The Dragon Around the Corner

Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:22 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

December 13, 2005 No. 1384

As all of you that get this newsletter know, the Senate passed a major
increase in the number of employment based visas by adding an amendment to
the omnibus spending bill. Increases include 30,000 H-1Bs and 115,000 green
cards per year.

The battle over the increase shifted to the House where there is stronger
opposition to increasing the number of visas. Our best case scenario for
stopping the visa increase would be that the House and Senate would come to
a total impasse on the visa increases. Pressure to pass the budget bill
would force them to put off visa increases until next year.

In the articles included below it would seem that the best case scenario is
being played out. The House is rejecting the Senate immigration provisions.

Unfortunately the possibility of an increase in visas won't end if the
House rejects the Senate bill. I included an excerpt from a NumbersUSA
newsletter by Roy Beck. He has an alternate scenario that could be even
worse than the Senate H-1B increase.

I recommend that you work with NumbersUSA, FAIRUS, Minutemen, and all other
organizations that are trying to stop these immigration provisions from
passing through Congress.

Articles Used

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1068729.php/Guest-worker_bill_faces_rejection
Guest-worker bill faces rejection

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/121305_immigration.html
Rules panel likely to reject guest-worker legislation

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/09/stories/2005120902991100.htm

Advanced degree H-1B visas likely to dry up soon

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

THE DRAGON AROUND THE CORNER ... How to act in anticipation of the almost
certain destructive decisions that the Senate is likely to make when it
gets hold of this bill

Everybody is aware that there is a master plan shared by the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, National Council of La Raza, President Bush, Sen. McCain and
Sen. Kennedy:

a. Once the House passes any kind of enforcement bill, the Senate can pass
anything it wants about immigration and force the two bills into a joint
Conference Committee. And the parties mentioned above plan that the Senate
will approve some kind of giant amnesty, guestworker program and increase
in green cards.

b. The President and Senate leaders will dominate the Conference Committee,
and House leaders will give in, allowing the final bill to have some kind
of amnesty and giant guestworker program.

c. The Senate will easily pass the final bill. And the House will pass it,
too, because the Democrats will like the amnesty and a sufficient minority
of Republicans will like opening borders for their business supporters.

d. The President will sign into law the massive increase in immigration
that he has always wanted.

Well, that's the master plan. One way to keep that nightmare from happening
is to make sure that the House never passes a bill to increase enforcement
against illegal immigration. Then there would be no vehicle on which the
Senate could attach its mischief.

Although there can be some tactical merit in that approach, we believe
these are crisis times that call for bold and risky measures. So, we
advocate moving forward and passing a strong enforcement bill in the House.

The way we beat the President and the Senate in their open-borders goals is
to create a credible threat that an enforcement bill with amnesty/guest
worker attached cannot win in the House or may not even be brought to the
House floor.

Speaker of the House Hastert has generally followed a self-imposed rule
that he won't bring a bill to the floor unless it has support from at least
51% of the Republicans. He may need large support from Democrats to pass a
bill when his own party is divided, but he doesn't like to have the
majority of his party oppose him. Our task is to convince 51% of the House
Republicans to pledge to vote against this bill if it comes back with an
amnesty/guestworker plan. This could push House negotiators to insist on a
bill that includes only enforcement.

If Hastert breaks his style and brings a bad bill back to the House floor,
knowing that the majority of Republicans will vote against it, we are
likely to need substantial Democratic votes to defeat this in the end.

We have great hopes of persuading two to four dozen Democrats to break with
their House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Last winter on the highly
controversial REAL ID Act that outlawed drivers licenses for illegal
aliens, we succeeded in persuading 42 Democrats to join all but 8
Republicans in the landslide approval.

These Democrats are mainly from swing districts in which they have to pay
closer attention than most Representatives to what their constituents want.
Having to explain during next fall's elections why they voted for an
amnesty may cause many Democrats and Republicans to be a little more
sensitive to our point view.

Those of you with Democratic Representatives have an especially important
role to play in making sure we get a sizeable minority to vote our way.

My point in telling you this is not to give away any dark secret.

Mainly, I want you to know how all of this is being played out on the chess
board and that there is a plan under which we can win. I know this though:
We are unlikely to win unless we get incredible participation from all of
you in the activism of the rest of this week.

Thanks,

ROY BECK

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

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1068729.php/Guest-worker_bill_faces_rejection

Guest-worker bill faces rejection
By UPI
Dec 13, 2005, 19:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- President Bush` expansion of the
guest-worker program, seen by conservatives as rewarding illegal aliens,
may be rejected by the House Rules Committee.

Bush`s immigration reform program has deeply divided the GOP base, The Hill
reports. His guest-worker program, supported by business lobbyists, would
allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country temporarily to fill jobs
supporters say are unwanted by Americans.

A spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a conservative who is pushing
to reinforce border security, said: \'The White House has lost a lot of
credibility on this issue, and they are not running the show here.\'

The Senate version of the immigration bill is more comprehensive and more
in line with the White House`s position than the House bill, the report
said.

Meanwhile, the business groups are trying to deal with another bill that
would require all employers to participate in a system under which the
government can check whether an employee or an applicant is in the country
legally.

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

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Business/121305_immigration.html

December 13, 2005

Rules panel likely to reject guest-worker legislation
By Roxana Tiron

The House Rules Committee will find itself in a politically awkward
position when it is expected to reject legislation that parallels a
centerpiece of Presidents Bush immigration reform plan.

