Posted on 11/20/2015 9:30:32 AM PST by ConservingFreedom
Last week, a bipartisan pair of senators, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), introduced a pro-American H-1B reform bill aimed at ending the chronic abuses of the long-compromised guest-worker program. The timing could not have been better. Not only has the New York Times just begun a new series of reports on H-1B abuse, but also just released is Michelle Malkin's latest tour de force Sold Out which skewers the program and looks to be one of the more important books this presidential cycle. Even traders on Wall Street think the Grassley-Durbin bill's serious. H-1B outsourcer Tata Consulting declined 3 percent last week after it was introduced.
Numerous provisions of the bill would offer big changes to the status quo. Sections 101(b) and 121 would require H-1B-using companies to make a good faith effort to hire American professionals first. Contrary to popular belief, this has never been a requirement under the program. It does currently apply to H-1B-using companies seeking to obtain green cards for their existing H-1B employees, however, this is a smaller part of the overall problem. As H-1B expert, Norm Matloff has written, this change would "bring an absolute sea change to the business of importing foreign programmers and engineers." Companies wishing to import foreign professionals would now be required to list available positions on a Department of Labor website for 30 days before submitting a visa petition. Matloff guesses this alone would shrink H-1B usage by "maybe 70-80 percent." Such a requirement would finally confirm whether or not a "skills shortage" really does exist. Recently exited Democratic presidential candidate, Jim Webb agrees such claims from industry are bogus telling a trade paper in 2007, "I do not support guest worker programs...I do not believe the myth of the tech worker shortage."
Another key provision is section 101(a) which would redefine the program's prevailing wage requirements. Although we're often told the program's designed to attract the "best and brightest", employers are allowed to pay foreign professionals the prevailing wage in a given industry for "entry level" positions. Companies can pay H-1B professionals at one of four wage-levels prevailing in the industry according to their experience. As a result companies are allowed to hire younger and therefore cheaper workers lacking in experience - This is the H-1B's "dirty little secret", says Matloff. In Malkin's book she quotes cosmetic surgeons in San Francisco saying their clientele is mostly anxious American tech professionals. The Grassley-Durbin bill would set the prevailing wage to be the median of all workers in the occupation, regardless of their experience level. This would dramatically reduce the incentives to discriminate against American job applicants whether by age or national origin.
Section 101(d), meanwhile, will restrict employers from hiring H-1Bs within 180 days of a layoff of American workers (expanded from the old 90-day requirement). This would be too little too late from those tens of thousands who've been laid off this year from Disney, Intel and Cisco, but it's nonetheless a welcome improvement.
Title II of the bill would overhaul the L-1B visa, a program increasingly criticized as a way to circumvent the annual caps on H-1Bs. The L-1B applies to so-called "specialized knowledge" employees, usually in the IT industry, who may be transferred to the U.S. from their foreign affiliated employer to work here for up to five years. By executive fiat, President Obama recently expanded the term "specialized knowledge" handing a big subsidy to the IT industry in the form of "hundreds of thousands" of new foreign professionals. In a strongly worded letter to Obama's immigration authorities this past summer, Senator Grassley stated Congress's original intent was to ensure that the class of persons eligible for such visas would be "narrowly drawn." His bill would return the program to its congressional moorings and reign in its displacement effects.
Section 110 would eliminate abuse of the B-1visa. Designed for short-term business stays, the type of work allowed on the visa is limited to average business trip matters, like scouting for a new office. But the only requirements are that the applicant tells their consulate he or she promises to return after the visa expires and that all work-related payments will come from abroad (And yes, being paying from abroad means US income taxes are evaded). Unsurprisingly, the program's perennially exploited. The immigration attorney industry is so fully engaged in this type of fraud they've given the practice its own shorthand acronym, "BILOH" or "B-1 visa in lieu of H-1B."
