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I didn't bother to read much of the article because it sounds like another Arm Chair General, and I am on the front lines. Yes, I have hired several H1B's. Not in the software industry or computer hardware, but another very very specialized tech industry for which US schools no longer provide training.

Hate to burst your bubble, but the "Arm Chair General" you refer to is Dr. Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science who conducted a study on this subject and reported his findings to Congress. You should have been able to see that by looking at the first page of the article.

The article states his background as follows;

Dr. Norman Matloff is a professor of computer science at UC Davis, and was formerly a statistics professor at that institution. He is also a former software developer in Silicon Valley.

For his bio, see http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/matloff.html

In fact, if you had taken the time to read ANY bit of the article you would have seen that his report is quite thorough and well presented.

You state that you are not involved in the software industry. As this article relates SPECIFICALLY to that industry, however valid your views might be in relation to your field they do not necessarily apply to the software industry.

Burst my bubble? Now, come on did you really read his entire bio? Everyone on this thread should, httpp://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu /matloff.html. After reading it let me know how many paragraphs you got through before you fell of your chair to the left.

First, the only item I saw that might lead me to beleive he had ever employed anyone was his stint as a software developer, but that doesn't mean employeer.

Next, outside of a almost perfect far left resume. I see one of his buds is our most respected Wen Ho Lee, and a Mr. Luh fired from NASA, perhaps he was one of those sorry foreign engineers you talk about. Mr M thinks they are victims

I will get to my final one after I relate a story. This past Christmas I was at my wife's office party where I ran into a Chinese couple. I got to talking and realized the husband was a big name in the software business, I am sure many would recognize it. I did and am not in the business.

We hit it off and got into a rather deep conversation. He told me he came here on a student visa just before T. Square. His wife, (girl friend when he left) was still finishing her nursing degree. He said that they knew if they married before he left that she would not be allowed to leave the country. So when he had finished his first year here she was finished with her degree. He found her a sponsor under H1B and she came. They were married, and when the authorities in China heard, they beat the hell out of her parents, many times over about a 6 mo period to try and get him to come back. The parents told them that they would take the beatings and not to ever return. He added that the Chinese are not going to loose their best to the US.

He went on to say that he and his wife have been told that if they ever come back for a visit as American Citizens they will not be allowed to leave ever. He also went on to tell me that now the Chinese are very carefull to be sure that they are holding enought of any abroad students relatives to insure that they will be back. I haven't heard anyone complaining about all the H1B's for Mainland China, are there any? Are you getting the picture?

I see Mr. Matloff is developing lots of software for the Chinese, in case you missed it, fourth paragraph of the bio.
It also sounded like rather powerfull stuff, but maybe you can tell me, it's not my field. Did it ever occure to you that perhaps there is another agenda at work here?

Since the Mainland Chinese are going to keep their best, and requiring most Multi Nationals to locate R&D in China as a condition of doing business wouldn't it be to their advantage to see to it that we are unable to get the best from any other country? Now I am not saying that all H1B's are the best I would suspect only 5%, but with China's 5 to 1 population advantage over us we will have to draw on that 5% best from all over the world to keep ahead of them in our last hope, R&D. Now wouldn't it be to their advantage to shut down any program we have that might do that for us?

I see almost nothing in his bio that indicates he is working for Americans as much as he is working for the Chinese. Perhaps you can show me the error of my thinking.