IP: L.A. Times - U.S. Tech Firms Abusing Visa Program

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2001 03:54:18 -0500
> From: Tom Rombouts <rombouts () compuserve com>
>
> Hi Dave -
>
> FYI, this is from today's L.A. Times  I have copied in the entire article
> for your convenience.
>
> Tom Rombouts, Torrance, CA
>
>
>
> November 21, 2001
>
> From:  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-112101visa.story
>
> U.S. Tech Firms Abusing Visa Program, Critics Say
>
> By JUBE SHIVER Jr. , Times Staff Writer
>
> WASHINGTON -- Amid a massive wave of tech layoffs, U.S. firms obtained
> government approval to bring in a record 163,200 foreign workers under a
> controversial program that critics say is being abused to hire cheaper
> overseas talent.
>
> Although the number of visas approved under the H-1B program fell short of
> the 195,000 allowed annually, the hiring binge in the fiscal year that
> ended Sept. 30 has caused a furor in an industry that has experienced more
> than 600,000 layoffs over the last 10 months.
>
> "At a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are out of work, many
> employers are rubbing salt in the wound by hiring foreign workers," said
> Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration
> Reform, a Washington group that has long sought to curtail immigration to
> the United States.
>
> The record applications for foreign workers--the majority of whom take jobs
> in the high-tech industry--come more than a year after Silicon Valley
> mounted a multimillion-dollar lobbying effort to persuade Congress to
> expand the program to satisfy skyrocketing demand for highly skilled
> workers.
>
> Executives from companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc., Intel Corp. and
> Motorola Inc. successfully argued that if the "new economy" were to
> continue to boom, it was crucial for the government to admit more engineers
> and other skilled workers.
>
> But by the time Congress raised the H-1B visa limits from 115,000 to
> 195,000 in October 2000, the tech boom was already waning.
>
> Industry officials say they are eager to hire Americans. But they contend
> that even with this year's layoffs, the number of U.S. workers with
> technical skills isn't large enough to fill all the job vacancies.
>
> "The dot-com boom may be over but we are still in the middle of a skills
> shortage," said Theresa Cardinal Brown, manager of labor and immigration
> policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington. "Every organization
> in the country has a need for information technology workers," including
> those in areas "that are still growing, like manufacturing, finance and
> health care."
>
> The surge in worker visas over the last 12 months is due in part to pent-up
> demand for engineers of all types as U.S. colleges and universities have
> graduated fewer than needed. In addition, companies rushed to hire more
> foreigners last year before a $500 visa application fee increase was
> imposed by the INS in December 2000.
>
> Murali Krishna Devarakonda, a software engineer and board member of the
> Immigrants Support Network, a Budd Lake, N.J.-based group that assists H-1B
> visa holders, said the INS' statistics are misleading.
>
> He said the INS data indicate only the number of approved visa
> applications, not the number of foreign workers who actually come to the
> U.S. He also speculated that "most of the petitions were filed before this
> economic slump started."
>
> But demand for visa applications has remained robust through the economic
> downturn. Besides the surge of applications this summer, the INS still has
> 29,000 pending applications that it has shifted into the current fiscal
> year.
>
> Daniel M. Larson, director of government relations for Texas Instruments
> Inc., where H-1B workers number 800 and make up about 3% of the work force,
> said the market for electrical engineers is still extremely competitive.
>
> "We are dependent on H-1B workers and consider them a valuable part of our
> company," said Larson, whose company has laid off 2,500 workers in the last
> year. He did not have figures on whether any H-1B workers were part of the
> layoffs.
>
> For some technology workers laid low by the economic slump, the
> explanations provide little consolation.
>
> "The level of anger over this program in the technology industry just keeps
> rising," said John Miano, chairman of the Programmer's Guild, a Summit,
> N.J., trade group that represents software engineers.
>
> Gene Nelson, a divorced father of two, alleged that most of the H-1B visa
> holders working at Boston-based Genuity Inc. kept their positions this
> summer when he and 500 workers lost their jobs at the Internet
> infrastructure services provider.
>
> "Big companies basically want a work force of independent contractors . . .
> they can pay low wages to," said Nelson, who made $49,000 a year. If it
> weren't for the H-1B program, Nelson said, he would still "have a job and
> be making more money."
>
> Genuity did not return calls seeking comment.
>
> The rancor has spilled over to Congress, where at least one lawmaker has
> introduced legislation that would scale back the controversial program.
>
> The H-1B visa program was created by the Immigration Act of 1990. It
> allowed companies to hire foreign workers with hard-to-find technical
> skills. Roughly 60% of H-1B visa holders are in computer programming and
> other information technology fields, according to a report released last
> year by the General Accounting Office.
>
> Workers are supposed to earn the same salary and benefits as their
> American-born counterparts.
>
> Amid the tight job market, there are concerns about abuses of the H-1B visa
> holders themselves. A few immigrants have begun campaigning for reform of
> the program, citing instances of employers paying low wages and threatening
> to seek the deportation of foreign workers who complain.
>
> The GAO--which found that foreigners were offered a median starting salary
> of $45,000 last year--said there is little policing of the H-1B program by
> the INS.
>
> Devarakonda, of the Immigrants Support Network, agreed with the GAO's
> assessment. "The current system is certainly flawed," he said. "The
> government doesn't have the resources to police" H-1B.
>
>
> [ end - TWR ]


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