Mica's (L)oophole Bill - Part 6
Mica's (L)oophole Bill - Part 6
Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 1:38 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
Here are two more articles on the L-1 debate.
Kim Berry found another (L)oophole in this bill so his letter comes
first.
There is a loophole in L-1, but Mica's bill does not address it. It is
the same loophole in H-1B: there is no requirement that employers first
consider qualified U.S. workers when available. Incredibly, an INS memo
indentified this flaw in 1994:
"There is no requirement in current legislation that
the alien's knowledge be unique, proprietary, or not
commonly found in the United States labor market."
Under this liberal guideline the requirement of "specialized knowledge"
is meaningless - most any job requires some knowledge that is unique to
that job. And INS seems to be viewing any computer programming
background as "specialized."
Mica's bill will continue to allow corporations to fill U.S. positions
with foreign workers - often earning the wages of their "home" country"
- for jobs that could be filled will skills commonly available in the
U.S. market.
Even under the present definition of "specialized knowledge," the INS
should not be admitting Indian programmers as subcontractors on
projects for which they have no prior knowledge - as evident by forcing
Americans to train their L-1 replacements.
Mica should redraft his bill to fix the loophole that is allowing the
displacement of qualified U.S. workers. His current bill does not.
Kim Berry
www.familyinjustice.com/h1b/
Rep. John Mica (R-FL 7th)
www.house.gov/mica
Phone: (202) 225-4035
1994 memorandum: http://www.immigration.com/nafta/section4.html
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,81518,00.html
New Furor Over Visas Reaches Hill
By Patrick Thibodeau
MAY 26, 2003
Legislation introduced in Congress last week would curb the use of
the controversial L-1 visa, which, like its better-known counterpart
the H-1B visa, lets U.S. companies import foreign workers.
The proposal is the first move on IT-related visa issues in what may be
a pivotal year for such legislation.
Unless Congress acts, the H-1B cap is due to drop from 195,000, its
limit for the past three years, to 65,000 in October, the start of the
2004 fiscal year. But the L-1 visa, which has no cap, has become as
controversial as the H-1B.
The L-1 program was designed to let companies with subsidiaries abroad
transfer to the U.S. executives or workers who have specialized skills.
But critics contend that U.S. companies are using foreign outsourcing
firms, known as "body shops," to import IT workers with L-1 visas and
replace higher-paid employees. Last year, the government issued 57,700
L-1 visas.
In his bill, U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) called the L-1 visa a "back
door to cheap labor." The proposed legislation would require that
employees be transferred from subsidiaries and not from third-party
outsourcers.
But Mica's bill may face opposition from all sides.
Mike Emmons, an Orlando-based activist who said he lost his consulting
job because of the L-1 visa, lobbied Mica heavily but said he's
disappointed with the proposed fix.
Emmons said the legislation includes a large loophole that would let a
U.S. company set up shop in another country, hire workers there and
then move them to the U.S.
"This is a pretty minuscule bill," said Emmons.
But Vic Goel, a Greenbelt, Md.-based immigration attorney who
represents high-tech companies, said the legislation could prevent
multinational firms from bringing in foreign IT workers to help clients
in the U.S. For instance, Goel said, foreign workers who played a key
role in developing a particular program may be needed to implement,
service and maintain the software.
"The idea is to find a solution that promotes business and closes the
door on the abusers," said Goel. He added that such a solution could
involve finding a way to differentiate "project-based [work] vs. simple
provisioning of warm bodies to fill seats."
Holders of L-1 visas can work in the U.S. for up to seven years. H-1B
visas let foreign workers take jobs in the U.S. for as long as six
years.
There has been no move yet in Congress to raise the H-1B cap, but that
issue will be discussed at some point by the House Judiciary
Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, a
committee spokesman said. Whether legislation will be introduced is
"unclear at this time," he said.
The Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va.,
which pushed for a higher H-1B cap in years past, hasn't asked Congress
to raise the planned new limit, said Harris Miller, the trade group's
president.
Miller added that he suspects Congress won't want to take up the issue
until employment rates in the U.S. improve.
