Posted on 09/30/2009 8:48:43 PM PDT by anymouse
(Please also see email to a Sacramento employer who is running a PERM ad to demonstrate that "no Americans are available" to sponsor an H-1b worker for a green card.)
For years the Programmers Guild has been calling for some basic reforms to the H-1b program. Now the harm of the H-1b program is hitting home.
In May 2009, Kim's daughter Stephanie graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with dual STEM degrees. (U.S. News ranks USC Engineering school 7th in the nation.) Stephanie completed both degrees in only four years and worked at summer internships. She has incurred student loans approaching six figures. Her resume is here - and Stephanie is willing to speak with reporters.
- M.S. Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering - B.S. Civil Engineering, Building Science (Architectural Engineering) - National Honor Societies: Chi Epsilon, Tau Beta Pi, Mortar Board (Webmaster), Phi Kappa Phi - GPA: 3.840
In spite of a diligent search for work through the summer, she - along with many of her USC classmates - is unable to find a job. This is a typical response:
On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 9:54 AM:
: Hello Stephanie –
: Thank you for your resume, it is very impressive. : Unfortunately, as I’m sure you’re aware, the state of : the economy is not good, and Las Vegas especially has : been hit harder than most. I would truly like to bring : you in for an interview and hire, but we just don’t : have the workload capacity to hire anyone right now.
Yet, even in this worst job market in 25 years, in October 2009 Congress will flood in another 65,000 H-1b workers. In 99% of these jobs Congress did not even require that employers first try to fill these jobs with American workers.
Currently, these 65,000 jobs are unfilled. In the past, USCIS and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) have refused to disclose these job openings - effectively reserving U.S. jobs for foreign workers:
- July 2006: Letter to DOL requesting FY 2007 LCA DB - July 2006: DOL Response: "REQUEST DENIED"
Consistently, DOL has not posted the FY 2009 Labor Condition Application (LCA) records on the DOL website: They will wait until after the jobs have been filled by temporary foreign workers - because Congress does not require that the records be disclosed prior to the jobs being filled.
Complete H-1b LCA records for prior years are on this DOL webpage. (The FY 2008 file is the source of the Excel extract in the following link.)
FACT: Stephanie is qualified to fill many of these jobs that DOL is reserving the H-1b workers.
An Excel file containing the Civil Engineering and Architectural categories of approved LCAs for FY2008 is zipped here. The jobs that pay $40,000 or less (or $20/hour or less) are highlighted in pink. The jobs within the Sacramento region are highlighted in green. You can sort by zip code, wage, or other fields to analyze this data. There are over 8000 approved LCAs within this job category. (Note that not all LCA jobs are subsquently filled by H-1b workers.) These jobs require a minimum of a BS degree in a technical field, and presume that the candidate also has "specialized skills."
Here are a few:
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER - $13.55/hour Daniel Chudnovsky, A.I.A. Architects, Inc. 1964 Westwood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025
ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTER - $15.38/hour Winter & Company 1265 Yellow Pine Ave Boulder, CO 80303
ARCHITECTURAL DRAFTER - $28,600/yr Ted Tokio Tanaka Architects 11307 Hindry Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90045
DESIGN ENGINEER/CAD SPECIALIST - $28,800/yr Team 7 International 1648 Union St. #101 San Francisco, CA 94123
CIVIL ENGINEER - $40,000/yr Atlantic Engineering Laboratories 41 Murray Street Rahway, NJ 07065
These jobs all fully comply with the DOL's "prevailing wage" requirement - because the DOL prevailing wage is a sham. Stephanie is likely a stronger candidate than the H-1b workers who are filling these jobs. This is likely true of the thousands of jobs that DOL is currently reserving the H-1b workers to fill next month as well.
FACT: Stephanie and other new graduates could easily find work if Congress executed a few simple emergency steps:
- Immediately suspend the H-1b program and require that USCIS and DOL publicize the 65,000 current U.S. job openings.
- Require that all jobs currently held by H-1b workers be re-opened for U.S. applicants.
- Reform the H-1b program to require that employers first try to recruit U.S. workers, and to pay a prevailing wage at least equal to what average-skilled Americans are earning within the job classifications.
- Repeal the 17 months OPT extension that Chertoff decreed as a "DHS Emergency."
FACT: Underpaid H-1b workers are flooding into the Sacramento Region
A zipped Excel of the 1466 FY2008 LCAs for all occupations for the Sacramento Region is here. Of these, DOL only denied 4 of them. Approvals include LCAs that suggest below market wages if not H-1b fraud - such as sponsoring several H-1b workers from a residential address:
- A $2000/month "BUSSINESS MANAGER" (sic) for www.uppal-insurance.com in Citrus Heights
- 500 "NURSES" earning $8.00/hour by "The Firm Group & Associates" in Sacramento - which Google does not find a website for.
