<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 1809 -- 1/23/2008 >>>>>

Usually when the coalition of mega-corporations called "Compete America"
launches a new initiative to get cheap labor they announce it on their
website or through a press release. At the time of this newsletter I
haven't found anything to confirm the story below, so I asked the author
Chris Frates where he got his information. He emailed me that he first
found out about it when he recently interviewed Robert Hoffman.

Compete America's newest plan is to sneak a "short-term fix" into an
unrelated bill in Congress. The fix, as Hoffman calls it, would make
available 300,000 more H-1B visas and 140,000 green cards. The way they
figure it, since 1992 there have been 300,000 H-1B visas that were never
used so they want them to be reissued.

There is nothing short term about the effects of allowing 300,000 more H-1B
visas into the U.S., especially considering that the current yearly cap is
85,000. Allowing such a massive infusion of foreign labor into high tech
labor pools will have an immediate and devastating effect on Americans who
are working or looking for work.

Don't think for a second that Compete America will be happy with 300,000
visas, however! This scheme is just a sneaky way of getting all the H-1Bs
they want until they can bribe Congress to raise the cap.

Their website is at:
http://www.competeamerica.org/

For a good spoof of their website go here:
http://www.competeamerica.us/

It's debatable whether visas that weren't issued should be considered a
backlog that can be doled out at a later date, but one thing that's not
subject to debate is that unless the law is changed they can't reissue
visas. H-1B regulations simply don't allow unused visas to be reissued and
of course that's why Compete America wants to sneak a backlog provision
into another piece of legislation.

Compete America is playing games with numbers to come up with that 300,000
figure. The numbers that should be used can be found in press releases like
this one:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/H1-BFY2003.pdf
H-1B Petitions Received and Approved in FY 2003

Count on Compete America to use another set of numbers, however, because
people that read the USCIS statistics closely will discover that there
really isn't a backlog. The cheap labor lobbyists are more likely to use a
table similar to the one that the Wall Street Journal published in 2005
that you can see by going to this web page:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/wm886.cfm

The H-1B backlog of 300,000 is calculated by taking the difference between
the yearly cap on H-1Bs and the number of non-exempt visas that are issued.
The numbers are erroneous and here is why -- visas issued is not the same
as H-1B petitions approved. Compete America and other H-1B advocates
purposefully mislead the public by omitting the number of exempt visas
issued, which is a significant error. This quote is right off the USCIS
page:

   The total number of workers subject to the FY 2003 cap comprised
   about two-fifths of the total number approved for H-1B employment.

Let's compare some numbers to see just what is being talked about:

According to the table on the Heritage website, in 2003 the numbers were as
follows:

new visas issued    78,000
yearly cap         195,000
difference        -117,000

Those numbers imply that 117,000 less H-1Bs were issued than allowed by the
cap, so Compete America argues that those visas should be reissued. Total
all of these up since 1992 and you get a 310,100 visa difference. It all
sounds compelling, but of course I'm sure all of you know what Mark Twain
said: "There are lies, damn lies - and statistics."

Instead of using tables made by people who push for H-1B visas, let's go to
the source for our numbers. Go to this webpage and you will find out that
in 2003 there were 217,340 H-1B petitions approved.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/H1B04Annual_08_7.pdf

The stats on the Heritage page are deceptive because they don't include the
total number of H-1B petitions approved. In order to take some of the lies
out of the statistics, let's correct them to accurately reflect the number
of H-1B petitions approved:


H-1B petitions    217,340
cap               195,000
difference        +22,340


CONCLUSION: There were at least 22,340 H-1B petitions issued over and above
the yearly cap, so Compete America is just blowing smoke when they claim
that there is a backlog of visas just waiting to be reissued. You can go
back to 1990 up to the present and every single year there is a surplus,
not a deficit!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8014.html
Tech vacancies languish on immigration snag
By: Chris Frates
January 21, 2008 05:29 PM EST

After last year’s crushing congressional collapse of comprehensive
immigration reform, any mention of the I-word is enough to send politicians
and lobbyists alike running for the door.

