To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Thu Oct 31 09:03:45 PDT 2013 Sometimes there is a topic that I have no interest in covering in this e-newsletter, but about which I receive so much e-mail that I have to give in and say, "All right, all right, here is my take on the subject." That is the case with the recent major fine imposed on Infosys for misuse of B-1 visitors visa. I have long criticized the hoopla given to such cases as scapegoating, attempts to distract attention from the fact that abuse of immigration policy (H-1B, employer-sponsored green cards etc.) pervades the ENTIRE tech industry, NOT just the Indian bodyshops such as Infosys. The Indian firms hire at a less-skilled level of worker and yes, sometimes do violate the rules, but why is that any different from mainstream U.S. firms using industry-installed loopholes to hire foreign students from U.S. universities instead of equally-qualified U.S. citizens and permanent residents? Abuse is abuse. I even wrote a Bloomberg op-ed on this, titled "Stop Blaming Indian Companies for Visa Abuse," http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-26/stop-blaming-indian-companies-for-visa-abuse.html In it, I accused Senator Schumer and the other "Gang of 8" senators who crafted the Senate immigration reform bill of engaging in scapegoating of the Indian firms, in order to enable the large American firms to continue their abuse of work visas. The good senator insisted that Bloomberg give him space to reply. (Of course, his "reply" didn't address any of the points I had made.) I have particularly cautioned activists who seek to tighten up H-1B policy to avoid focusing on the bodyshops, and indeed ignore them altogether, since focusing on those firms is playing right into the industry's hands. See http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/DiggingTheirOwnGraves.txt My points in that posting were vividly illustrated yesterday, when I was informed that lobbyists pushing for an expansive immigration policy are actually CITING the Infosys fine as reason to SUPPORT the Senate bill, which greatly EXPANDS the H-1B program. The theme of the high-skilled immigration portion of that bill is, in essence, "We're clamping down on the Bad Guys, the Indian firms, so we can give more visas to the Good Guys, the mainstream U.S. companies." That's a completely false premise. Some of you may recall that when there was a big fine of the Indian bodyshop Computech a few years ago, I predicted that the industry lobbyists would also CITE that fine, again in order to distract attention from the abuse done by the mainstream U.S. firms. That prediction came true: http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/PascrellJohnsonDebate.txt Sorry, folks, I just have nothing to say about the Infosys fine. Norm Archived at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/InfosysSettlement.txt