Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 23:01:22 -0700 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: LAT times editorial urges expansion of H-1B To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter As I have mentioned many times, the industry lobbyists constantly meet with newspaper editorial boards, urging them to run editorials in favor of expanding the H-1B program. These are "trophies" that the lobbyists can show to Congress, saying, "Seeing, there is a groundswell of popular support for increasing the H-1B cap." Compete America, probably the most active industry lobbying group today, proudly displays the editorials on its Web page, at http://www.competeamerica.org/editorials/index.html It is sad that groups on the other side, such as the Programmers Guild, don't do the same. That leaves an editorial vacuum, in which the industry lobbyists rush in with their propaganda. The enclosed editorial from the Los Angeles Times is a perfect illustration. I'll just mention a few points: # ONE OF THE UNITED STATES' greatest economic assets is its ability to # attract and stimulate the world's most innovative minds. High-skilled # immigrants have long played a key role in the country's technological # prowess. But that magnetism is being threatened by inadequate visa Only a tiny percentage of H-1Bs are "the best and the brightest." You can see it, for instance, in their salaries: In fiscal year 2003, 75% of the computer-related H-1Bs made less than $73,000, this is a field in which top talents make well over $100,000. Contrary to the LAT's statement above, very few of the major technological advances in the field have been made by immigrants; see my university law journal article for details (http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/MichJLawReform.pdf). Most H-1Bs are not PhDs, but of those who are, the vast majority are concentrated in the lower-ranked universities (see my CIS article, http://www.cis.org/articles/2006/back506.html). # (one-third of all doctorates in science and engineering awarded in the # U.S. go to foreign-born students). Most computer-related H-1Bs don't have a PhD (the PhDs tend to be the biology post-docs), and the ones that do are on average of lesser talent, as noted above. We have no shortage of engineers with graduate degrees. On the contrary, many are being laid off. Starting salaries for new Master's grads in engineering, adjusted for inflation, have been flat since 1999, clearly showing that we have no shortage. (Again, see my CIS article for details. There is insufficient data available at the PhD level.) # And though enforcement is less than perfect, H-1Bs do mandate that # immigrants receive the same wage as qualified Americans. This is egregiously misleading. Recently, the GAO held a hearing on enforcement of the H-1B prevailing wage requirement. At the time I noted that (a) it's a nonissue, because the fundamental problem is the huge loopholes in the definition of prevailing, NOT the enforcement, and (b) the industry lobbyists would exploit the fact that the GAO found only a small percentage of violations. Note carefully: OF COURSE there were only a small number of violations, because the loopholes allow the employers to underpay the H-1Bs while being in full compliance with the law. I said that the industry lobbyists would exploit this, by saying that the small percentage of violations of the law shows that the system is working. On the contrary, the law itself is the problem, but people won't get that. Sure enough, you see it right here. The LAT editorial staff has bought into this myth. # The Senate has been considering a bill, both as part of comprehensive # immigration reform and separately, that would...extend the grace # period at the end of a student visa from one year to two... The "grace period" they are referring to is called Optional Practical Training. The original purpose of OPT was to give the foreign student a chance to supplement his school learning with some practical work experience before returning home. However, its actual use by students is exactly as described in the editorial, as a "grace period" so that the student does not fall out of legal status while looking for a job after graduation. This gives the student up to a year to find an employer who is willing to sponsor him for an H-1B visa. (OPT does not require a job offer. The student merely must be in the process of looking for a job in his field.( So, the current bill would extend that "grace period" from one year to two. Of the tens of thousands of LAT readers who read this editorial, no more than a handful will catch the glaring contradiction here: If there really is such a labor shortage, if these students really are "the best and the brightest," if the industry is so anxious to hire them--then why would it take TWO YEARS for them to find a job???? This illustrates a similar point I've made about the F-4 section of the legislation: The authors of the legislation know full well that there is no labor shortage. And keep in mind that the authors of the legislation were the American Immigration Lawyers Association, not congressional staffers (this is well known in DC, and was stated in print at least once). What this does is give AILA members even more business, as it will allow even the weakest foreign students a chance to eventually find some job and thus generate more visa business for the lawyers. But there's still more than that: It enables employers to treat the foreign workers as indentured servants for an even longer period of time than under the present system. The employer can first have the foreign worker work under OPT for two years, and then work six more years as an H-1B. Even if the bill's provisions for increasing the green card quotas are enacted (and some people insist to me that the industry and/or the AILA don't really want them to be too big, lest the period of de facto indentured servitude be shortened), this gives a mechanism for counteracting such a change. Coming on the heels of the highly biased LAT article on H-1B of Jule 3 (http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/LATimesNoDelve.txt), this editorial really indicates either strong bias or severe sloppiness on the Times' part, quite a disappointment. Norm http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-ed-visa24jul24,1,413063.story EDITORIAL High Skill, Low Priority Though it's making fewer headlines, reform of high-skilled immigration is also urgently needed. July 24, 2006 ONE OF THE UNITED STATES' greatest economic assets is its ability to attract and stimulate the world's most innovative minds. High-skilled immigrants have long played a key role in the country's technological prowess. But that magnetism is being threatened by inadequate visa policies and this year's volatile immigration debate. The H-1B visa, good for six years, is the main legal means for employers to bring skilled and specialized workers from abroad. College grads make up 98% of H-1B recipients; 48% hold advanced degrees; and a large portion work in technological R&D. They supplement a native-born workforce that earns an inadequate number of science degrees (one-third of all doctorates in science and engineering awarded in the U.S. go to foreign-born students). At the height of the dot-com boom, Congress raised the cap for H-1Bs to 195,000 per year, though that quota was never reached. Since then, the cap has fallen to 65,000. Next year's limit was filled within the first two months of eligibility, far earlier than ever before. Because the 2006 fiscal year begins in October, that leaves a gaping 16-month hole during which no business can hire skilled foreigners. This policy discourages talented international students from staying in the U.S. after graduation. Besides the 65,000 H-1Bs, those with recent advanced degrees from U.S. institutions can compete for an additional 20,000 visas. That's only a tiny percentage welcomed from one of the most dynamic segments of society. And those who apply typically have to leave the country one year after graduating, because that often comes before the next H-1B batch is doled out. H-1B opponents argue that the visas are abused by the tech sector to suppress labor costs, thereby displacing American jobs. But both Silicon Valley and the Southern California aerospace industry complain of labor shortages, while a national unemployment rate persistently under 5% suggests the economy needs all the brains it can get. Today's H-1B engineer is tomorrow's green-card-holding entrepreneur, creating jobs that might otherwise be shipped overseas. And though enforcement is less than perfect, H-1Bs do mandate that immigrants receive the same wage as qualified Americans. The Senate has been considering a bill, both as part of comprehensive immigration reform and separately, that would increase the H-1B quota to 115,000, extend the grace period at the end of a student visa from one year to two and more than double the annual quota for high-skilled green cards (permanent residency for workers and their families) from 140,000 to 290,000. This would drastically reduce the multiyear bottleneck facing many desirable immigrants. Congress should decouple this sensible bill from the looming train wreck of immigration reform. The next generation of tech innovation could depend on it. ----- End forwarded message -----