The strategy of proponents for a higher cap may be to wait until the
65,000 limit is reached, sometime in 2004, before seeking any further
increase, said Miller.
Roughly 79,000 H-1B visas were issued in the government's last fiscal
year, well short of the 195,000 cap.
JUST THE FACTS
The L-1 Visa
NUMBERS: There are currently more than 325,000 L-1 visa holders in the
U.S., up from 203,255 in 1998.
WHO CAN GET IT: The visa is intended to let companies transfer workers
with specialized knowledge into the U.S.
PROBLEMS: Critics say the L-1 program is being abused and functions as
a vehicle for displacing U.S. IT workers with cheap foreign labor.
Source: Computerworld
http://www.theworkcircuit.com/news/OEG20030522S0052
Critics warn new visa bill doesn't go far enough
By Margaret Quan, EE Times
May 22, 2003 (2:03 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.theworkcircuit.com/story/OEG20030522S0052
MANHASSET, N.Y. U.S. Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., introduced
legislation this week aimed at limiting the number of L-1 visas
multinational corporations can use to transfer employees between other
countries and the U.S. or outsource them to third parties.
Mica said the bill, HR 2154, would close "a loophole in current
immigration law and protecting American jobs." The bill prevents
employers from renting employees to third parties once they arrive in
the U.S., a practice Mica said provides U.S. corporations a "back door
to cheap labor."
But critics said Mica's bill would be useless in addressing L-1 visa
abuse and won't make a difference in the hiring cheap, foreign labor to
replace Americans workers.
Norm Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of
California at Davis and an activist on high-tech labor issues, called
the bill "vaporware." "It's just a ruse being used to make the public
think that Congress is really going to address the issue of tech guest
workers as cheap labor, when in fact they want to preserve U.S. firms'
access to cheap labor," Matloff said.
The L-1 visa is one of several non-immigrant visa categories created to
enable corporations to bring in workers from other countries. Visa
holders are called "intracompany transferee" and the maximum stay for
the category is 7 years. According to Mica, there are currently over
325,000 L-1 visa holders in the United States.
Unlike the H-1B visa, a non-immigrant visa that allows companies to
hire foreign skilled workers for their own use, the L-1 visa has no cap
and fewer restrictions.
When U.S. companies started to hit the annual H-1B cap, which was
raised from 65,000 to 195,00 per year in 2000, companies turned to the
L-1 as a way to get around restrictions. As a result, L-1 visa
applications have grown in the last few years, according to Jessica
Vaughn, senior policy analyst at the Center for Immigration Studies, a
Washington-based think tank.
The number of L-1 visas issued rose 51 percent between 1997 and 2001,
from 80,065 to 120,538, according to CIS.
Mica's bill would eliminate abuses like using L-1 visas to replace
several hundred U.S. IT workers at Siemens Information and
Communication Network division in Lake Mary, Fla., in December 2002.
Siemens ICN hired TATA Consultancy Services, an Indian-based job shop,
to provide workers from India to replace American IT workers in
Florida. Siemens ICN even required the U.S. employees to train their
Indian replacements as a condition of receiving their severance pay.
Tata used L-1 visas to bring India employees to its U.S. subsidiary in
Florida. Once the Indian employees arrived, Tata contracted them out to
Siemens.
Still, critics of Mica's bill said the restriction it proposes is no
restriction at all. To get around the new L-1 visa policy proposed by
Mica, Siemens would simply say it was subcontracting the project to a
company like Tata. Then, critics said, Tata could say visa holders were
working solely for Tata, not Siemens, even though visa holders might
make frequent visits to the Siemens site, Matloff said.
Mica's bill is expected to be referred to the House Immigration, Border
security and Claims subcommittee.
A spokesman in Mica's office said the bill has generated a lot of
"positive response," but no other lawmakers have signed on yet. The
spokesman said similar legislation could be introduced in the Senate.
Help to Keep ZaZona.com Online
Donate to the Cause at
http://www.zazona.com/Donations.htm
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe send an email to
Back to archives