To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Mon Mar 4 20:16:43 PST 2013 Tomorrow, yet another congressional hearing on high-skilled immigration. See http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/113th/hear_03052013.html Recall that the other day I said ---------------------------------------------------------------- Whether the choice is deliberate or not, the selection of witnesses for these hearings tend to be heavily weighted toward the industry point of view, only occasionally inviting a mild critic of H-1B or one who is perceived as holding the "safe" view that the "Intels" use H-1B responsibly while the "Infosyses" abuse the program... [In declining the House committee's invitation to me to testify some years ago, I did suggest that [they] invite American (U.S. citizen and permanent resident) programmers and engineers who believe they had been harmed by the H-1B program. The committee did do this a couple of times in that period, but to my knowledge neither the House or Senate has done so since then. That lack is a real loss to the democratic process. Doesn't Congress want to hear from the victims? ---------------------------------------------------------------- Tomorrow's hearing epotimizes this, and in fact looks far worse, in the sense that it is extraordinarily deceptive. Of the four witnesses, three are viewed as very pro-H-1B. The fourth, Bruce Morrison, representing IEEE-USA, is the deceptive case. For those not in the know, Morrison wrote the H-1B law when he was a congressperson back in 1990. In recent years, he has been a lobbyist. See http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/HouseHearing.txt Typical DC revolving door, right? But it's worse than that, far worse, as follows. Back in the 1990s, IEEE-USA was at the forefront of criticism of the H-1B visa. It gave congressional testimony, often spoke publicly on the issue, and so on. A Hill staffer who had been critical of H-1B was invited as a keynote speaker to an IEEE-USA convention. In 1998, the year in which the first H-1B increase was ultimately enacted, among other things the organization set up an outstanding Web site--the Misfortune 500. This consisted of profiles of 500 well-qualified engineers who were having trouble getting work in the field, right in the midst of the Dot Com Boom. But there was a sudden change in 2000. IEEE, which is the IEEE-USA parent organization, put huge pressure on IEEE-USA to back off concerning the H-1B issue. The parent organization is dominated by industry people and academics, who have major vest interests in bringing foreign workers to the U.S., and it basically threatened IEEE-USA with dissolution if they kept up with their opposition to H-1B. IEEE-USA, of course, responded as desired. The Misfortune 500 site was dismantled, and the staffer who had put it up was reassigned (ostensibly temporarily, but of course it was permanent). The organization did continue to say that H-1B had problems, but they started a "green cards, not temporary visas" campaign. Now, as any reader of this e-newsletter knows, I believe that green cards are just as harmful as H-1B. A major component of H-1B abuse is to hire young H-1Bs in lieu of older (35+) Americans. Most of the current EB-series green card sponsorees are young, and this would be even more so under the proposals currently in Congress, which deal with new university graduates. I'll return to this later in this posting, after I discuss the truly outrageous aspect: Morrison's written statement for tomorrow's hearing says: -------------------------------------------------------------------- I am here today in my capacity as a representative of IEEE-U of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc...[The organization] represents over 206,000 engineering, computing and technology professionals and students... The IEEE-USA represents electrical, electronics and computer engineers. While 80% are native born, 20% are immigrants. Student chapters abound, with their mixture of "grown-up here" and "came from abroad" students. But there is a consensus among the membership... -------------------------------------------------------------------- IEEE-USA has been making such statements for years now, that the organization represents its members' views on the foreign worker issue. Yet to my knowledge, the organization has NEVER polled is members on this issue. I know that around 2000, several members tried to get the organization to conduct such a poll. That request was flatly refused. A number of my readers are IEEE-USA members, and I do not believe any has ever been asked his/her opinion on this issue. People join IEEE-USA for various practical reasons, e.g. a generous insurance program, not because they support more green cards. I submit that the overwhelming majority of IEEE-USA members have no idea that Morrison is pushing green card policy in their name. I hereby make my own request: Some of my readers of this e-newsletter are current or former officials/staffers in IEEE-USA. At least one other reader is close friends with Bruce Morrison. If my statement above that IEEE-USA has never polled its membership on this issue is incorrect (or if any of my other statements is incorrect), then please let me know, and I will immediately issue a correction in this space. BUT...if no such poll has ever been conducted, I urge Bruce Morrison NOT to claim in tomorrow's hearing that his recommendations have the approval of the "206,000 members." To make such a claim would be outrageous. Now, back to the age issue. Here I will reproduce part of a posting I made here back in 2006, archived at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/IEEEUSAHastensDemise.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------- A few days ago IEEE-USA President Ralph Wyndrum created quite a stir among activists when he was quoted in a Datamation article as follows: * Ralph Wyndrum, president of the IEEE-USA, a non-profit * organization that describes itself as promoting the advancement * of technology, says many out-of-work IT professionals have * themselves to blame -- not foreign workers. Wyndrum was said to believe that engineers are laid off simply because they don't have up-to-date skills. ("Who Would the H-1B Visa Cap Increase Help?", Sharon Gaudin, Datamation, April 7, 2006, http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/article.php/3597521) An uproar ensued, with people replying that that had been in a continuous process of upgrading their skills throughout their careers. They had been laid off not because of out-of-date skills but simply because employers shun older engineers (they are too expensive, etc.). Wyndrum replied that he had been quoted out of context, and pointed to the the new Innovation Institute established by IEEE-USA. The Institute, according to Wyndrum, ("IEEE-USA Starts Training Institute for U.S. Workers," Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld, March 29, 2006, www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/story/0,10801,109701,00.html), "is part of IEEE-USA's larger effort to help engineers maintain relevant skills and minimize the risk of losing their jobs to offshore workers." That sounds great--until one sees IEEE's intended audience: "The ideal student, said Wyndrum, would be a young advanced-degree holder who is already considered to be among the most prolific of a company's product developers and patent holders." Notice the word "young"! Whose side is IEEE-USA on? Given Wyndrum's background--he's a former AT&T executive--the answer seems clear. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The points in the written testimonies for the hearing tomorrow are pretty much the usual misleading stuff ("Unemployment rates are low," "All that needs to be done is beef up enforcement," "The main abusers of H-1B are the Indian offshoring firms," etc.). However, there is one new idea in there--from none other than Bruce Morrison. The idea is to auction off green cards to employers. In other words, employers would compete with each other to sponsor a foreign worker for a green card, by bidding for the privilege. Interesting idea, but again, remember the age issue is major, and this would do nothing about that. Morrison doesn't give any details, but you can bet that if such a policy were to be implemented, the winning bid--remember, just a one-time fee--would be much less than the employer saves by hiring the foreign worker instead of any older American. Yes, under perfect competition it theoretically should even out, but for lots of reasons this would not be the case here. In any case, the big story here is what appears to be an unconscionable misrepresentation by Morrison. Congress is not likely to take up his green card bidding idea, but the take-away they'll have from his testimony is "America's electrical engineers support expanding the green card program." Norm