Should H-1B visa limit be raised?

Date: Monday, June 04, 2007 7:18 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1702 -- 6/04/2007 >>>>>

In the past the Tucson Citizen has run very biased articles in favor of
increasing the H-1B cap without opposing opinions. While I don't agree with
their conclusions, at least they provided space for differing views.

Miano's op-ed is excellent, but in terms of quantity the score is 3 for the
increase H-1B side, and 1 for the reform H-1B side. Not exactly fair, but a
big improvement over their previous articles.

Each guest op-ed as well as the main articles allow public comments. The first
link below will give you links to all the others.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/53494.php
Should H-1B visa limit be raised?

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/53491
Our Opinion: Reform vital before rise in foreign pros for high-tech

Guest Op-eds

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/53495
Con: Employers subvert program, use it to import cheap foreign labor JOHN
MIANO

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/53496
Pro: Visa needed to help her realize her potential, make America stronger
YUKIKA AMMA

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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/53494.php

Should H-1B visa limit be raised?

Published: 06.04.2007
A largely ignored facet of immigration policy reform is the H-1B visa, which
would undergo a quota increase under the proposed STRIVE Act now being
debated.
But does the United States really need more foreign high-technology
professionals than those already imported? And does the H-1B visa program need
reforms to better protect both our citizens and sometimes underpaid foreign
workers? Below are two sides of the issue from writers directly affected by
the H-1B visa program.

PRO: Visa needed to help UA student reach her potential, and make America
stronger

CON: Employers subvert program, use it to import cheap labor

OUR OPINION: Reform H-1B system before raising visa limit.

What is an H-1B visa?
An H1-B visa allows foreign-born white-collar professionals to work in the
United States for up to six years before returning home or applying for a
green card.
The program, established in 1990, is used most often by high-technology
workers.
An immigration reform bill being debated in the U.S. Senate would increase the
annual quota from the current 65,000 visas to 115,000.additional information
Top 5 national origins of H-1B visa holders India 49% China 9.1% Canada 3.6%
Korea 3.3% Philippines 2.8%
Source: Cal State-Chico

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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/53495

Con: Employers subvert program, use it to import cheap foreign labor JOHN
MIANO
Published: 06.04.2007
The H-1B visa is an employer-sponsored, nonimmigrant guest worker visa for
people in occupations that generally require a college degree.
While nearly every occupation imaginable is represented in the H-1B program,
about half of the visas go to computer professionals.
There is an annual quota of 65,000 H-1B visas. Exemptions to this limit have
been added, so the program has grown to about 117,000 visas a year.
This April, employers exhausted the entire visa quota for 2008 on the first
day that applications were taken.
Now they want more.
Industry is engaged in an aggressive lobbying and publicity campaign for more
H-1B visas.
This campaign spins the H-1B program as visas for the "highly skilled"
workers in fields where U.S. workers cannot be found.
Examining the data shows something completely different: The H-1B is nearly
exclusively used to import cheap labor.
The most offensive feature of the H-1B program is a well-known loophole in the
law that allows employers to replace U.S. workers with H-1B guest workers.
Over the years, companies such as AIG, SeaLand and Dun & Bradstreet have
openly and legally replaced hundreds of U.S. workers at a time with lower-paid
H-1B guest workers.
Industry has blocked all attempts to close this loophole.
The biggest use of the H-1B program is to support moving technology jobs to
foreign countries.
India's commerce minister recently called H-1B "the outsourcing visa" and went
on to explain why more H-1B visas were needed to increase the number of jobs
moved from the U.S. to India.
More H-1B visas means more jobs being shipped overseas.
H-1B workers are supposed to be paid at least the prevailing wage. However,
the law allows the employer to determine the prevailing wage, and the law
limits the approval process to checking whether the form is filled out
correctly.
Employers can claim nearly anything as the prevailing wage, and it will be
approved.
Employer prevailing wage claims for computer workers average $16,000 a year
below the median U.S. wage for the same location and occupation.
With the huge discrepancy between U.S. and H-1B wages, it is no wonder
employers are clamoring for more visas.
The law now allows employers who use the Department of Labor as the prevailing
wage source to make skill-based prevailing wage claims.
The Department of Labor defines four skill levels and a prevailing wage for
each.
In 2005, employers using this system classified more than half of the workers
as being at the lowest skill level, with just 5 percent at the highest.
When employers want more H-1B workers, they are "highly skilled." But when it
comes to determining their pay, these very same workers become low skilled.
There is also the problem of numbers. Since 2000, employers have imported
enough H-1B computer workers to fill every computer job in America, and
industry says this is still not enough.
H-1B needs to be cleaned up, not expanded.
The H-1B statutes have been designed to allow employers to abuse the program
with impunity and to make it nearly impossible to punish violators.

What should be done?

Close the loophole allowing the replacement of U.S. workers with H-1B

workers.

Require employers to recruit U.S. workers before filling a job with H-1B

guest workers.

Require employers to pay H-1B workers a wage that reflects what highly

skilled workers actually earn.

Eliminate restrictions on enforcement.

If the H-1B program were limited to highly skilled people who were paid the
real prevailing wage, industry would not come close to using up the quota.
Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., has introduced legislation in the House
to clean up the rampant abuse in the H-1B program.
Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have introduced similar
legislation in the Senate.
As it stands now, the quota is the only thing that stands between the H-1B
program and total chaos.
PRO: Visa needed to help UA student reach her potential, and make America
stronger OUR OPINION: Reform H-1B system before raising visit limit.John
Miano, a lawyer in Summit, N.J., is the founder of the Programmers Guild and
has testified before Congress on H-1B visas several times.

