Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 23:09:17 -0700 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: industry lobbyists begin major campaign to raise H-1B cap To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Any time you see a bunch of newspaper and magazine editorials that call on Congress to raise the H-1B, you can count on more open industry lobbying efforts to follow. The reason, of course, is that the industry lobbyists are the ones who put the editors up to writing those editorials in the first place. Well, it has begun, as the enclosed Computerworld article reports. Those in Congress who do the industry's bidding usually seek some sort of cover to hide it, such as burying the H-1B increase in an omnibus appropriations bill. This year they'll have the perfect cover, the pending bill on illegal immigration. The illegal immigration issue is such a draw in the press--advocates for the illegals have already succeeded in getting the term "immigration" to be taken to mean the illegal kind--that no one will notice the H-1B increase. And worse than that, even the part of the bill which is ostensibly about illegals may end up including worker types who are now covered by H-1B. (See http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/MajorChangePoint.txt for my previous comments.) The industry lobbyists will have a bit tougher time in making their pitch this year. In the past one of their major selling points has been a claim that not enough Americans pursue Master's and PhDs. It's a phony claim for a number of reasons (I went into detail in my posting, http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.html/Archive/ProposedMSPhDExemption.txt), but it's always worked, so much that last December Congress established a special H-1B 20,000-visa category for foreign nationals who had MS/PhDs from U.S. universities. Given the industry lobbyists' rhetoric, one would think that those 20,000 visas would be snapped up right away. For example, one of the lobbyists had told the LA Times, Nearly half of the people hired on H-1B visas have graduate degrees, while only 5% of the U.S. population has the same level of education, said Thom Stohler, vice president for workforce policy for the American Electronics Assn. Those statistics are very misleading. For example, a lot of the H-1Bs with graduate degrees are post docs at universities, which are exempt from the cap anyway. But guess what? After all the hullaballoo on this new 20,000-visa category, it hasn't been used up after all. Only about half have been used so far. This is not what the industry lobbyists were telling us. As Ron Hira points out in the Computerworld article: Moreover, if U.S. companies were indeed in need of highly skilled foreign workers, the 20,000 visas available for graduate students at U.S. universities should have been used up quickly, said Hira. If they were hiring the best and brightest, that would be the first category to go. That should really undercut the claims the industry has been making, such as Stohler's above. But in a press release, also enclosed below, an industry lobbying group says there is "every indication" that the 20,000-visa category will be used up by the end of fall. I wouldn't put it past the industry to deliberately direct their hiring towards those ends. I've also enclosed an editorial from Immigration Daily, an e-newsletter for immigration lawyers. It's interesting how open they are in bemoaning the fact that the filling of the H-1B cap will kill their business. Indeed, the same publication has stated, undoubtedly correctly, that H-1B and employer-based green cards form the core of most immigration attorneys' business. It will be interesting to see how aggressively the organizations critical of H-1B will fight all this. Since illegal immigration has become the central issue for immigration-reform organizations, I doubt that they will spend much time on the H-1B provisions. IEEE-USA has always been a question mark. Groups like the Programmers Guild may also find it difficult to be heard in the roar on illegal immigration. I must say that this statement still rankles: Opponents argue that the H-1B visas are used to facilitate offshoring of IT jobs, as well hold down tech wages. Both parts of the statement are true. Yes, the H-1B program is used to facilitate offshoring, and yes, by swelling the labor force, H-1Bs hold down tech wages. But that second part--whose phrasing was deliberately crafted by IEEE-USA--misses the point. Instead of saying, "hold down wages" they should say "reduce job opportunities for Americans." Indeed, all the feedback I am getting from programmers and engineers is that the only reason there has been even a slight improvement in the job market in the last year or two is the reversion of the H-1B cap from 195,000 to 65,000. If the cap goes up again, the job market for Americans will go down again. Norm http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/labor/story/0,10801,103883,00.html Update: H-1B visa cap reached; IT groups may press for more They arent sure how many more visas theyd like to see News Story by Patrick Thibodeau AUGUST 12, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - WASHINGTON -- High-tech trade groups will likely push Congress to increase the H-1B visa cap following todays announcement by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) that it has already reached the 65,000 H-1B cap for the 2006 fiscal year - the earliest point ever at which the cap has been used up (download PDF). Reaching the H-1B cap means that employers who need H-1B visas for workers may have to wait more than year before they can receive any additional visas under the program. Its becoming increasingly difficult for the best talent in the world to come to the U.S., said John Palafoutas, vice president of the tech industry group AEA in Washington, who said IT industry groups have been meeting with congressional leaders to figure out whats the best way to proceed on the issue. Palafoutas said its possible that a market-based solution could be crafted that would include automatic triggers to increase the cap if there is a strong demand for H-1B visas. H-1B visas are used to bring skilled workers into the U.S. in a variety of occupations, and are heavily used by high-tech companies. The industry groups arent saying how much of an increase in the visa limit they may seek this year, but Bob Cohen, spokesman for the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va., said, It should be significant. I think its a real problem, and the longer we put off addressing it the less competitive we will be, Cohen said of the cap. This is the earliest the H-1B visa program has hit the cap prior to the start of the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, according to Christopher S. Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. The U.S. set a cut-off date of Aug. 10, and federal officials will use a computer to randomly select the applications that arrived on that day until the cap allotment is met, said Bentley. Employers are not completely out of options. Congress increased the cap by 20,000 late last year but limited those visas to foreign graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degrees. As of early this month, 10,379 visas had been applied for under this program, said Bentley. Vic Goel, an immigration attorney in Greenbelt, Md., said the caps quick exhaustion is a sign that the economy is doing well, and obviously, should be taken as a sign that we dont have enough visas. Goel said it means that employers will be shut out from getting additional visas for the next 14 months, until the start of the 2007 federal fiscal year. One critic of the H-1B program, Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and vice president for career activities at the IEEE-USA, questioned claims that reaching the cap so soon is an indication of need. Hira said the 2006 visa limit was hit before companies have even hired new workers -- and they cant use the visas until the start of the new fiscal year. It seems to indicate that companies are planning ahead for positions that dont exist right now, which highlights the fact, contrary to conventional wisdom, that they are searching for Americans first, Hira said. Moreover, if U.S. companies were indeed in need of highly skilled foreign workers, the 20,000 visas available for graduate students at U.S. universities should have been used up quickly, said Hira. If they were hiring the best and brightest, that would be the first category to go. Until two years ago, the cap had been set at 195,000. Opponents argue that the H-1B visas are used to facilitate offshoring of IT jobs, as well hold down tech wages. Businesses say that because so many U.S. graduates are foreigners, the visas are needed to hire workers with the right skills. The 65,000 cap is actually 58,200 because 6,800 of the total number of visas have been set aside for workers of Singapore and Chile under trade agreements. -----------------IMMIGRATION DAILY FROM ILW.COM------------------ August 15, 2005 http://www.ilw.com/lawyers/immigdaily/digest/2005,0815.shtm 1. COMMENT H-1B Crisis, Who's To Blame Today's USCIS announcement that the H-1B FY 2006 cap has been reached comes fast on the heels of the DOS's bleak EB visa forecast (see comment 8/12/05 ID). With employment-based options disappearing quicker than you can blink an eye, immigration law firms are essentially closed for any new business. Unfortunately, employers across the country are the hardest hit with no available legal options for hiring help. How did it come to this? Clearly, pro-immigration advocates have been unable to shape an effective post 9/11 pro-immigration message which resonates with America. This has allowed the anti-immigrationists to control the content and style of the immigration debate, translating into significant influence by the anti-immigrationists on the immigration agenda before Congress. Pro-immigration advocates realize that another H-1B battle cannot be won and have bet the farm on a comprehensive immigration package. They hope that this all-in-one immigration bill will solve all our immigration ills (including the H-1B cap) in one fell swoop. While we agree with the pro-immigrationists that comprehensive immigration reform is very likely over the next six months, immigration law firms will have to hang in there for a very rough time until Congress acts on this burning issue. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 12, 2005 Contact: Eric Thomas 202/822-9491 2006 H-1B Visa Cap Is Reached Before Start of Fiscal Year Compete America Cites Need for Further Immigration Reform Washington, D.C. The announcement today by the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) that the FY'06 allotment of H-1B visas has already been met was cited by Compete America as evidence that further immigration reform is urgently needed. "Congress averted a situation that would have slowed our nation's economic recovery last year when it created an exemption for up to 20,000 foreign students with master's degrees or higher granted by U.S. universities from the annual H-1B cap. That was crisis control and we are deeply appreciative, but today's announcement by CIS illustrates that a more fundamental problem exists," said Lynn Shotwell, Executive Director of the American Council on International Personnel. "We're nearly two months away from the start of the fiscal year and we've hit the general H-1B cap. Every indication is we will use up all the 20,000 exemptions by the end of the fall." H-1B visas allow employers to have access to highly educated foreign professionals who have unique experience in specialized areas and who have at least a bachelor's degree or the equivalent. Many of these foreign nationals are employed in scientific research, medicine, technology and education. Under current law the program is capped at 65,000, down from 195,000 in FY 2003. In November 2004, Congress created an exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from U.S. universities. The 2005 cap was reached on October 1, 2004 – the first day of the Federal government's new fiscal year. Today's announcement that the H-1B cap for 2006 had been reached indicates acceleration in the demand for highly educated foreign professionals who play an important role in keeping the U.S. economy growing and U.S. jobs in America. "Highly educated foreign nationals have a long history of contributing to America's economic success. American immigration policy must reflect this fact," said Sandy Boyd, National Association of Manufacturers Human Resources Policy Vice President and Compete America Chair. She stressed, however, that a more fundamental solution is needed. "We need to do more as a nation to encourage American students to pursue degrees in math, science, engineering and technology disciplines. America has a long tradition of growing its own talent while welcoming it from across the globe. Government policy needs to reflect that tradition," she concluded. Compete America (www.competeamerica.org) is a coalition of more than 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations concerned about legal, employment-based immigration and committed to ensuring that the United States has the highly educated workforce necessary to ensure continued innovation, job creation and leadership in a worldwide economy.