H-1B [worker visa] Reform Right on Time

H-1B reform right on time

Last week, a bipartisan pair of senators, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), introduced a pro-American H-1B reform bill aimed at ending the chronic abuses of the long-compromised guest-worker program.

In a nutshell, the H-1B visa is a government program that lets corporations hire foreign workers for a fraction of what they would have to pay American workers, avoiding payroll taxes (like social security), and other expenses such as providing health insurance. And, of course, it has loopholes a mile wide that allows for widespread corporate abuse of both the letter and spirit of the law. This bill would attempt to curb those abuses.

The Bill's provisions for reform would include:

...would require H-1B-using companies to make a good faith effort to hire American professionals first.... Companies wishing to import foreign professionals would now be required to list available positions on a Department of Labor website for 30 days before submitting a visa petition.... will restrict employers from hiring H-1Bs within 180 days of a layoff of American workers (expanded from the old 90-day requirement)...

The Bill would also address another widely abused foreign worker visa program:

Title II of the bill would overhaul the L-1B visa, a program increasingly criticized as a way to circumvent the annual caps on H-1Bs. The L-1B applies to so-called “specialized knowledge” employees, usually in the IT industry, who may be transferred to the U.S. from their foreign affiliated employer to work here for up to five years. By executive fiat, President Obama recently expanded the term “specialized knowledge” handing a big subsidy to the IT industry in the form of “hundreds of thousands” of new foreign professionals.

There is definitely much bipartisan support for H-1B reform... there is also much opposition. Corporations love their entitlements and congress critters love their corporate donations. So real reform will not come easily:

Pressure to dull the better parts of the bill and fold in H-1B cap increases will be fierce. The bill’s overhaul of the program would do much to curb the billions in immigration subsidies going to the trillion-dollar tech industry annually—an industry already largely founded by taxpayer funded military and university grants. Supporters must remember that the whole goal of the program is to AVOID hiring the American middle class. The Grassley-Durbin bill would end this practice and put Americans first.

The article is very informative in many ways, and well worth the read. More info for your perusal:

Text of the Bill

5 shocking examples of H-1B visa program abuse

I think - this very type of legislation would be outlawed (or more correctly subject to repeal by private and secret corporate tribunals) by the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other 'free profit - errr trade' agreements.

a reply to: FyreByrd

I was thinking TPP as well. They are already allowing in the language of the TPP to expand this practice into something worse. How would this work with if we sign the TPP? Which rules supersede the other?

a reply to: FyreByrd
a reply to: NihilistSanta

Wow. You guys are so right and I never even saw it. Shame on me.

Introduce it and pass it in an election years, shut the complainers up, collect campaign dollars, all the while knowing that it will be moot soon enough anyway.

Total facepalm.

But thanks. I appreciate the skooling!

Do you know what H1-B actually refers to?

It's a bit involved but, essentially, HIB refers to the Haemophilus Influenza B vaccine, which is supposedly an inactive form of the virus, plus an adenovirus-based (polysaccharide) vaccine like those for pneumonia and meningitis. Adenoviruses are naturally occurring in certain food types like edible mushrooms, which is why in the Far East shiitake tea is prescribed for various ailments. The adenovirus attacks other viruses aggressively by masquerading as a fellow virus until it's close enough to attack. Adenoviruses are safe on their own, but stand back when they are combined with other viruses. The virus in the influenza vaccine has been modified with an adenovirus to make it more aggressive and and able to travel undetected in the human body. In the vaccine the virus has been rendered dormant, but when it detects the adenovirus vaccine, it senses its own kind and reactivates believing it's with a colony in an environment suitable for invasion. The modified influenza vaccine is, in fact, HIV.

There is roughly a six month window to add the activating adenovirus to induce HIV. Most people make do just with the flu jab. But there are certain groups that are targeted for extra vaccinations. Just recently there was a case where a gay man had allegedly contracted meningitis in Chicago and traveled to San Francisco. The report said he was sexually active and that meningitis can be passed on through touch, kissing etc. The gay communities in Chicago and San Francisco, including the transgender community (??) were at very high risk and therefore should be vaccinated immediately. There was no risk to heterosexuals, the report claimed.

In 2012 6000 HIV- volunteers were given an adenovirus-based vaccine for HIV in trials. Over 3000 contracted HIV. The HIV virus was not present in the test vaccine. Those who were infected had most likely had a flu jab in the previous six months.

HIV is a man-made abomination from influenza and either adenovirus 4 or 5. A vaccine timeline for influenza and other vaccines shows the relationship with HIV. In 1978 after the H3N2 outbreaks the uptake for the flu jab was high. There were two new vaccines, one for meningitis and one for pneumonia. Both contained HIV-1 serotypes (A and C) which activated the dormant flu (adenoviruses came later). The gay community reported a strange flu and we know what happened next. It took ten years for the "America responds to AIDS' campaign... With new vaccines and/or availability on medicare, HIV rates have been maintained artificially high.

So please don't back H1-B visa increases. You might be next.

It still pains me to say this, but the owning interests in a large percentage of companies that are still 'American' really could not care less about whether they destroy those companies' capacity to thrive, as long as they can 'do the deal'.

I live in a midsize midwestern city that used to be home to the headquarters of many large corporations.

I can tell yoy without doubt, not only is there a revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street, there is also a revolving door between Private Equity boards/partnerships and Business Consultancy boards/partnerships.

Need an influx of capital to fund operations? Private equity funds are a source of capital. Like any form of debt, it comes with strings attached. The business is used as collateral, and leveraged to the max.

Business can't support the new debt load? There are 'restructuring consultants' for that. Your business owes money to suppliers? Your business has built lots of experience in certain areas? Your business has more than 2 layers of managers? You give salary increases to the support functionaries in addition to the Sales teams? You have HR that focuses on building human capital? You have a training staff? You have a systems testing staff? All those things can be changed.

