patrick.net

When it comes to the H1-B I see little difference between the Dems and Repubs. Isn't Zoel Lofgreen, whose district includes Silicon Valley, the number one H1-B shill in Congress?

Houston, we have a problem?
Lofgren said that the average wage for computer systems analysts in her district is $92,000, but the U.S. government prevailing wage rate for H-1B workers in the same job currently stands at $52,000, or $40,000 less.
“Small wonder there’s a problem here,” said Lofgren. “We can’t have people coming in an undercutting the American educated workforce.”

(March 15, 2000) A bipartisan group of Representatives introduced yet another bill to address the shortage of high tech workers. The HI-TECH Act, introduced by Rep. Lofgren and Rep. Dreier increases the annual cap on H1B visas to 200,000 for FY 2001, 2002, and 2003, and addresses science and technology education.

Related Documents
HI-TECH Act, 3/15/00.
Statement by Rep. Lofgren, 3/15/00.
Summary by Rep. Lofgren, 3/15/00.
This bill, HR 3983 IH, is titled the "Helping to Improve Technology Education and Achievement Act." Its acronym is the HI-TECH Act. Its lead sponsor is Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), Chairman of the House Rules Committee. However, it is supported by a bipartisan group of Representatives, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA).

http://www.techlawjournal.com/employ/20000315.htm

I agree that there has been some abuse of the H1-B VISA category. It certainly is not simple to define a category for those that truly have unique skills...

There is an easy way to circumvent the H1-B limits. Drop the H and reverse the letters; then, claim dyslexia if caught.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Palmer, a principal consultant at Infosys, alleges that Infosys was affected by the limited number of H-1Bs in 2009 and began using B-1s to circumvent H-1B requirements.

"It certainly is not simple to define a category for those that truly have unique skills…"

We already have it. It's called the O-1 Visa.

Obama also called for more H1-B Visas during his last State of the Union. This is indeed a bipartisan issue and it is wrong to lay all of the blame on one party. The only true anti H1-B people in Congress are Bernie Sanders (a Socialist) and Chuck Grassley (a Republican).

Obama also called for more H1-B Visas during his last State of the Union.
I thought you were makin' that up, but from the text of the speech:
Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense...
And let’s stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business, who could be further enriching this nation.
Reading the text, that last sentence could be tied only to the 'children of illegal immigrants' section, but the first sentence is pretty unequivocal.

"Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense…"

That is precisely the part I was referring to. Even though he did not actuually say "H1-B," it is obvivous what he is referring to. The new move in Congress is to try to "staple" Green Cards to the degrees of immigrants who get science or engineering degrees. Hopefully no "comprehensive immigration reform" bill passes because any such bill will have this provision in it.

HW, We've been around this block before, but I'll have another shot. What is wrong with stapling Green Cards? It totally does away with H1-B indentured servitude. Not that I want all that competition -- even at 'market rate' salaries. I do agree that if we staple green cards the H1-B should be eliminated.

"What is wrong with stapling Green Cards? It totally does away with H1-B indentured servitude."

It does NOT. Congress wants to "staple" green cards IN ADDITION to handing out H1-B Visas. Basically, they want to pour gasoline on the fire in order to please their Silicon Valley puppet masters who want more cheap labor.

"Last time I checked, H1-B visas CREATE jobs, technically."

How do they create jobs? Please explain.

just another term for outsourcing.

H1-B holders are all employees and, by law, MUST be sponsored by a company. They cannot come here, start a business, and hire people. That would require a Green Card. By law, an H1-B cannot create a single job.

Even my wife, who came from Italy and worked for a time under H1-B, despises the program.

If you need workers in a field, give them Green Cards, period.

Tying it to a specific workplace is deliberate creation of a "company town". The workers owe their visa to the company and consequently will put up with anything, and release shoddy products and keep their mouths shut until they can find another means to a Green Card. There are tons of abuses.

Not to mention it's just raging hypocrisy. Give us your tired, your poor.... oh wait I mean give us your engineers and scientists... but only if we get to treat them like slaves.

Shrek,

You're a butthead, a raving lunatic, a ConservoBot with nothing useful to contribute, and you think keyboard diarrhea equals brilliant debate. I hear your Facebook wall is covered with pictures of you fornicating with farm animals. I dated your Mom once, she was a hosebeast.