- Three $26,000/year "DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR" for www.key-soft.com/index.html - this one firm filed dozens of LCAs for Sacramento in FY 2008.
- Several "PROGRAMMER/ANALYST" earning $46,000/year to Vignasoft Information Technologies Inc which has no website and operates from a residential address: 1065 Sandwick Way Folsom, CA 95630.
- JNJ Solutions Inc. filed several LCA for "DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR" and "COMPUTER PROGRAMMER" for $55.000/year from a suite next door to Congressman Lungren's office: 2377 Gold Meadow Way Suite 100 Gold River CA 95670. Their website is dead at the moment: www.jnjsolutions.com - but I see recent ads: http://www.corp-corp.com/js/js_view_job.aspx?js=444720. Found linkedin of a former JNJ recruiter: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sureshrajendran (Indians hiring Indians)
- Xcel, Inc filed 24 LCA for "PROGRAMMER ANALYST" for $60.000/year. They operate from a residential address: 1236 Souza Way Folsom, CA 95630. The "career page" on their website is vague - it does not list any specific "openings": www.xcel-inc.com/current.htm
- Mara Consulting Inc. filed an LCA for "SENIOR PROGRAMMER ANALYST." They operate from a residential address: 8577 Almond Bluff Court Orangevale, CA 95662. Their "career opportunity" ads read like sham PERM green card ads. "Account Manager" named "Jas Lochab."
- Kaustubam Systems, Inc. filed an LCA for "SR. PROGRAMMER ANALYST." They operate from a (very nice) residential address: 3843 Mountainview Drive Loomis, CA 95650. I don't find a company website, but I find LinkedIn for Viral Joshi - claims to be from India and work at NEC as a consultant for the past eight years. Meanwhile NEC Electronics in Roseville had laid of most of their U.S. IT workers - including my former coworkers. (I worked at NEC 1992-1997.)
- Estrada Consulting, Inc. filed four LCA for "PROGRAMMER ANALYST" paying $50,050/year. They operate out of a residential address: 9 Nellis Court, Suite 100 Sacramento, CA 95835. Their "current openings" does not list any.
- Conzeal, Inc. filed five LCA for "PROGRAMMER/ANALYST" paying $57,500/year. They operate out of a residential address: 10121 Lambeau Court Elk Grove, CA 95757. Their "contact us" page includes addresses in India: www.conzeal.com/contactus.html
- BM Associates, Inc. filed three LCA for "COMPUTER SYSTEMS ANALYST." The provide a residential address as their "headquarters": 9783 Swan Lake Drive Granite Bay, CA 95746. Their website lists India branches.
There are dozens more just in the Sacramento region, and thousands nationwide - comprising a substantial percentage of H-1b usage. In the Sacramento region it appears that most of the sponsors are third-party bodyshops rather than principal employers of the workers.
How do bodyshops that operate out of residences the have a critical need for foreign workers? Are these the employers that Congress fears will "relocate out of the U.S." if U.S. worker protections are added to the H-1b program? These bodyshops are not filling a shortage - instead they market their resumes and services in direct competition with the U.S. workers in this Congressional District. In some cases they receive favored treatment on contracts because they are "minority owned." On what basis does Congress give racial hiring preference to recent non-citizen immigrants over native-born citizens?
FACT: USC promotes the benefits of hiring foreign workers over U.S. workers
One would think that after spending $100,000 at USC that the school would aggressively try to find work for its U.S. citizen graduates. But the opposite is occurring USC advocates hiring International students over Americans because it's cheaper to hire foreign workers! Until a few weeks ago USC was running the following on their website - (until I emailed ois@usc.edu objecting to it on 8/14/2009.)
http://www.programmersguild.org/local/usc_h1b_info.html
Frequently Asked Questions
Doesn't an employer have to prove that international students are not taking jobs from a qualified American?
No. American employers are not required to document that a citizen of another country did not take a job from a qualified American if that person is working under a F-1, J-1 or H-1B visa. Employers must document that they did not turn down a qualified American applicant for the position only when they wish to hire foreign citizens on a permanent basis and sponsor them for a permanent resident status ("green card").
Isn't it illegal to hire international students because they do not have a green card?
No. Federal regulations permit the employment of international students on F-1 and J-1 visas within certain limits. These visas allow students to work in jobs related to their major field of study. F-1 students can work on "practical training." J-I students may work on "academic training."