Even so, members of the technology industry are quietly plotting a
scaled-back lobbying campaign to increase the flow of highly skilled
immigrants, pushing arguments that they say will stick with economics and
steer clear of politics -- a tall order in a presidential election year.

"For this Congress, comprehensive reform is too heavy a lift right now.
It’s too controversial," said Oracle’s chief lobbyist, Robert Hoffman.
"We’re now in an election season, and there’s a feeling that
comprehensive immigration reform is the third rail in the 2008 elections."

So this year’s immigration buzzword is "short term," not "overhaul."

A coalition of trade groups, educators, companies and researchers want to
increase the number of visas available to highly skilled foreign workers.
Companies, especially in the tech sector, have thousands of job vacancies
they’ve been unable to fill, said Hoffman, co-chairman of the Compete
America coalition.

"We think there’s a false choice between this notion of foreign workers
taking Americans’ jobs," said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google, a
member of the coalition.

"We like to hire the most talented U.S.-born workers we can find and the
most talented foreign workers we can find," he said, "and we think that
helps us as an American company and helps us succeed as an American
company."

Over the past year, more than 50 top executives from TechNet have signed
letters, made calls and attended receptions and meetings with lawmakers to
push for more highly-skilled-worker visas, said Betsy Mullins, a senior
lobbyist with the bipartisan network of technology executives.

This year, Hoffman said Compete America is pushing lawmakers to reissue the
roughly 300,000 highly-skilled-worker visas and 140,000 green cards granted
between 2001 and 2003 that were approved but never used.

The coalition would like to increase from 20,000 the number of
highly-skilled-worker visas available to those with master’s and
doctorate degrees from American universities. Coalition partners are also
looking to double the one-year window during which college students and
recent graduates can stay in the country without a visa or green card,
Hoffman said.

The strategy is to urge receptive lawmakers, such as Sens. Edward M.
Kennedy (D-Mass.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and
Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Reps. John B. Shadegg (R-Ariz.) and Ellen O.
Tauscher (D-Calif.), to add the provisions to legislation moving toward
passage, Hoffman said.

Asked why the coalition isn’t pushing for a separate immigration bill,
Hoffman said with a laugh, "We saw what happened in the Senate" last year.
But the amendment strategy has also proved difficult. The coalition’s
attempt to increase the number of highly-skilled-worker visas failed in a
bid to incorporate it in last year’s omnibus spending bill.

Cornyn has been working with the Compete America coalition to boost the
number of visas, but he has not yet decided how best to push the issue this
year, spokesman Brian Walsh said, explaining: "From his perspective, this
is harming our ability to innovate and remain competitive in the global
economy."

With economic woes topping this year’s congressional agenda, tech
companies hope their message of job creation will resonate. Putting highly
skilled foreign workers in vacant jobs creates more jobs and stimulates
economic growth and tax revenue, Hoffman said.

Still, tech companies acknowledge that achieving even incremental change
will be difficult, particularly in this election year.

"This is ripe for the presidential campaign, and we think that Congress and
the next president have to act decisively to ensure that the U.S. remains
globally competitive, and getting the H-1B [highly-skilled-worker] visa and
green card problems fixed is a big part of that," said Microsoft
spokeswoman Ginny Terzano.

Complicating matters further is the fact that increasing the number of
highly-skilled-worker visas is the political linchpin holding together hope
of future comprehensive immigration reform.

"Everybody has one thing that they keep in the package to move it forward
in the debate, and with immigration, that’s H-1B visas," said a tech
lobbyist who didn’t want to be identified. "Stripping it away does not
allow for the comprehensive immigration reform that people want."

So it’s unlikely either Democrats or Republicans will deal away the
debate’s one unifying issue, the lobbyist said.

But Hoffman argues that, because they’re asking for only a short-term
fix, there will be plenty of reasons to address comprehensive immigration
reform in the future.

"Immigration is kind of like the common cold," he said. "It’s clear
we’re not going to cure it, but we can at least deal with its effects
this year."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Newsletter Homepage:
http://www.JobDestruction.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm

Support this Newsletter and www.JobDestruction.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Be removed from this mailing list, reply to this
email with UNSUbSCRIBE in the subject window
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -