The truth is, there is no shortage of software engineers in this country. Nor is there a shortage of H-1B Visas nor foreign workers according to…
1) The Urban Institute
2) The Sloan Foundation
3) The Rand Corporation
4) Harvard University
5) Duke University

1) The Urban Institute
Urban Institute report disputes shortage of STEM grads.
Into the Eye of the Storm: Assessing the Evidence on Science and
Engineering Education, Quality, and Workforce Demand http://news.cenews.com/article.asp?id=1035&page=1
http://tinyurl.com/37omtw < - - - the report http://tinyurl.com/3yohn9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kVA5UA38nE

2) The Sloan Foundation
Annual Report – Education and Careers in Science and Technology http://www.sloan.org/report/2006/sciwork.shtml

3) The Rand Corporation
Is the Federal Government Facing a Shortage of Scientific and Technical Personnel? http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB1505/index1.html
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/2005/RB1505.pdf

4) Harvard University
How and Why Government, Universities, and Industry Create
Domestic Labor Shortages of Scientists and High-Tech Workers http://www.nber.org/~peat/PapersFolder/Papers/SG/NSF.html

5) Duke University
Study: There Is No Shortage of U.S. Engineers http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2111347,00.asp

Lou Dobbs
No Need for Cheap Foreign Labor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LXvGD5HgIg

Hire Americans First
http://www.HireAmericansFirst.Org

Norm Matloff
Professor Ph.D., UC Los Angeles
Immigration Forum’s March 2006 E-Newsletter on Miano’s Study http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/NFAP.txt

Video Documentaries http://www.outsourcecongress.org/pictures/video

Coalition for the Future American Workers http://www.americanworker.org

American Engineering Association http://www.aea.org/pdf/AEA_POSITION_Workforce.pdf

Programmers Guild
http://www.programmersguild.org

SUBJECT: Unemployment versus Immigration

Dear Senator (or Congressman):

The H-1B and L-1 guest workers programs have “RESERVED” millions of high-value jobs for citizens of foreign countries. And, We The People have a problem with these “Fake Job Ads” which consistently and routinely EXCLUDE United States Citizens during the hiring process… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cNnK2M4OTs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU
http://www.numbersusa.com/index

If you agree that United States citizens should be INCLUDED (rather than excluded) during hiring procedures, then We The People urge you to co-sponsor this legislation as follows

S.2368
“SAVE Action of 2007”
CRS Summary: http://tinyurl.com/yoy3eg
(note: according to NumbersUSA, S.2366 is identical, see http://www.numbersusa.com/index )

S.1035
H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007
CRS Summary: http://tinyurl.com/yrneb9

HR 2538
Defend the American Dream Act of 2007
CRS Summary: http://tinyurl.com/2x7qb7

HR 2504
L-1 Nonimmigrant Reform Act
CRS Summary: http://tinyurl.com/ytdvud

HR 548
To establish a Congressional Trade Office (DeFazio)
CRS Summary: http://tinyurl.com/2l39vr

NOTE: To view the above legislation,
go to http://thomas.loc.gov
Under *Search Bill Text*, enter the Bill Number.
Select the *Bill Number* button.
Click the *Search Button*

THANK YOU
UNEMPLOYED
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
& SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
& BIOLOGISTS
etc

FOCUS ON MEMBERS OF THE
Senate Judiciary Committee on Immigration, http://judiciary.senate.gov/subcommittees/110/immigration110.cfm
Members such as…
Edward M. Kennedy, MA (Chair)
(202) 224-4543,
http://kennedy.senate.gov

Joseph R. Biden, Jr., DE
(202) 224-5042,
http://biden.senate.gov

Dianne Feinstein, CA
(202) 224-3841,
http://feinstein.senate.gov

Charles E. Schumer, NY
(202) 224-4124,
http://schumer.senate.gov

John Cornyn, TX (Ranking Member)
(202) 224-2934,
http://cornyn.senate.gov

Jon Kyl, AZ
(202) 224-4521,
http://kyl.senate.gov

Jeff Sessions, AL
(202) 224-4124,
http://sessions.senate.gov

Please urge these Senators to cosponsor the legislation described in the previous message.

TO CONTACT O T H E R CONGRESS MEMBERs

For Senators… http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Most (if not all) Senator website Web-Mail interfaces accept messages from all zipcodes. For House of Representative members… http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml
Most Congressman website Web-Mail interfaces require your zip-code to be withing their district. To send message to other Congressmen, simply look for a relevant zipcode associated with their local district office locations.