Even if it's legal to hire international students, won't it cost a lot of money and involve a lot of paperwork?
No. The only cost to the employer hiring international students is the time and effort to interview and select the best candidate for the job. The international student office handles the paperwork involved in securing the work authorization for F-1 and J-1 students. In fact, a company may save money by hiring international students because the majority of them are exempt from Social Security (FICA) and Medicare tax requirements.
FACT: Stephanie was a key plaintiff in the suit against Department of Homeland Security's "emergency" extension of the OPT program from 12 months to 29 months.
The above regulations are not H-1b but rather the OPT program which, unlike the H-1b visa, does not even contain a prevailing wage requirement.
Programmers Guild founder John Miano and other attorneys presented oral arguments in an appeal from a lower court's ruling that "U.S. workers do not have standing to challenge regulations that affect their employment opportunities." The court has posted a recording of the oral argument. The Briefs are here (pdf)
- [Opening Brief] - [Reply Brief]
Recently, the Federal appellate court affirmed that Stephanie lacked standing to challenge this extension.
FACT: H-1b is not the only problem
Congress did not stop at the H-1b program. They also devised the L-1 visa program, which allows employers to transfer workers from overseas to work in the U.S., while still paying them their foreign wages. This has created a huge incentive for companies like Intel to set up shop in India and China, hire their graduates, then rotate those workers into the U.S. to fill the jobs with cheaper labor.
According to this image from www.cis.org Congress admitted 1.3 million foreign workers into the U.S. in FY 2008. I suspect that, in spite of the hardship Americans are having finding work, Congress will admit over on million foreign workers into the U.S. in FY 2009 - only 9000 within the "extraordinary ability" category. (Note that Stephanie forced to compete for entry-level jobs against 70,000 OPT foreign graduates):
FACT: The H-1b is harming thousands of U.S. workers
Hundreds of U.S. tech workers have detailed their personal experiences in the "H-1b Harm Report" at www.HireAmericansFirst.org. Most of these workers are willing to speak with the media. For example:
Exult My husband lost his computer programming job when his company imported cheaper programmers from India.
Lucent Technologies I was displaced from my contract position in August 2001 while the H-1B guest workers were retained.
PG&E (San Francisco) My company was actively hiring Indian contractors through Tata and Infosys at the time I was let go.
Cognizant The company is phasing out American consultants, and later this year, American employees of that company.
MMO and SnapOn Replaced by H-1B. Spouse replaced by guest worker too.
General Electric Healthcare I am now retired from GE Healtcare, Milwaukee. I was forced into retirement at age 60, and eventually replaced by H-1B workers. Several American engineers have been replaced at GE by H-1B and green card workers.
AT&T/TATA In October 2001 our office was notified that come Jan 1, 2002 the office would be closed. Within days of the closing, foreign nations were being bused in to the vacated center.
The University of Chicago Laid off, lost valuable benefits while H-1b workers retained. Not interviewed for 81 positions while at same time U.S. Labor Dept. of Labor approved 208 foreign nationals to work at same employer
Lincoln Financial Applied for an Actuate Developer job at company and was turned down. However, they did hire a colleague of mine for the same position who was an H-1B worker and who I had trained and mentored at a previous employer.
Mastercard In 2001, lost contract as company moved away from Americans to H-1B contractors McDonalds, Discover, and others The issue I am facing is L-1s now more than H-1b visas. L-1 are being used to bring a foreign workers over for training and then the company eliminates higher cost employees and consultants.
Phillips Semiconductor In 1998 I was replaced by an H-1b from India while working at Phillips Semiconductor in Mountain View California.
Cognizant Technologies Indian Consulting firms set up phony interviews with the objective of gaining salary information.
PERM FAKE ADS I applied for many positions listed in ads only to find out that the position listed were mostly ads to justify H-1B positions of people working for companies whose H-1B positions were being renewed.
IBS US (El Dorado Hills, California) H-1B workers never complained about working weekends without pay, as they were faced with losing their Visa if they lost their job. Laid off in 2001 while H-1B holders were retained.
IBM After 30 years as an IT professional, I cannot get so much as an interview.
Anthem Blue Cross California As a programmer at Anthem Blue Cross, I was among many who were coerced into taking early retirement in lieu of losing our retirement benefits. This made room for more H-1b visa programmers from India.
Fiserv Company laid off all American programmers and kept foreigners - H-1Bs and other visa holders.
