't useful and blogs are
questionable unless they are well respected.

2) If you find online articles, be sure to copy both the link and the text.
Keep in mind that either one of them can disappear before I have a time to
read them, and you can't assume I can find the link just because you sent
the text.

3) I am only interested in recent material. For layoff announcements, 6
months is probably fair game. For shortage shouting I think a year is OK.

4) Be sure to let me know if you want to be included on a list of
contributors to this research effort. I would be happy to list your name,
city, and state. I will assume you wish to remain anonymous unless told
otherwise.

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

http://www.competeamerica.org/news/alliance_pr/20070507_actionurged.html

Eric Thomas or Frances Cox
202-822-9491

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2007

Action Urged on H-1B Visa and EB Green Card Reform This Year

More Than 125 Companies and Associations Send Letter to Congress Calling
For Permanent Fix of Employment-Based Visa Programs as Part of
Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Washington D.C. -- Compete America, along with more than 125 leading
companies, education organizations and trade associations, today sent a
letter to Members of Congress to urge swift action on reforms to the
counterproductive and outdated H-1B visa and employment-based (EB) green
card programs.

In the letter, the organizations cite the unprecedented announcement by the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that the FY 2008
allotment of H-1B visas was met on the very first day applications were
accepted as evidence of the critical need for reforms this year. "This
clearly demonstrates that reform can no longer wait. The status quo
imperils Americas innovation leadership and competitiveness, allowing
foreign competitors to benefit from the best minds the world has to offer
-- many of whom have been educated right here in the United States."
USCIS announced last week that the FY 2008 20,000 cap on H-1B visas for
advanced degree holders has been reached, also in record speed.

The organizations also pointed to worsening backlogs in the EB green card
system as further evidence of the need for reform this year.

"For many U.S. employers, the H-1B is an interim step to permanent resident
status. The shortage of employment-based permanent resident visas, known as
EB green cards is just as severe as the H-1B visa shortage. The EB green
card program is essential if we are to retain highly skilled professionals
who are already here contributing to our economy. However, most EB green
card applicants face delays in excess of five years, and these delays are
getting worse, not better. Furthermore, massive, multi-year backlogs in
the green card program are causing a massive recruiting and retention
crisis for employers."

Compete America supports provisions in the "STRIVE" Act (H.R. 1645) as well
as the Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership (SKIL) Bill (S.
1083/H.R. 1930), which has been introduced in the Senate and House, as
representing positive steps toward meaningful reform.

The organizations concluded: "We cannot take our position as the worlds
innovation leader for granted. As Congress moves through the process of
comprehensive reform of our immigration laws in the coming weeks, we urge
your support for provisions that address our nations highly-skilled
immigration crisis. We believe doing so will encourage job creation,
increase economic growth, and enhance U.S. global leadership."

For a complete list of signatories and to learn more information on how
highly educated immigration benefits America, please visit
www.competeamerica.org.

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

http://www.competeamerica.org/hill/letter_congress/letter_5-7-07.pdf

May 7, 2007
Dear Member of Congress:
On behalf of Compete America, a coalition of corporations, educators,
research institutions
and trade associations, we urge Congress to put an end to our nations
growing crisis in
highly-skilled immigration by fixing our broken H-1B visa and
employment-based (EB) green
card systems this year.
The H-1B program provides employers with visas for recruiting highly
educated foreign
professionals into our workforce. The program grants only 65,000 visas per
year the same
amount provided when it was first established in 1990, plus an additional
20,000 visas for
those holding an advanced degree from a U.S. university. This arbitrary and
anachronistic
limit does not reflect the reality of todays global economic environment
and increasingly
works against our nations competitiveness.
As you may know, last month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS)
announced that the fiscal year 2008 allotment of H-1B visas was met on the
very first day
applications were accepted. This clearly demonstrates that reform can no
longer wait. The
status quo imperils Americas innovation leadership and competitiveness,
allowing foreign
competitors to benefit from the best minds the world has to offer many
of whom have been
educated right here in the United States.
This year USCIS received more than two applications for every available
visa. Thus,
employers who filed on the first day have less than a fifty percent chance
of securing a visa
number for the foreign talent they seek. Instead, they had to rely on a
lottery process to
secure their foreign employees. Moreover, if they lose the lottery this
year, the earliest they
will be able to place their prospective employee on the payroll is October
1, 2008 a full 18
months from now.
For many U.S. employers, the H-1B is an interim step to permanent resident
status. The
shortage of employment-based permanent resident visas, known as EB green
cards, is just as
severe as the H-1B visa shortage. The EB green card program is essential if
we are to retain
highly-skilled professionals who are already here contributing to our
economy. However,
most EB green card applicants face delays in excess of five years, and
these delays are getting
worse, not better. Furthermore, massive, multi-year backlogs in the green
card program are
causing a severe recruiting and retention crisis for employers.
Coalition Members
AeA
Altria
American Council of Engineering
Companies
American Council on
International Personnel
American Immigration
Lawyers Association
Analog Devices
Business Roundtable
Business Software Alliance
CompTIA
Electronic Industries Alliance
Genentech, Inc.
Global Personnel Alliance
Google, Inc.
Hewlett-Packard Company
Information Technology
Association of America
Intel Corporation
International Rectifier
Microsoft Corporation
Motorola Inc.
NAFSA: Association of
International Educators
National Association of
Manufacturers
National Semiconductor
Oracle Corporation
QUALCOMM Inc.
Semiconductor Equipment
& Materials International (SEMI)
Semiconductor Industry
Association
Society for Human Resource
Management
Software & Information Industry
Association
Sun Microsystems Inc.
TechNet
Texas Instruments
The Coca-Cola Company
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The provisions included in Title V of the STRIVE Act, which was
recently introduced by
Representatives Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), as well as the
Securing Knowledge
Innovation and Leadership (SKIL) Bill introduced in the Senate and House by
Senator John Cornyn
(R-TX) and Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ) respectively, represent positive
steps toward
meaningful reform. Specifically, these reforms would ease access to visas
for students in key fields
of expertise in our universities, streamline the process of moving talented
college graduates into
permanent residence and a stable place in our workforce, and establish H-1B
and green card limits
that are consistent with our countrys economic security. We urge
Congress to enact these
provisions.
We cannot take our position as the worlds innovation leader for granted.
As Congress moves
through the process of comprehensive reform of our immigration laws in the
coming weeks, we urge
your support for provisions that address our nations highly-skilled
immigration crisis. We believe
doing so will encourage job creation, increase economic growth, and enhance
U.S. global leadership.

