Tech, business lobbies pushing for more green cards

Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2008 1:29 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1926 -- 9/29/2008 >>>>>

"More visas mean more labor arbitrage, which of course means lower wages and
higher profits," Sanchez said.

The threat of an H-1B or green card increase is probably over until after the
election, but we can never be sure until Congress adjourns. They will be in
Washington DC until at least Thursday when a second vote on the bailout is
taken.

It may sound crazy, but the cheap labor lobby is trying to use the argument
that our financial crisis can be solved by easing the rules on immigration.
They just don't give up! Check out the second article to see how they are
making their case. The title almost sounds like a joke: "Why Not Use
Immigration to Ease the Financial Crisis?"

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http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/09/22/story16.html?b=1222056000%5E1702833&brthrs=1

Friday, September 19, 2008

Tech, business lobbies pushing for more green cards

Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks Phoenix Business Journal Thwarted
in their efforts to create guest-worker programs, U.S. technology companies
and business groups are taking a new tack to bring more foreign workers into
the country: trying to get more green cards issued.

The business and high-tech lobbies in Arizona and Washington want to expand
the number of green cards, or permanent work visas, available to foreign
workers and students. Their wish list includes:

Increasing the annual cap of 140,000 green cards to 290,000.
Allowing an exemption from green card caps for foreign-born students with
advanced degrees from U.S. colleges in engineering, mathematics and science.
Raising or getting rid of per-country limits on green cards, allowing more
skilled workers from high-tech-oriented countries such as India to work in the
U.S. Under current rules, no foreign country can account for more than
7 percent of the green cards issued.
Recapturing and issuing as many as 550,000 unused green cards from previous
years that were not granted because of bureaucratic backlogs.
Jenny Verdery, director of work force policy for Intel Corp. in Washington,
said the tech sector needs workers for skilled positions, and the green card
push is a top priority for the industry this year.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel, with major semiconductor manufacturing
operations in Chand-ler, is one of Arizona's largest employers.

Other technology and corporate heavyweights -- including Hewlett-Packard Co.,
Motorola Inc., Google Inc., Boeing Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Microsoft Corp. --
back the plans, as do the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Arizona
Technology Council and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

"We favor legislation that removes artificial visa caps. They have the effect
of driving skilled workers to other countries and valuable business
opportunities to where the workers are," said Ann Seiden, communications
director for the Arizona Chamber.

"It becomes increasingly difficult to remain competitive when we're not
graduating highly skilled workers in the U.S. and we're not allowing them to
come in from abroad," she said.

Steven Zylstra, president and CEO of the Tech Council, also wants to increase
the annual cap of 85,000 temporary H-1B visas for skilled workers.

"Many of our member companies have problems recruiting talent to fill their
open positions," he said. "We support raising the limits on H-1B visas."

Congressional proposals are on the table regarding the green cards and H-1Bs,
but business interests are making a harder pre-election push for the latter.

Skeptics worry green card, H-1B and guest-worker plans favored by businesses
and the technology sector are aimed at bringing in more cheaper foreign labor.

Rob Sanchez, publisher of the Chandler-based Job Destruction Newsletter,
suspects if more work-based green cards are allotted, they will go to students
and H-1B visa holders already in the U.S.

"More visas mean more labor arbitrage, which of course means lower wages and
higher profits," Sanchez said. "Many businesses have employees on H-1B visas
who are getting close to the expiration time, six years, so they would like to
convert them to green cards. Others are having a tough time getting H-1Bs, so
they will use this as an alternate."

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama both favor a guest-worker
program and more H-1B visas. Those efforts have failed largely because of
opposition from those concerned about foreign labor displacing U.S. workers.

Get Connected
Job Destruction Newsletter: www.jobdestruction.info

Intel Corp.: www.intel.com

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http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=66500

or

http://blogs.ilw.com/angelopaparelli/2008/09/bloombergcom-ha.html

September 19, 2008
Why Not Use Immigration to Ease the Financial Crisis?

Bloomberg.com has posted a scary article on how America's growing financial
crisis might lower our nation's appeal as a world financial center and
repository of foreign investments. In a strange coincidence, Wall St.
Journal immigration reporter, Miriam Jordan, reported today on the global
relocation of people seeking a better, more prosperous life. Her article
("With Millions on the Move, This Guide Maps the Routes to Prosperity")
reports on a new study by the Economist Intelligence Unit, confirming that the
U.S. still ranks #1 in "attractiveness to immigrants."

If (despite the financial turmoil) our nation remains the destination country
of choice for immigration, why are our legislators and the Administration not
scurrying to adopt more welcoming investment- and employment-based immigration
laws?

The Congress could start by reauthorizing the regional center pilot program, a
critical component of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor visa category.

Regional center authorization runs out on September 30. According to Invest

in the USA (IIUSA), the failure to reauthorize the EB-5 regional center
program will cause the loss of $100 million in investment and 3,000 new jobs
in Vermont alone, and similar losses will occur in California, Maryland,
Wisconsin and other states with active regional centers. Senator Patrick Leahy
of Vermont is reportedly working with the Senate leadership to include a
simple five-year extension in a continuing resolution (CR) that the House and
Senate will pass next week to fund the government after September 30. The CR
will start in the House and will not be subject to amendment in the Senate.
Therefore, the EB-5 extension, if it is to be enacted before the sunset, must
be included in the House version of the CR.

On another front, the House Judiciary Committee held a rescheduled mark up two
days ago on four immigration bills including, H.R. 5882, a green card
recapture bill supported by the Compete America coalition. The recapture bill
ought not be controversial. It merely allows the preservation
(recapture) of squandered immigrant visas left unused because the responsible
agencies (State, USCIS and the FBI) could not process the allocated visa quota
in prior years before each annual deadline. Alas, the committee ran out of
time before it could mark up H.R. 5882. Reportedly, a mark up might be
rescheduled for next week. If Congress decides to adjourn for the elections on
September 26, however, then the chance of enacting H.R. 5882 grows very dim.

Laudably, Treasury Secretary Paulson and members of Congress are working this
weekend to create a new government entity to assume toxic loans and restore
stability to the financial system. Why can't others in the legislative power
structure, having just come off a five-week vacation, work over the weekend to
inject prosperity into our country by the speedy adoption of enlightened and
essential immigration laws?

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