Posted on 10/12/2003 12:43:52 PM PDT by weegee
Every day it gets clearer that the Houston economy has become highly reliant upon talented workers from abroad. That is why the Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is putting every Houstonian at risk by effectively insulating us from the rest of the world.
For Houston to continue to thrive, we need to implement effective and timely visa screening procedures for foreign workers -- scientists, engineers and medical researchers. We need a procedure that allows our community's employers to continue strengthening the health of science and technology sectors while also protecting our nation's security.
To do that, immigration officials must recognize that the long-term security of the United States does not only depend upon denying visas to prevent terror attacks. Our security and the future of our community depend on admitting highly skilled workers and scholars who offer significant contributions to our quality of life.
Often, the best job candidates in the world are discovered beyond U.S. borders. These exceptional men and women are hard at work across Houston every day, saving lives, advancing science and pushing the envelope on technology. Houston is a better place because of its foreign workers.
But our community's mutually beneficial relationship with the global economy is at risk. The case of Dr. Remzi Bag, profiled in the Houston Chronicle ("Last-minute pleas save visa of top doctor," Oct. 3, Metropolitan cover) is just one of many jaw-dropping examples of bureaucratic mismanagement that fails to recognize the value we all derive from the international community. [Bag, a Turkish physician who heads Houston's two lung transplant programs, was granted an extension of the special visa that allows him to work in the United States after a delay that prompted worries about a possible shutdown of the transplant centers.]
As Bag's story demonstrates, the government's overly conservative approach to reviewing special 0-1 visas endangers Houston's medical institutions and, by extension, the health and welfare of all Houstonians. Strapped by funding cuts for research, our medical community must continue to have access to the world's top scientists. These institutions self-screen and do not file cases for 0-1 extraordinary ability classification unless they feel medical researchers meet the standards.
While the Immigration Service has claimed it has not changed its standards for 0-1 petitions, those who file these cases at the Texas Service Center know there has been dramatic, sudden increase in denials of extensions for physicians previously granted the classification.
The Service is overzealously misinterpreting the criteria for the 0-1 category. The law requires the foreign national have either an internationally recognized award, such as the Nobel Prize, or show documentation of three of eight lesser criteria such as published articles in professional journals or employment in a critical role at a distinguished organization. Contrary to the plain language of the regulations, the Service has toughened standards to require the three alternative criteria to be at the heightened Nobel Prize level.
This threatens our medical institutions' ability to find ways to cure diseases from cancer to AIDS.
Another troubling example of how protectionism is threatening Houston is what happened in the days and weeks leading up to last year's World Space Congress here. According to Lois Peterson of the National Academy of Sciences, she received 102 requests for help from space scientists unable to attend the event because they had not received their visas.
She was quoted in the publication Geotimes as saying, "I remember one of the Indian space scientists in his pleas to us said, `I don't work with missiles; I work with weather balloons.' "
It might be humorous if the situation weren't so serious.
Members of the Chinese delegation said in interviews that they were enraged by the situation. Aviation Week & Space Technology reported that it could threaten U.S. space cooperation. The International Astronautical Federation and the Committee on Space Research, which organized the World Space Congress, said denying the Chinese visas undermined the free exchange of ideas promised at the meeting.
Today's borderless, global economy requires Houston's employers to attract and retain the best workers in the world. It's time for the Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. State Department to stop unnecessarily delaying and denying visas to people who should be celebrated among our most valuable resources.
We need a visa screening procedure that is both vigilant and time sensitive. We need to balance the twin goals of maintaining the health of our economy, science and technology while protecting our nation's security.
Our community depends on foreign scientists and engineers as well as international workers who are on the leading edge of emerging technologies from deep-sea exploration to biomedical research. Houston deserves the very best in the world.
Pinchak, principal of Houston-based Pinchak & Associates, concentrates her practice in business immigration law and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
If what they want to hire is a plain Java developer, they will be unable to do this.
Realisticly, it is absurd to argue that the US labor pool does not have SOMEBODY that will fit your requirement (at US prevailing wage, which is the point here). In any given year, there is only likely to be a handful of openings that MUST be filled from overseas, almost always some researcher who has been doing work in some esoteric field
The correct way to do it is to encourage these people to come over AS PERMANENT IMMIGRANTS. No more H1B/L1 "temporary" indentured servants. If they come over, thenb the must be here as regular members of the labor pool, being paid the same wages and working the same hours as American citizens. They must be encouraged to assimulate and stay here permanently.
What we have instead is people coming over as H1B's, working a few years, then being forced to return home, but in the process taking back American trade secrets, education, and knowledge of how to work in the American market. They then can set up competitive companies over there. No, once they're here they should STAY here and become part of the US
You would think so. However, did you ever see some of the requirements written by companies to justify hiring foreign workers for higher level positions? When I was interviewing heavily I had employment agencies and immigration lawyers offer to help write job descriptions specificlly to hire foreign workers. I declined but I know others didn't. That's why I think that anyone should be able to sue a company if they can show that they can do the job of a foreign employee. Might make it less attractive to hire foreign workers. Unfortunately it would create another employment opportunity for lawyers.
Before the One WOrld government can rule, for the benefit of the internationalist oligarchs, the US must first be destroyed as a superpower
The Japanese have an interesting approach--companies are allowed to hire and bring in foreign workers as long as they pay them 10% over the going wage for the industry. Needless to say, foreigners make up about 1% of the Japanese workforce and the Japanese language, culture and civility of the society are still largely intact.
I'm sure the "guest workers" on H1/L1 visas would LOVE to have permanent resident status immediately. They just don't have a choice. These guest-worker visa programs were concocted in such a way as to give the employer total control over the guest worker. That's why they are able to hire them for less money.
In essence, though, I agree with you. If these people weren't indentured servants -- if they had the same rights as American workers -- then they would command American-grade wages.
Then, the incentive for bringing them in would disappear: Americans of similar skill and superior English language skills would prevail.
That's why I'd like to see these guest worker programs eliminated completely -- and replaced with something that gives immigrant workers freedom to leave their jobs for other jobs without threat of deportment. Eliminate their "indentured servitude" status, and this whole "imported worker" idea would just fade away.
This is because a foreign worker, brought in as an H1B, is essentially an indentured servant. He can be told to work as many hours as the employer wants, under whatever conditions the employer wants, and not dare say a word for fear of being fired and deported back overseas
Remove H1B, and the incentive to hire foreigners disappears. Any foreigner hired would be able to quit just like an American.
Companies here would just lie. They would bring in somebody with a Masters degree, say he was being hired for an entry-level job, pay him 10% over the wage for that, and put him to work writing device-drivers
Exactly. It's not about money, it's about control.
She is an immigration lawyer, the only job she cares about is her own. Her job is to replace American workers with foreigners. The Huston Chronicle should be ashamed at putting out this kind of propaganda.
If they opened it in my area, I'm pretty sure I could float it all by my lonesome.
If a company really can't find skilled workers in this country they should consider hiring someone over the age of 25 and paying them more than $10 an hour.
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