Flag this and see it gets deleted.

Vicente says

Flag this and see it gets deleted.

This almost makes me want to unignore to see how shirk elicited this. Note, I say almost...

I have always thought that HI-B visas are good and that we needed more. But I know this is controversial it's an emotion packed issue.

Our universities thrive on the fact that a lot of foriegn students come here. I guess it goes hand in hand with our ever shrinking world (or more cynically with "globalization.")

I persoanlly have witnessesd some of the talent that we get going to school here, learning our technologies and the way we do things here. Naturally some are going to take their knowledge back to their home country, but I have to believe that talent can often be well utilized here.

If it is abused, by locking people into contracts where they are paid much less than a US citizen with the same training, then I would rather see legislation that addresses that, rather than diminishing the number of visas.

I say increase the number of visas, but with some parameters relative to the talent the recipient brings. How can bringing more talent in to our economy and in to our gene pool be a bad thing?

"I have always thought that HI-B visas are good and that we needed more."

That's because the people telling you that personally benefit from more visas.

"How can bringing more talent in to our economy and in to our gene pool be a bad thing?"

Because there simply are not enough jobs for both Americans and foreigners. For every additional foreigner in the U.S., that is one more unemployed American.

A must watch video - Corporate Lawyers training HR reps on how to find a basis to reject Americans and get and keep H1-Bs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Okay, maybe I'm wrong.

Ummm the job already existed. Whether it's staffed by a foreigner or an American, the Visa certainly didn't create it.

*deleted* - H1-Bs being discussed here.

"At least with large firms, the job would not likely exist if it couldn’t be staffed by a foreigner."

That is complete nonsense. In countless cases, American workers have been laid off and immediately replaced with H1-B workers. In many of these cases, the American workers had to train their H1-B replacements in order to get their severance pay.

HousingWatcher says

The new move in Congress is to try to “staple” Green Cards to the degrees of immigrants who get science or engineering degrees. Hopefully no “comprehensive immigration reform” bill passes because any such bill will have this provision in it.

You better hope comprehensive immigration reform passes, because it will be a huge boost to our economy. I posted this earlier:

The best study on the benefits of better immigration policy:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/01/raising_the_floor.html

From the executive summary:

Comprehensive immigration reform generates an increase in U.S. GDP of at least 0.84 percent. Summed over 10 years, this amounts to a cumulative $1.5 trillion in additional GDP. It also boosts wages for both native-born and newly legalized immigrant workers.

Mass deportations would raise wages slightly for unskilled native workers, but would hurt those who have skills and those who modernize our economy, again, from the executive summary:

Mass deportation reduces U.S. GDP by 1.46 percent. This amounts to $2.6 trillion in cumulative lost GDP over 10 years, not including the actual cost of deportation.2 Wages would rise for less-skilled native-born workers, but would diminish for higher-skilled natives, and would lead to widespread job loss.

H1-B require some work, and no one wants to give them up easily either. Even if it means paying a price (as a worker) to get a green card and takes years.

Give out green cards and we'll have people coming and going, coming for awhile, then going back home to setup a business after they've made the necessary contacts and/or figured out they could do something better at home. Make them really work for it, and this becomes their home.

Pulling highly skilled people out of their native countries for FREE to the US? Getting them to stick it out and not take off with their jobs? great!

Start thinking about how much it costs to get 1 good PHD citizen.

How many idiots, fools, mcdonalds flippers, maids, and other $10/hour citizens do you have for every PHD citizen?

If it costs the country roughly 500,000 to raise a kid to 18, how many kids do you need to raise to get 1 PHD citizen? 50? 100? 200? The country gets other useful citizens obviously, some white collar workers and other highly paid professionals, but really loading up your country with highly skilled labours?

Every time we get 1 PHD to move into the country, we're basically taking 25M from another country and putting it here.

Those people will earn decent wages and pay great taxes. Super bonus! Now not only are stealing a 25M asset from a country, they're now in their prime and pumping out tax dollars! Woo!

ChrisLA says

just another term for outsourcing.

Except that jobs get outsourced to the U.S. too. Think auto manufacturing. German, Korean, and Japanese companies all outsource production to us. For light trucks, it's because of the chicken tax, but not necessarily for other cars.