WiPro & InfoSys I just finished my M.S. Degree in Computer Science. I continue to see U.S. Citizen's jobs outsourced or offshored or both to India and China. My current company employs Wipro & InfoSys. They are laying off U.S. workers and hiring "contractors" from these two companies to do their job in the U.S. (under visa program) or in India.
Bump
Need to terminate the H1B technical visa program in its entirety.
H1-b is mostly a scam, seen it first hand. In many cases it’s been dreadfully abused & exploitive of the visa holders.
Unscrupulous companies are now setting up shop in the US and then (ab)using the L-1 to bring in people for “training” but in fact contracting them out as low paid help.
IT development is a craft, not a profession today.
I constantly have to deal with Indian H1-B developers who can’t see beyond the specs in front of them. If I wanted someone to just bang out code, I could body shop it to China.
The value in IT is in understanding what is needed and marshaling resources to match that need. That includes definition, clarity, specifications, feedback, quality assurance, standards, etc.
I have run projects that use offshore resources and that part is easy, once you put the proper structures in place.
But trying to teach an Indian H1B developer that they can’t “hard code” values and why you need to instantiate inference is like giving a pill to a cat.
It has to do with their world view.
Democratic Members Charles E. Schumer, New York (Chairman) Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Dianne Feinstein, California Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
Republican Members John Cornyn, Texas (Ranking Member) Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Jon Kyl, Arizona Jeff Sessions, Alabama
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) [Chairman] 202-225-3072 202-225-3336 http://forms.house.gov/lofgren/webforms/landing.html Howard L. Berman (D-CA) 202-225-4695 202-225-3196 http://www.house.gov/berman/contact/ Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) 202-225-3816 202-225-3317 http://www.jacksonlee.house.gov/contact.shtml Maxine Waters (D-CA) 202-225-2201 202-225-7854 http://www.house.gov/waters/IMA/issue.htm Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR) 202-225-2615 202-225-2154 http://pierluisi.house.gov/email.html Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) 202-225-8203 202-225-7810 http://luisgutierrez.house.gov/singlepage.aspx?newsid=1262 Linda Sanchez (D-CA) 202-225-6676 202-226-1012 http://www.lindasanchez.house.gov/index.cfm?section=contact Anthony Weiner (D-NY) 202-225-6616 202-226-0218 http://weiner.house.gov/email_anthony.aspx Charles A. Gonzalez (D-TX) 202-225-3236 202-225-1915 http://www.gonzalez.house.gov/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=170 Bill Delahunt (D-MA) 202-225-3111 202-225-5658 william.delahunt@mail.house.gov
Steve King (R-IA) [Ranking Member] 202-225-4426 202-225-3193 http://steveking.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.ContactForm Gregg Harper (R-MS) 202-225-5031 202-225-5797 http://harper.house.gov/contact/ Elton Gallegly (R-CA) 202-225-5811 202-225-1100 https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml Dan Lungren (R-CA) 202-225-5716 202-226-1298 http://lungren.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content& task=view&id=146& Ted Poe (R-TX) 202-225-6565 202-225-5547 http://poe.house.gov/contact/contactform.htm Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
I wish I could publish some of the code I’ve seen from India in a “joke book” for programmers, but for obvious legal reasons, I can’t. And a lot of it is from people with MS degrees (from somewhere). EVEN IF you give them the spec in sparklingly clear terms (sometimes taking longer to do than then actually writing the code yourself), yes - it will work, but it’s unmaintainable, performs badly outside of a test environment, and for that and other reasons, is not scalable.
There are certainly “offshore” programmers as good as or better than “onshore” programmers. But they, too, price themselves out of the market - how does it go? The bad chases out the good?
There seems to be a critical thinking skills shortage, and it isn’t a problem unique to the US.
Weren’t problems like this one of the reason that, ahem, unions got started in the first place?
Can we take a page from the liberals’ playbook here?
that’s no lie, either the job’s go to India, or the Indians come here. either way an American is out of a job
>>EVEN IF you give them the spec in sparklingly clear terms (sometimes taking longer to do than then actually writing the code yourself), yes - it will work, but it’s unmaintainable, performs badly outside of a test environment, and for that and other reasons, is not scalable.<<
O M G, you’re ME! And yes, I have many times done the development work myself and then “retro-spec’d” it and labeled the whole process JRAD (LOL).
I am sure you have been in this conversation:
Me: “Why are you looking for a ‘4’ in the 3rd position of this field?”
Indian: “They told me that is how I know it is an asset.”
Me: What does the architecture say how to identify an asset?”
Indian “A ‘4’ in the 3rd position is what the user said”
Me: So, joining your table to the type table and seeing the account type like the spec said wouldn’t be better? That way if a new CEO shows up who wants to eliminate positional value coding your program would continue to work. Your way it dies almost immediately.