Although the visas generally only last for 6 months, many nationalities, including Indians, are allowed to restart the clock by simply exiting and re-entering the country. Infosys was caught in 2013 exploiting the program when it was found explaining in company memos that when staff address US immigration officials, "do not tell them your [sic] working." The company managed to avoid being banned from the program likely due to the legal consultant who worked on their settlement: former DHS secretary under George Bush, Michael Chertoff.
Pressure to dull the better parts of the bill and fold in H-1B cap increases will be fierce. The bill's overhaul of the program would do much to curb the billions in immigration subsidies going to the trillion-dollar tech industry annually - an industry already largely founded by taxpayer funded military and university grants. Supporters must remember that the whole goal of the program is to AVOID hiring the American middle class. The Grassley-Durbin bill would end this practice and put Americans first.
H1-B should be all but ended.
They are giving away college degrees with 3 cereal box tops over there lately, judging by the quality of software people whose code I HAVE HAD TO FIX lately
About freaking time... betting it won’t have any teeth in it by the time that the lobbyists have their say, though.
“H1-B should be all but ended.”
END it!
It has more holes than swiss cheese, and corporate lawyers have found them all.
Maybe that’s how H-1Bs create more American jobs. They make a lot of bad code we have to fix.
Let’s not forget we just had British actors playing Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and now new Star Wars characters. Of course two of them lost their jobs after the last movies so maybe Trump is onto a trend here. I guess it’s fair to have an Aussie playing Thor since Asgard isn’t a real country.
H-1B has to be ended there is no way it cannot be abused. Posting job openings with impossible qualification is the big joke. They ‘can’t’ get anyone(superman) then hire an Indian that has 1/10 the skills. End it now.
They should just change the law so that the minimum wage for an H1B worker is 100k/yr. Index it to inflation.
This will take care of the abuse.
Would like to be added to the ping list please.
To petition for an H-1B professional visa would require that the need for foreign workers be demonstrated with rapid wage growth that considerably exceeds the overall market growth level. I haven't really thought it through fully, but I could envision a system were the Department of Labor certifies that a certain profession had an annual salary growth in excess of whatever the threshold is set at. The Immigration Service could then issue a number of visas linked to that level of growth for the profession. As an example, let's say that overall wage growth for the economy was 1% and the wage growth for "widget maker" was 3% (or 3 times the overall rate, the trigger in this example). Then and only then could visas be issued in this profession. A formula could also be set to determine the number of visas to be issued. For example, 0.1 of the growth rate times the number in the profession. If there were 1,000,000 "widget makers" then (0.1 x .03 x 1,000,000) would allow 3,000 visas for "widget makers" in this example. If the threshold wage growth level continued to be met or exceeded, additional visas as per the formula could be issued. If the wages had leveled off, then visas could no longer be issued in that profession. In this way, industries that truly face a worker shortage and have been paying wages growing at rate considerably faster than normal can continue to do business until domestic supply has caught up. However, workers in a profession where there is no great shortage and wages are not exceeding the threshold growth levels would not have additional workers brought in to depress their wages or take their jobs.
BS. Wages grow rapidly more people get training. It is called incentive. Importing people ruins the incentive.
Can you add me?
Can you add me?
In many of those countries family and money is more important than anything. Certifications are subject to graft just as much as anything else. That’s one reason to insist on seeing the actual credentials of any medical person working on your love ones.
I do think the current H-1B system is being abused. However, an H-1B is, by definition, for a professional requiring at least a 4 year degree. Do businesses have to wait 4 years for more people to get training to catch up to the demand? The smaller business will be closed by then. Your point is that there should never be an H-1B visa category. My point is that there may be a need for it, but only in very limited circumstances where the market clearly shows that there is a imbalance between the supply and the demand in that profession. I gave a real world example of that happening. My point is trying to balance the needs of business with protecting labor. Your point is just pro-labor. Bernie will appreciate your vote.
Those that are willing to pay current market rates will get people. It is called supply and demand. H-1B needs to die.
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