Seeing the Light on H-1B Visas

Date: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 1:37 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

November 29, 2005 No. 1374

This recent Computerworld op-ed by Gerard A. Alphonse, the president of the
IEEE, illustrates why the IEEE isn't on the side of working engineers and
why they shouldn't be trusted to solve the ever increasing employment
problems that engineers are having.

The IEEE solution to the H-1B problem is to give unlimited Green Cards to
foreign engineers. They have held to this position ever since Paul Donnelly
was hired in the year 2000 by the IEEE to formulate their position on
immigration. It's no coincidence that Alphonse mentioned that the IEEE
policy started in 2000 although he didn't mention who made this boneheaded
policy. Donnelly ruined the IEEE with his "instant Green Card" ideology,
and even though he left the IEEE his predecessors have held onto his
brain-dead idea. Despite the fact that Paul Donnelly was one of the
creators of the H-1B program in 1990 the IEEE allowed themselves to be
infiltrated by putting him on their payroll.

Alphonse's misguided allegiance to Donnelly's instant Green Card philosophy
will not help U.S. engineers that are displaced from their jobs. It makes
very little difference to those that lose their jobs whether it was taken
by an alien that comes to the U.S. on a Green Card or an H-1B visa.

Alphonse has an obvious conflict of interest on the Green Card issue
because he was a Haitian national who entered the U.S. on a Green Card.
Apparently he has more allegiance to his home country of Haiti than to the
American engineers that the IEEE is supposed to be representing.

Alphonse totally denies the laws of supply and demand in the labor market.
He thinks that increasing the number of foreign engineers won't affect the
labor market as long as they get Green Cards instead of H-1B visas. He uses
the same flawed rationale that Paul Donnelly used to corrupt the IEEE. To
read more about Paul Donnelly, and to understand the difference between
H-1B and Green Cards, go to this webpage:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/H1BvsGreenCard.htm

According to Alphonse, H-1Bs are abused, but Green Card holders aren't.
Therefore in his view all we have to do is to allow foreign workers to work
here on Green Cards and all the problems associated with H-1B will
disappear. It's a naive notion because the Green Card program is used to
abuse American workers who need jobs. Go to this webpage to read one of the
ways Green Cards are used to displace American workers:
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Library/Archives/AZLCA.htm

I put the IEEE on the Skunk list awhile back because of their betrayal of
dues paying members. This link has more about the Donnelly era of the IEEE
and why this organization is often viewed with distrust from working
engineers:

http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Skunks.htm#IEEE

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http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legislation/story/0,10801,106343,00.html?source=NLT_CAR&nid=106343

Seeing the Light on H-1B Visas

Opinion by Gerard A. Alphonse

NOVEMBER 21, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - To help ensure America's continuing
technological leadership and competitiveness, IEEE-USA has long favored the
permanent immigration of skilled foreign-born engineers and scientists as a
much better solution than using temporary H-1B visas. Some in Congress
finally seem to be listening.
The Senate voted on Nov. 3 to increase annual permanent-employment-based
admissions by 90,000 through the visa classifications EB-1 (extraordinary
ability), EB-2 (advanced-degree professionals) and EB-3
(baccalaureate-degree professionals and other skilled workers). It also
voted to release 30,000 more annual H-1B visas, but differences with the
House bill must be worked out in conference.

My career illustrates how permanent immigration is a far superior way to
keep the U.S. competitive than relying on temporary admissions programs. I
was born in Haiti and came to the U.S. for college. Following training in
one of the world's most prestigious research laboratories, I became a
permanent resident and then a naturalized U.S. citizen. Full citizenship
contributed greatly to my ability to reach technical achievements I had
never dreamed of and to become a top leader in the IEEE, the world's
largest technical professional society.

IEEE-USA supports immigration policies that bring the best and brightest
individuals from abroad and encourages them to stay. This has been our
official position since 2000. Balanced immigration policies keep families
together and create a level playing field for all workers.

The H-1B program, however, is plagued by myth and abuse. One myth is that
the law requires U.S. employers to seek H-1B applicants only when qualified
Americans can't be found. But it wasn't a scarcity of talented Americans
that led U.S. companies to max out the 65,000 H-1B visa cap for fiscal
2006; it was because H-1B workers have largely become a first option, not a
last resort.

U.S. Department of Labor statistics show a decline of 221,000 employed U.S.
technical workers in six major computer and engineering job classifications
from 2000 to 2004. Surely many of these skilled workers could qualify for
positions filled by H-1Bs.

Many H-1B visas -- including the 20,000 for advanced-degree graduates of
U.S. institutions \ are used by companies that offer lower-cost technical
services by non-U.S. citizens. This leads to wage suppression. The 2003
IEEE-USA salary survey reflected this with the first decline in median
income for U.S. IEEE members in 31 years.

This is not surprising, considering the wages the Labor Department lets
U.S. companies pay H-1B workers. A review of the Labor Condition
Application database for the first quarter of fiscal 2005 reveals that an
H-1B electrical engineer makes $10 an hour, a Web site translator $8 per
hour and a secondary school math teacher just $16,034 a year. The law
requires that H-1B employees be paid the prevailing wage for their
occupations, but the implementation of these regulations can be, and is,
easily gamed.

Three government reports have found flaws in the H-1B program. Perhaps most
troubling is a September Department of Homeland Security report that found
that the DHS lacks the technology and methodology "to adhere to the
legislated cap" of 65,000. The DHS approved approximately 71,740 H-1B visa
petitions in fiscal 2005.

So rather than adding more H-1B visas to a flawed system that hurts all
workers, Congress should focus on fixing the permanent admissions program.
This will help bring the talents needed to keep the U.S. economy the
world's strongest and most innovative.

Gerard A. Alphonse is IEEE-USA's 2005 president and an IEEE fellow. He is
senior vice president of advanced technologies at Medeikon Corp. in Ewing,
N.J.

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