Indian: But I have to rewrite the whole program!
Me: The spec said to do the join.
Indian: But this is easier and faster! And we already tested it!
*sigh* You can’t always do a code review before the damn thing is done.
I don’t have that problem with my Chinese developers. They do what the spec says and if it won’t work or isn’t clear, they stop and get clarification.
It is the ignorance/arrogance threshold.
If they were to end the H1B tomorrow, my life would be much, much easier.
I deal with this every day in the contract world. H1-B visa is nothing more than indentured servitude.
Example: The Indian body shops put 8 people in a two bedroom apartment (low rent) and pay them $12/hour. They then charge companies like AT&T, Microsoft, Home Depot, etc. $48/hour. The same job that an American would be paid $50/hour for which is the prevailing wage. The Indian worker must be a good and unquestionable worker or the Indian body shop yanks his Visa, and he is sent back to India. As soon as he gets his green card he becomes the most difficult SOB to deal with because he is so pi$$ed at what he dealt with for the last 3 years.
So the Indian body shop makes a lot of money (at least $600,000 per year on this one stable of Indians less maybe $6,000 for rent, plus they have a lot of stables), AT&T might save a little money, an Indian gets a low paying job and an American software engineer goes to work serving coffee at Starbucks.
It seems the only issue that the GOP and Rats all agree on is screwing native americans by importing more and more legal and illegal workers.
We should be able to recruit some additional tea party people on this issue.
“All your jobs belong to foreigners.”
More accurately, the jobs belong to those who will work for less, and who persuade the employers that their lower cost services are comparable to the services provided by those whom they replace.
The employers may be mistaken, and if so they will pay the price. Those who are displaced either demonstrate the value of their services at higher prices, or look for other lines of endeavor.
Or they vote for protectionists who will buy into their demands for legal barriers to their lower-priced competitors.
So in the end who is the evil one. Corporate America. Something many freepers have a hard time coming to grip with. One thing good about recessions and depressions, it makes someone look at economics in a realistic way and not an ideological way. Free trade, globalism and open borders have consequences. When your job is on the line everything becomes real.
So true. Our economy is in precisely the sad shape it is in because of the corporate decisions that have been made over the past couple of decades.
Many companies won't survive this depression, precisely and only because they will refuse to face reality and change the way they make decisions and conduct their business.
We should not be bailing out any of them.
So in the end who is the evil one///////////////////////. business comunity and the politions. The pols pass laws to keep the cheap laber, and biz funds the politions reelection coffers. The u.s. can not compete on the world market and pay middle class wages........... we are in a baaaad spot.........
I’ve been following this issue since before I was a FReeper. It looks like someone’s been keeping up the H1B keyword pretty well.
Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Immigration
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/782105/posts
Monday, November 04, 2002 11:27:24 AM · by FormerLurker · 22 replies · 3,970+ views
Department of Computer Science - University of California at Davis ^ | Presented April 21, 1998; updated September 10, 2002 | Dr. Norman Matloff
Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/705954/posts
Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee
Subcommittee on Immigration
Dr. Norman Matloff
Department of Computer Science
University of California at Davis
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 752-1953
matloff@cs.ucdavis.edu
©1998, 1999, 2000, 2001
Presented April 21, 1998; updated February 4, 2002
You have to wonder if some of the companies operating out of residential addresses aren’t just sham “companies” set up so people can bring their family and friends over from foreign countries into the states legally.
I support H1-B, but think it should be reformed to require all jobs be advertised, and that companies certify that no american applicants were received.
I’m a little wary of “prevailing wage” laws, because while the goal of making sure we aren’t hiring “underpaid” foreigners at wages that no american could accept is a good one, allowing government to determine what the “proper” wage is doesn’t strike me as a good solution either.
I am a free-trader, but don’t think we need to open our borders to foreign workers if we have american workers available.
The risk of course is that, if the companies have to pay higher wages here, they might just MOVE to the foreign countries, and then you’ll lose american jobs and tax dollars.
Congress gives them the pass to do it so they do it. Then these American corporations turn around and expect us to buy from them or use their services. We are not a third world country, yet, so we cannot compete with them on a level playing field. If the only variable in manufacturing or services is people cost, then the only way the United States can be involved in globalism is that we become a third world. And once every nation is a third world, then there will be no third world. Or better yet, what would the future third world look like to the current third world? Don’t you feel so happy for your children and their children?
You are right, both parties are destroying America. The GOPRATS are importing the third world here willingly and they do not give a damn what you think or say.
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