Compete America wants a fix for H-1B

Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 8:13 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1809 -- 1/23/2008 >>>>>

Usually when the coalition of mega-corporations called "Compete America"
launches a new initiative to get cheap labor they announce it on their website
or through a press release. At the time of this newsletter I haven't found
anything to confirm the story below, so I asked the author Chris Frates where
he got his information. He emailed me that he first found out about it when he
recently interviewed Robert Hoffman.

Compete America's newest plan is to sneak a "short-term fix" into an unrelated
bill in Congress. The fix, as Hoffman calls it, would make available 300,000
more H-1B visas and 140,000 green cards. The way they figure it, since 1992
there have been 300,000 H-1B visas that were never used so they want them to
be reissued.

There is nothing short term about the effects of allowing 300,000 more H-1B
visas into the U.S., especially considering that the current yearly cap is
85,000. Allowing such a massive infusion of foreign labor into high tech labor
pools will have an immediate and devastating effect on Americans who are
working or looking for work.

Don't think for a second that Compete America will be happy with 300,000
visas, however! This scheme is just a sneaky way of getting all the H-1Bs they
want until they can bribe Congress to raise the cap.

Their website is at:
http://www.competeamerica.org/

For a good spoof of their website go here:
http://www.competeamerica.us/

It's debatable whether visas that weren't issued should be considered a
backlog that can be doled out at a later date, but one thing that's not
subject to debate is that unless the law is changed they can't reissue visas.
H-1B regulations simply don't allow unused visas to be reissued and of course
that's why Compete America wants to sneak a backlog provision into another
piece of legislation.

Compete America is playing games with numbers to come up with that 300,000
figure. The numbers that should be used can be found in press releases like
this one:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/H1-BFY2003.pdf
H-1B Petitions Received and Approved in FY 2003

Count on Compete America to use another set of numbers, however, because
people that read the USCIS statistics closely will discover that there really
isn't a backlog. The cheap labor lobbyists are more likely to use a table
similar to the one that the Wall Street Journal published in 2005 that you can
see by going to this web page:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/wm886.cfm

The H-1B backlog of 300,000 is calculated by taking the difference between the
yearly cap on H-1Bs and the number of non-exempt visas that are issued.
The numbers are erroneous and here is why -- visas issued is not the same as
H-1B petitions approved. Compete America and other H-1B advocates purposefully
mislead the public by omitting the number of exempt visas issued, which is a
significant error. This quote is right off the USCIS
page:

The total number of workers subject to the FY 2003 cap comprised
about two-fifths of the total number approved for H-1B employment.

Let's compare some numbers to see just what is being talked about:

According to the table on the Heritage website, in 2003 the numbers were as
follows:

new visas issued 78,000
yearly cap 195,000
difference -117,000

Those numbers imply that 117,000 less H-1Bs were issued than allowed by the
cap, so Compete America argues that those visas should be reissued. Total all
of these up since 1992 and you get a 310,100 visa difference. It all sounds
compelling, but of course I'm sure all of you know what Mark Twain
said: "There are lies, damn lies - and statistics."

Instead of using tables made by people who push for H-1B visas, let's go to
the source for our numbers. Go to this webpage and you will find out that in
2003 there were 217,340 H-1B petitions approved.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/H1B04Annual_08_7.pdf

The stats on the Heritage page are deceptive because they don't include the
total number of H-1B petitions approved. In order to take some of the lies out
of the statistics, let's correct them to accurately reflect the number of H-1B
petitions approved:

H-1B petitions 217,340
cap 195,000
difference +22,340

CONCLUSION: There were at least 22,340 H-1B petitions issued over and above
the yearly cap, so Compete America is just blowing smoke when they claim that
there is a backlog of visas just waiting to be reissued. You can go back to
1990 up to the present and every single year there is a surplus, not a
deficit!

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

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8014.html
Tech vacancies languish on immigration snag
By: Chris Frates
January 21, 2008 05:29 PM EST

After last year s crushing congressional collapse of comprehensive immigration
reform, any mention of the I-word is enough to send politicians and lobbyists
alike running for the door.

Even so, members of the technology industry are quietly plotting a scaled-back
lobbying campaign to increase the flow of highly skilled immigrants, pushing
arguments that they say will stick with economics and steer clear of politics
-- a tall order in a presidential election year.

"For this Congress, comprehensive reform is too heavy a lift right now.
It s too controversial," said Oracle s chief lobbyist, Robert Hoffman.
"We re now in an election season, and there s a feeling that comprehensive
immigration reform is the third rail in the 2008 elections."

So this year s immigration buzzword is "short term," not "overhaul."

A coalition of trade groups, educators, companies and researchers want to
increase the number of visas available to highly skilled foreign workers.
Companies, especially in the tech sector, have thousands of job vacancies
they ve been unable to fill, said Hoffman, co-chairman of the Compete America
coalition.

"We think there s a false choice between this notion of foreign workers taking
Americans jobs," said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google, a member of
the coalition.

"We like to hire the most talented U.S.-born workers we can find and the most
talented foreign workers we can find," he said, "and we think that helps us as
an American company and helps us succeed as an American company."

Over the past year, more than 50 top executives from TechNet have signed
letters, made calls and attended receptions and meetings with lawmakers to
push for more highly-skilled-worker visas, said Betsy Mullins, a senior
lobbyist with the bipartisan network of technology executives.

This year, Hoffman said Compete America is pushing lawmakers to reissue the
roughly 300,000 highly-skilled-worker visas and 140,000 green cards granted
between 2001 and 2003 that were approved but never used.

The coalition would like to increase from 20,000 the number of highly-skilled-
worker visas available to those with master s and doctorate degrees from
American universities. Coalition partners are also looking to double the one-
year window during which college students and recent graduates can stay in the
country without a visa or green card, Hoffman said.

The strategy is to urge receptive lawmakers, such as Sens. Edward M.
Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Orrin
G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Reps. John B. Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and Ellen O.
Tauscher (D-Calif.), to add the provisions to legislation moving toward
passage, Hoffman said.

Asked why the coalition isn t pushing for a separate immigration bill, Hoffman
said with a laugh, "We saw what happened in the Senate" last year.
But the amendment strategy has also proved difficult. The coalition s attempt
to increase the number of highly-skilled-worker visas failed in a bid to
incorporate it in last year s omnibus spending bill.

Cornyn has been working with the Compete America coalition to boost the number
of visas, but he has not yet decided how best to push the issue this year,
spokesman Brian Walsh said, explaining: "From his perspective, this is harming
our ability to innovate and remain competitive in the global economy."

With economic woes topping this year s congressional agenda, tech companies
hope their message of job creation will resonate. Putting highly skilled
foreign workers in vacant jobs creates more jobs and stimulates economic
growth and tax revenue, Hoffman said.

Still, tech companies acknowledge that achieving even incremental change will
be difficult, particularly in this election year.

"This is ripe for the presidential campaign, and we think that Congress and
the next president have to act decisively to ensure that the U.S. remains
globally competitive, and getting the H-1B [highly-skilled-worker] visa and
green card problems fixed is a big part of that," said Microsoft spokeswoman
Ginny Terzano.

Complicating matters further is the fact that increasing the number of highly-
skilled-worker visas is the political linchpin holding together hope of future
comprehensive immigration reform.

"Everybody has one thing that they keep in the package to move it forward in
the debate, and with immigration, that s H-1B visas," said a tech lobbyist who
didn t want to be identified. "Stripping it away does not allow for the
comprehensive immigration reform that people want."

So it s unlikely either Democrats or Republicans will deal away the debate s
one unifying issue, the lobbyist said.

But Hoffman argues that, because they re asking for only a short-term fix,
there will be plenty of reasons to address comprehensive immigration reform in
the future.

"Immigration is kind of like the common cold," he said. "It s clear we re not
going to cure it, but we can at least deal with its effects this year."

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