Return of H-1B monster

Date: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 10:12 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

November 17, 2004. No. 1133

I'm sending this out as a reminder to all of you to call the Senate
today and send the faxes. If we don't put this monster back in its test
tube we will never be able to stop it. Be sure to also mention the H-2B
increase because we need to keep those jobs for engineers that lose
would rather earn $12 an hour than to starve. We need to stop both of
these increases.

In case you missed Lou Dobbs last night I have also included excerpts
from the transcript. He describes how the omnibus spending bill may
contain a stealth H-1B increase.

Here is a comment by Dr. Gene Nelson, displaced PhD

U.S. economic security is imperiled by a "stealth"
legislative initiative to place a controversial H-1B
Visa limit increase into "must pass" legislation this
week. The way the legislation is constructed, without
a "sunset" expiration date and without numerical limits
means that if passed, it will eventually lead to no
limits on H-1B visas.

Here is a very fair question by Lou Dobbs:

The leadership in Congress is effectively trying to
sneak this [H-1B] in through the use of the omnibus
spending bill.
Isn't that a fair statement?

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1471

Return of H-1B monster

By webmaster - Date: 2004-11-12 15:17:57

by Jim Hightower

Like an outer-space alien from a 1950s science fiction movie, the H
-1B monster is back.

H -1B is an immigration classification that has allowed high-tech
corporations to import hundreds-of-thousands of low-paid computer
engineers, programmers and other skilled professionals from abroad,
rather than paying the middle-class salaries earned by high-tech
workers in America.

These visas have been a primary tool used by CEOs to bust the salary
levels of high-tech jobs -- the very jobs that, we were told, were to
be the source of upward mobility and middle-class opportunity for our
citizens.

At the height of the high-tech boom, greedheaded corporate executives
wailed that they simply could not find enough Americans with the
computer skills they needed, so it was imperative, they said, that they
be allowed to bring in tech workers from India, Russia and elsewhere to
fill the gap. This was pure horsehockey. Far from a shortage of
qualified U.S. workers, people with top-notch skills were practically
begging for jobs ... and being rejected. The industry executives were
creating a false crisis for one reason: They wanted to displace
well-paid Americans with foreign workers who would take a third or less
in pay.

But, horsehockey prevailed. With their campaign contributions and
lobbying clout, they got Congress to triple the number of H -1B visas
issued each year -- and many Americans soon found themselves training
their foreign replacements.

Then came the high-tech bust of 2000-2001, and hordes of workers of all
nationalities were dumped by the CEOs. The H -1B visa levels were no
longer an issue and were quietly dropped. But now that the tech economy
is picking up again, instead of hiring Americans, the CEOs are wailing
the same old tune about "shortages", demanding that Congress give them
more H -1B visas to import cheap workers to fill the new jobs.

To help stop these greedheads from monstrously misusing our immigration
laws, call WashTech: 206-528-6264. ||

Jim Hightower is the best-selling author of "Let's Stop Beating Around
the Bush," on sale from Viking Press. For more information, visit
JimHightower.com.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/16/ldt.01.html

Still ahead here tonight, a glaring loophole could make it even easier
for foreigners to take tens of thousands of American jobs. We're not
talking about outsourcing. We're talking about H-1B and L-1 visas.
We'll have that stunning special report.

Discouraging news tonight for American workers, especially in high
technology. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs
this year to cheap foreign labor markets and to foreigners holding H-1B
and L-1 visas in particular. It now appears that lawmakers will soon
make it possible for even more foreigners to obtain those visas and
thereby putting more Americans out of work.

Lisa Sylvester reports from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The H-1B program limits
the number of visas for specialized foreign workers to no more than
65,000 a year. Business groups have been trying to raise the cap. An
earlier bill stalled in Congress.

But now there's a new possibility: Attach an amendment to the omnibus
budget bill. In Washington, that's as good as gold because the
legislation has to pass, and congressional lawmakers can only vote it
up or down.

MARCUS COURTNEY, WASHTECH: Now they're trying to ramrod it through the
legislative process by attaching it to the appropriations bill. It's
the wrong way, it's the wrong approach, and it's threatening the
livelihood of U.S. high-tech workers.

SYLVESTER: The measure that has high-tech workers worried would exempt
any foreign worker with a masters degree or higher from a U.S.
university from the visa cap.

Immigration reform groups estimate as many as 20,000 new workers would
enter the United States. That's on top of the 65,000 H-1B visa holders
who have already filled this year's allotment.

Pro-business advocates say that's not a bad thing, arguing the country
needs the additional workers.

LARRY PRESSLER, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: We don't have a lot of students
who are willing to go into math and science and engineering, and, if
they do, they want jobs in management or in investment banking.

SYLVESTER: But the U.S. high-tech industry has lost more than 700,000
jobs in the last four years.

ROSEMARY JENKS, NUMBERSUSA: It is just absurd that -- you know, with
the unemployment among high-tech workers at its highest level, it's
surpassed the national unemployment rate for the first time in 30
years, and yet Congress is bringing in more foreign workers to do these
jobs.