Business still not performing well? There are 'turnaround consultants' for that. They charge a pretty penny, and will often gladly take an equity stake in lieu of traditional fees. The consultants basically take over management of operations, reporting directly to the new 'investors'. More system changes are in store. Since the prior support staff has been right-sized, labor has to come from somewhere.

Enter the outsourcing consultants. In reality, outsourcing is no cheaper than (and is actually often waaaaayyyyy more expensive than) having a staff, due to project delays that keep the consultants all up in your business, for a fee of course. Even if the visa holders make less than US-based staff, the fees to the consultants more than eat up the 'savings'.

If you are one of the lucky few to have survived all the right-sizings, your wages are suppressed because there is so much money going to the consultants.

Even if you see it happening, you'll likely keep your head down and hope you can keep your job until you find something else.

But what else will you find, with this type of activity being so pervasive?

And that is the story of how Wall Street has sucked all the oxygen out of flyover country, and the rest of the world goes along because who doesn't stand behind 'cost savings'?

Smartest guys in the room indeed.

a reply to: PraeterLambo

Wow -- that's alot to take in and process, and I thank you for sharing. I'll have to read it again and think about that for a bit. I'm not going to pretend to understand HIV/AIDS either, but it has always struck me as an very unusual disease in how it presents and progresses.

I can assure you that I will not support H-1B increases though!

I think companies should have to petition the government for an H!B visa enumerating the skills that can't be found in a population of 330 million people

a reply to: CantStandIt

Thank you for expressing so much so well. As I understand it, I think that would be the dreaded vulture capitalist, yes?

Business is not what it used to be. It seems that an evil genius so-to-speak has taken control; like a swarm of locusts, gutting and devouring everything of long-term value and worth for immediate profit... the future be damned. I know greed is a huge motivator in and of itself, but I can't help but believe the greed of the many is being used to destroy the economy for the benefit of the few.

I recall an interview for employment for a company located in Atlanta, Georgia. I was told I was a top candidate for hiring. Guess who the company decided to hire, an H1B. I did a little research and found the company hired very few American professionals in favor of H1Bs.

Its disgusting that politicians passing these bills are basically sticking it to Amercan workers. Are the politicians just putting very little thought in how the bills they pass can be and will be exploited or are they just idiots.

Oh stop...

This sort of nonsense is why the left rallies behind crazy issues like Syrian Refugees who might actually pose a threat, it because the right always cries wolf at "non threats", like Trump wanting to build a Wall when the direction of Latino migrants is reversing and nonsense like this.

Last year Berkeley had around 140 Computer Programmers graduate of close to 30,000 kids... The reality is we need those work Visas, no one locally can do the jobs I offer and I am fr from alone, we put out "social workers" and "psychologists" in this country and we are screwed because of it...

The last immigration problem we actually have is high tech workers and PHD's from Asia we aren't suffering from this and no one uses that Visa for Snow Plow Driving and Cattle Herding and assembly line work...

We are still getting useless refugees who will just damage how we live but now we'll stop the proper Visas because morons think Nasa will hire them somehow when they don't go to school... Pthhhh.

Just go after EB2 after this and we can complete the process of being a 3rd world country.

a reply to: eManym

I've sadly come to realize that only a few congress critters vote for these bills due to ignorance or incompetence... the majority have been paid handsomely for their votes... and with the NSA spying on their Blackberries, we must include blackmail as a real possibility.

Even sadder is that our congress critters are passing legislation written by and for corporate interests via the American Legislative Executive Council. You can read about some of ALEC's dastardly deeds here, such as private for-profit prisons and utility companies charging fees to homeowners with solar panels.

I compare H1Bs to indentured servitude, which was prevalent in the 1700's. Employers don't have to pay unemployment insurance and other benefits to H1Bs like thay would have to with American professionals of the same appitude and their are many Americans unemployed because H1Bs are working in their place. H1Bs are motivated by the prospect of eventually getting citizenship status.

I agree with the new H1B bill revisions, hire American workers first and if there are any employment opportunities remaining, by all means hire H1Bs. Many employers are abusing the current bill provisions.

a reply to: criticalhit

No... you stop...

If you find/see the value in these visa programs in filling jobs that would otherwise be impossible to fill, I will take you at your word... but not your conclusion. If you are right, it would really be a shame to have the programs lose all credibility and support because of corruption of the unscrupulous and thus eliminated completely... so all the more reason to stop the gross violations and abuses of these worthy programs.

a reply to: Boadicea

Thanks for the kind words. And for the links!!! These were great finds.

To be a litle more succinct and direct in answering your OP, I should have said that handing out work visas is not all bad, imho. And I think closing some loopholes in the legislation is a good idea.

Honestly, tech moves so fast these days, we could employee ALL American tech workers and still have plenty of work for visa holders with mad skills.

IF the consultants and deal makers left some cash for funding the work.

Or for sending people with a proven work ethic and some experience back to school for just a little more training. We're talking mere weeks to teach someone with prior development experience a totally new language from the ground up. Or for learning multiple integrational technologies at a broader level. Just weeks. Think about that.

a reply to: CantStandIt

You make some great points and -- even better -- some great reform ideas. We need more of that kind of thing -- real solutions.



There's much to be said for bringing the best and the brightest from other nations to supplement our work force as long as American workers are put first. We can close the loopholes and curb the abuses (if the TPP doesn't supercede all of it, as Fyrebyrd already pointed out). And I like the idea of making it more practical and efficient to give American workers the necessary training first, and making imported labor the last best resort.

As another poster pointed out, in the end, it isn't always as cost effective as some (many?) corporations hoped and expected. The program may be imploding anyway.