Sincerely,

3Com Corporation
Accel Partners
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
AeA
Akamai Technologies
Altria Group, Inc.
American Council of Engineering Companies
American Council on International Personnel
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Analog Devices
Applied Materials, Inc.
ARCH Venture Partners
Association of American Universities
Authoria
Avaya
Axcelis Technologies
Benhamou Global Ventures, LLC
Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce (DE)
Broadcom Corporation
Business Roundtable
Business Software Alliance
Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Case New Holland
Catoosa County Chamber of Commerce (GA)
Centro Civico of Amsterdam, Inc.
Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber (OH)
Cisco Systems Inc.
College and University Professional Association
for Human Resources (CUPA-HR)
Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce (NE)
CompTIA
Computer Task Group, Inc.
Corning Incorporated
Custom Fab Solutions
Cymer, Inc.
Deloitte & Touche USA, LLP
Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce (VA)
Eaton Corporation
eBay
Electronic Industries Alliance
Emulex
Exxon Mobil Corporation
Florida Chamber of Commerce
Genentech, Inc.
Global Personnel Alliance
Google, Inc.
Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce (TX)
Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce (VA)
Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce (FL)
Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce (WA)
Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce (LA)
Harmonic
Hewlett-Packard Company
IBM Corporation
Indiana Chamber of Commerce
Information Technology Association of America
Information Technology Industry Council
Ingersoll Rand Company
Intel Corporation
International Rectifier
Intuit
Jenkins Peer Architects
Johnson City/Jonesborough/Washington County
Chamber of Commerce (TN)
Kalido
Keane, Inc.
KLA-Tencor Corporation
Kodak
Lancaster Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PA)
Liz Claiborne Inc.
Madrona Venture Group
Maryland Chamber of Commerce
Mason City Area Chamber of Commerce (IA)
McAfee, Inc.
McAllen Chamber of Commerce (TX)
McInnis Contracting Services
MetroWest Chamber of Commerce (MA)
Miasoli
Microsoft Corporation
MKS Instruments Inc.
Molecular
Motorola, Inc.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
National Association of Manufacturers
National Association of State Universities and
Land-Grant Colleges
National Semiconductor Corporation
Netflix
Nokia
Nokia Siemens Networks
Norfolk Area Chamber of Commerce (NE)
Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
OPNET Technologies, Inc.
Oracle Corporation
Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce (NV)
Palm, Inc.
Plattsburgh-North Country Chamber of
Commerce (NY)
Powershift Ventures
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
QUALCOMM, Inc.
Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications
Red Hat
Reed Elsevier, Inc.
Roper Corporation
Ruston-Lincoln Chamber of Commerce (LA)
salesforce.com
Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce (CA)
Seagate Technology
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials
International (SEMI)
Semiconductor Industry Association
Silicon Valley Bank
Skillsoft
Society for Human Resource Management
Software & Information Industry Association
Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce (SC)
Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce (MO)
Sternhill Partners
Stillwater Chamber of Commerce (OK)
Stuart/Martin County Chamber of Commerce (FL)
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce (CA)
Sybase, Inc.
Symantec
Synopsys, Inc.
Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber (WA)
TechNet
Technology CEO Council
Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Texas Instruments
The Coca-Cola Company
The McGraw-Hill Companies
T-Mobile
Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce (NY)
TwinWest Chamber of Commerce (MN)
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
VeriSign
Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Volvo Group North America
Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce (WI)
World Wide Packets
Xilinx, Inc.
Yahoo! Inc.

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