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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/53496

Pro: Visa needed to help her realize her potential, make America stronger
YUKIKA AMMA
Published: 06.04.2007
It seems America is no longer the land of opportunity. Noncitizens face
limitations on working in the U.S. to achieve their "American dream."
I am one of the foreigners who wanted a challenge in this most powerful
country in the world.
But I will go back to my home country soon because of the unavailability of my
work visa.
Actually, there were companies and positions in the U.S. that would have
supported me in acquiring an H-1B visa.
However, their job descriptions and salary ranges didn't suit my needs.
I am originally from Shizuoka, Japan, which is very similar to Tucson in size
and the suburban atmosphere.
In 2002, I made my dream come true: I came to the U.S. to attend school.
To save money for tuition, I worked very hard for two years after graduating
from high school.
International students are required to pay expensive tuition and fees in order
to complete our degrees.
When I was in community college, I paid $3,000 just for tuition. Plus, I
needed another $3,000 for room and board.
Fortunately, I received a full scholarship for my junior and senior years at
the University of Arizona.
Without it, I needed approximately $13,000 in annual tuition to complete my
bachelor's degree, excluding room and board expenses.
Besides, international students are not allowed to work.
In order to make the most of our opportunities to study in the U.S., we work
very hard to build a strong academic record.
Maintaining good grades and learning new subjects are critical for us to avoid
ruining our expensive investment.
Without having enough sleep, we make 100 percent efforts in school work,
community service and club activities.
I achieved a grade point average of 3.94. A GPA doesn't tell everything.
However, listening to lectures or writing papers in a second language requires
far more work compared with American students, who can balance their time and
enjoy parties.
Before and after graduation, I sent risumis to many companies throughout the
States.
They showed my strong GPA, the fact that I am trilingual and my professional
experience as a marketing intern at one of Tucson's high-tech companies.
Although many employers showed an interest in me, they did not hire me,
because I am ineligible to work in the U.S.
I am qualified enough for their positions. But I am not skillful enough to go
through the complicated immigration procedure to obtain an H-1B visa.
In order to avoid complicated immigration procedures, most companies prefer to
hire someone with less qualifications rather than skilled individuals without
valid work permissions in U.S.
"If I were American." These were my words.
"Why don't you marry an American guy?" This was the joke frequently made to
me.
We foreign students invest an enormous amount in our education, learn fluent
English and earn degrees in special fields.
We are ready to repay the American community by some means.
It is understandable that companies in the U.S. should educate the community,
invest in society and give financial stability and community growth by
employing citizens born in the U.S.
But I believe the reason the United States is powerful and attractive is
because this country has diversity.
The United States should continue exchanging benefits, including human
resources, with foreign countries.
Without doing so, the U.S. will not be able to maintain its appeal to the
outer world and could lose its diversity.
Is it necessary for America to reject all talents simply because he or she was
not born in the U.S.?
CON: Employers subvert program, use it to import cheap labor OUR OPINION:
Reform H-1B system before raising visa limit.Yukika Amma attended Arizona
Western College in Yuma in 2002-04, then transferred to the University of
Arizona, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in communications in May
2006. She speaks Japanese, English and Spanish.

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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/53491

Our Opinion: Reform vital before rise in foreign pros for high-tech

Published: 06.04.2007
High-tech companies in the U.S. need more highly skilled foreign workers to
compete.
That fact is bolstered by the 150,000 applications filed April 1 for only
65,000 H-1B visas for such workers this year.
The low cap is "a catastrophe," says Robert Breault, president of the
Breault Research Organization of Tucson.
But while the number of H-1B visas should be increased, so should the
accountability required of employers.
We support a higher cap because a sound, skilled work force helps the U.S.
economy and our technology, while encouraging domestic companies not to
move to foreign lands.
However, our nation also is strengthened when our own citizens are first in
line for such jobs - and when education of U.S. citizens takes priority
over educating foreigners.
While no one wants U.S. businesses to move away, neither should we spur an
exodus of our current or potential highly skilled workers in favor of their
foreign counterparts.
Yet at some levels, that's what is happening.
About 95 percent of our engineering undergraduates are Americans, for
example.
But half of advanced degrees in engineering are granted by U.S.
universities to foreign nationals.
Some critics say the intensive hiring of foreigners has created a
disincentive for U.S. students to pursue higher levels of education in
fields such as computer technology.
In addition to the 65,000 H-1B visas a year, another 20,000 are given to
those with U.S. graduate degrees.
And no limit is imposed on such visas for employment by foreigners at U.S.
universities or at nonprofit and government research entities.
Critics also contend that too many employers fail to pay foreign workers
the prevailing wage, as required.
Even economist Milton Friedman has called the H-1B visa program a form of
subsidy.
So even though a sufficient number of H-1B visas must be made available to
keep the United States competitive, Congress also needs to heed critics'
concerns about the law. (See Guest Opinion by John Miano, at right)
One of Americans' top concerns about low-skilled, illegal immigrants is
that they are driving down wages by taking far lower pay than U.S. workers
would.
That same concern must be applied to highly skilled foreigners who work
here legally and temporarily under H-1B visas.
The prevailing wage for engineers, computer programmers, scientists and
other specialty professions must be maintained.
Otherwise, we risk losing the competitive edge created by our own
citizenry, thus putting our science and technology solely in foreign hands.

That's not a risk America can take.

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