SYLVESTER: The omnibus bill could make it to the floor by the end of
this week. By then, it would be too late to make any significant
changes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: H-1B visas have been very popular with employers. The fiscal
year began on October 1, and, by the end of the business day,
immigration officials had enough applications to meet the 65,000 cap --
Lou.

DOBBS: The leadership in Congress is effectively trying to sneak this
in through the use of the omnibus spending bill. Isn't that a fair
statement?

SYLVESTER: Well, I think one of the things that we've seen is that a
lot of little goodies will be attached to the omnibus appropriations
bill -- and this is one example of that -- because you don't have to --
it's essentially an up or down vote, and not many changes are made
after it's presented -- Lou.

DOBBS: Absolutely. Thank you very much.

*** Later in the Show ***

Democratic senators today chose their new leader two weeks after
election day. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada replaced Senator Tom Daschle
who lost his bid for re-election. My guest tonight is a Democratic
senator just elected to her third term in office. Senator Barbara Boxer
of California joins us tonight from Capitol Hill.

Senator, good to have you with us. SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA:
Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: Harry Reid, your new minority leader, you're confident he is the
man?

BOXER: Yes. I've known him since I came to Congress. I got elected to
the house in '82, and he was in that class. It was a very large
freshman class. That was the old days, it's true. Harry has proven
himself to be absolutely a man of his word, a man of principle, a quiet
spoken person with a very strong conviction and a good heart.

DOBBS: And senator, I want to congratulate you on your re- election as
well.

BOXER: Thank you.

DOBBS: Grover...

BOXER: Well, wait a minute. I don't know that Grover Norquist agreed
that a Democrat won that night. But I'm happy to say we did have some
good victories.

DOBBS: I was about to ask you that, senator. Grover Norquist was saying
basically the Democratic Party -- not basically, he is saying it is
toast. And I can count on you, I know, for a counterview to that. My
real question here is, why in the world are the Democrats so filled
with introspection and angst over having lost an election?

Don't people normally just dust themselves off and move ahead?

BOXER: Of course. And we are in the process of doing that. And that's
why I'm so excited to be on your show to talk about the future. But I
think what Grover Norquist is saying is, his wish and his dream that we
would just go away. But you look at the vote, 57 million people voted
for John Kerry. 60 million people or so voted for George Bush. You look
at the Senate votes. Democratic senators got almost 4 million more
votes than Republican senator candidates running. So the fact is, we're
still out there. And we're fighting not only for those people who
supported us, but for our country.

DOBBS: Let's go through some of the issues, senator. Because there are
some critical issues facing us.

BOXER: Sure.

DOBBS: Neither your presidential candidate, nor the Republican
presidential candidate, the president, wanted to deal with the issue of
immigration. The administration and Congress, with its cooperation,
with Democrats and Republicans, pushed the central free trade agreement
over to the side so there wouldn't be any unnecessary attention to it
during the election. A host of issues like that. Where will the
Democrats engage?

BOXER: Well, I think we've engaged in a very good bill called the
AG-Jobs bill, which I think you know about because you're such an
expert on this. Here you have Larry Craig and Ted Kennedy, folks from
different ends of the spectrum, coming together with the growers, with
the labor people, everybody coming together to get hard-working people
who really have a good record in this country on a path to legality.
And we think that's a good way to start this process.

But you're right. It's a very, very tough issue, because the businesses
want the labor, and obviously, there are folks desperate to make a
living. And you put it together, and it spells problems for us, for
sure.

DOBBS: How about the working man and woman in this country? We just
reported that it appears now that the spending omnibus bill will carry
with it an increase in the number of H-1, B and L-1 visas, without an
up or down vote on that issue, per se, which with 700,000 technology
workers out of -- without a job in this country...

BOXER: Yes.

DOBBS: ... I mean, what in the world is Congress doing here?

BOXER: I'm very upset about this, because the fact is, I'm very willing
to listen to my high-tech people when they say they need more workers.
But there has to be a test made so we make sure we're not taking jobs
away. And, of course, if I might say, not to kiss up to you, your
brilliant work on outsourcing really brought that issue into the homes
of the American people.

DOBBS: You're very kind.

BOXER: Well, I mean it sincerely. This was an issue I raised a number
of times in my race, and it resonated with people. I know personally
people who are training their replacements, and we now -- and talk
about the Democrats, we should have gotten the word out. We were
fighting to stop outsourcing of federal dollars, so that when we gave
money to states, they couldn't go outsource the jobs. And the
Republicans killed it when it came to the conference committee.

So it's a heck of an issue, and it's an important issue. And we're
going to be out there on that issue.

DOBBS: Senator Barbara Boxer, we thank you very much. And, you know, I
kind of like the way you think, as you're my guest. You can come on and
compliment me anytime you want. I appreciate it, Senator. Thank you
very much.

BOXER: No, but I do mean that. Thank you, Lou.

DOBBS: Same back at you.

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