Immigration has deeply divided the GOP base, with some conservative
Republicans charging that the presidents call to expand guest-worker
programs rewards illegal aliens.

Bushs proposed guest-worker program, championed by business lobbyists on
K Street, would allow illegal immigrants to stay in the country temporarily
to fill jobs that supporters say are unwanted by Americans.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who reluctantly voted in favor of the immigration
bill in the House Judiciary Committee last week, is planning to introduce
an amendment with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) to address the guest-worker
issue.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenners (R-Wis.)
immigration-reform bill, which cleared his panel last week, did not include
any measures to address temporary workers and illegal immigrants.

"We need a full and open debate. No bill should pass without including
temporary workers and the 11 million illegal immigrants that are already in
the country," Kolbe said in a statement. "We must debate immigration reform
in a comprehensive manner. This half-baked approach will not suffice, and
the American people deserve more. House and Senate leadership and the
president have all said they support comprehensive reform."

Many on Capitol Hill do not think the Kolbe-Berman measure will clear the
Rules Committee, which is convening today and deciding on which amendments
to accept for a floor vote.

"I do not know that [the Kolbe-Berman amendment] is going to get through
the Rules Committee," said Will Adams, spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo
(R-Colo.), a conservative who has been pushing to reinforce border
security.

Tancredo has been critical of the administrations approach on
immigration reform.

"The White House has lost a lot of credibility on this issue, and they are
not running the show here," Adams added.

The administration is not expected to put pressure on the House for the
guest-worker program this time around, Adams said. Instead, he added, it
will wait for the conference report with the Senate.

The Senate version of the immigration bill is more comprehensive and more
in line with the White Houses position than the House bill.

Tancredo sent a letter to the House leadership last week outlining 30
provisions intended to strengthen the immigration bill. Among them are
building a border fence, making an employee-verification system mandatory
and ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to
illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, the business groups are putting together their strategy on how
to deal with Sensenbrenners bill, which it has major concerns about.

The No.1 issue of concern is the provision in the immigration bill that
would require all employers in the country to participate in a system under
which the government can check whether an employee or an applicant is in
the country legally.

Business is waiting to see whether amendments to the bill are allowed and,
if they are, which amendments it could corral votes for. In any case, the
business community is considering key voting either on the entire bill or
on specific amendments, several lobbyists indicated.

Until the amendments are decided upon, the business community is reaching
out to the House leadership to make its concerns heard, said the National
Restaurant Associations John Gay, who co-chairs the Chamber of
Commerces Essential Worker Immigration Coalition.

"I doubt that they would do a wide-open rule," said Bruce Josten, the
Chambers executive vice president for government affairs.

Another business lobbyist said he doubts the Kolbe-Berman amendment will
clear the Rules Committee.

The verification system is now a pilot program that has been limited to
about 3,600 employers and their new hires.

The business community is worried that the employee-verification program
could be expanded from a pilot program to encompass all employers in the
United States. The provision also requires employers to check their
existing employees versus only new applicants. Under the Sensenbrenner
bill, the program would encompass 145 million workers, according to
industry officials.

"The main issues of contention are not the concept of an electronic
computer verification system," said Randy Johnson, the Chambers vice
president for labor, immigration and employee benefits. "The businesspeople
recognize that that is a sound concept, but we are concerned how it is
applied in the bill. It is implemented too quickly." The provision also
enforces "massive increases in civil penalties," Johnson added.

"There have been many practical compliance problems under the [pilot]
program," Josten wrote in a letter to the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.
"While improvements have been made, the extension of this program to a much
broader universe creates serious questions as to its practicality in the
real world."

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

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/09/stories/2005120902991100.htm

Date:09/12/2005 URL:
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/09/stories/2005120902991100.htm

Advanced degree H-1B visas likely to dry up soon
Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee

New Delhi , Dec 8

FIRST, the H-1B visas ran out even before the start of the US Federal
Government's new fiscal, and now the clock is ticking for advanced degree
H-1B visas, as well. Barely two months into the new fiscal 2006, petitions
for the advance degree H-1B visa are inching closer to the 20,000-cap.

The US has approved 14,281 petitions out of the additional 20,000 H-1B
visas allotted for holders of US masters or higher degrees, and 2,417
applications were pending November-end. This takes the total number to
16,698, according to the latest data of the US Citizenship and Immigration
Service (USCIS).

Under current law, while the annual cap in the H-1B category is 65,000
(down from 1.95 lakh in financial year 2003), the Congress has created an
exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from US
universities. H-1B visas give employers access to highly educated foreign
professionals with experience in specialised areas and with at least a
bachelor's degree or the equivalent. Typical H-1B professionals include
computer programmers, engineers, architects, accountants and doctors.

Given the rise in demand for skilled temporary workers in the US, the
current cap of 65,000 H-1B visas was reached even before the start of the
fiscal year on October 1, 2005, prompting organisations such as IT
Association of America (ITAA) to demand a significant increase in the
number of visas for the current and future years.

Last month, the US Senate cleared a provision approved by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, hiking the visa limit by 30,000. Subsequently,
however, the US House of Representatives passed its version of the Budget
Reconciliation Bill which did not include the provisions related to the
recapture of unused H-1B and immigrant visa numbers from previous years as
passed by the Senate, and instead imposed a $1,500 fee increase on
intra-company L-1 visas. Much now depends on the reconciliation between the
US Senate and the House of Representatives, on the issue.

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