Hardcopies of letters may also be stuffed into envelopes and addressed to all 535+ members of Congress using Mailing Labels available here...

http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/index.html
MS Word...
http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/wordmemberlabels_110.doc

Are you seeing a lot of Discriminatory job descriptions and websites as if "H-1B Visa" is a Bonafide Occupational Qualification, BFOQ? Report all such incidents to the DOJ-OSC...

1) Go here...
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc

2) Click on the "FAQ & Forms" button (top center)
now you are here...
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc/htm/facts.htm

3) In the upper hand side, click on "Charge Form", then "English" now you are here... http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/osc/pdf/engfrm.pdf

Fill out the form.
In section 9, "Describe the Unfair Employment Practice (use additional sheets if necessary)" Add this... "Recruiting In Bad Faith: 20 CFR 655.805 - What violations may the Administrator investigate? http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ETA/Title_20/Part_655/20CFR655.805.htm
(9) Failed to recruit in good faith, as required by §655.739 (if applicable);
20 CFR 655.739 - What is the "recruitment of U.S. workers" http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ETA/Title_20/Part_655/20CFR655.739.htm
EEOC Regulations (collection for Age, National Origin, religion...
everything)
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/regs/index.html
EEO:
EEOC 1614 Equal Employment Opportunity http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_06/29cfr1614_06.html
EEOC 1607 UGESP, Uniform Guidelines On Employee Selection Procedures http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_06/29cfr1607_06.html
AGE:
EEOC 1625: "Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967" http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_06/29cfr1625_06.html
NATIONAL ORIGIN:
EEOC 1606: Guidelines on Discrimination Because of National Origin
(USA)
http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_06/29cfr1606_06.html

The only candidate who is addressing the h1b issue properly is Nader. He's the only one who gets it. This economy is going to collapse if we keep sending jobs and money offshore, and importing cheap workers to do US jobs. Its just that simple. Put a US citizen out of work and many either get a less paying new job or don't return to work - in either case it means less tax dollars to spend in the economy. What supports the US economy is US dollars - our trade imbalance already points out that while foreign investors give us an artifical boost - that can't and won't last forever. Especially once the emerging countries began to out purchase us - at that point either we have our own economy squared away or we crash.

Alan Greenspan on Income Inequality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqx88MyUSck

Alan's new book is about capitalism and what it has done.
Alan says Income Inequality,
a huge increase in Per-Capita Income never seems
to gain acceptance by a vast majority of people.
Alan describes capitalism and creative destruction competition as DIFFICULT for those who have been competed out, loosing their jobs, having all sorts of problems. Alan says you cannot have the benefits of capitalist market growth without the support of a significant portion, virtually ALL of the people.
And if the rewards of Capitalism are being rewarded unjustly,
a capitalist system will not stand.
Then Alan says the problem is the decline in our primary & secondary education system.
Then he suggests / supports the augmentation of skilled labor through immigration to suppress the wages of the skilled.

The irony here is that Alan not talking about Investment Banker bonuses averaging
$ 750,000 annually.
Instead, Alan singles out the tech workers Per-Capita income.
Do virtually ALL of the people in our society support Investment Bankers $ 750,000 Annual bonuses as just and fair (especially during the peak of subprime mess)?

Is Alan Greenspan a hypocrite? ( yep )

Is it really justice to suppress the wages of skilled people? ( nope )

NADER FOR PRESIDENT !!!

YUP:
Nader May Win The Presidency in a Landslide

Nader on Immigration
http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/swank/080225

?? Isn't the H-1b visas program simply an effort to replace American tech professionals with cheaper foreign labor ??

It has been stated in the controversial "TUBEGATE VIDEO" the Goal is NOT find / hire an American worker!
www.youtube.com/programmersguild

For more on H-1b visas see:
www.eng-i.com/E-Newsletters.htm

Way to go Colleen, great job!

The head line should have been:

What 3 of the presidential candidates had to say about H-1B visas.

Hi Colleen,

Great info! How can I contact you?

That's what I'd expect to hear from those three, looking at who's underwriting their campaigns. What I'd be more interested in hearing is where Huckabee stands in the mix.

The sooner we cap H1-B, L-1, and L-2 visas, the better.

I know Sen Clinton has consistently spoken in favor of them, just as she has been - until 2008 - pro-NAFTA and pro-WTO.

Time for a change.

American workers have already lost the presidential election because all three candidates support H-1B and offshoring.

I hope all of you heard last night's debate when Clinton and Obama refused to commit to really doing anything about NAFTA.

So one way or another, we will have a president that supports increasing H-1B, wants to give amnesty and unlimited guest worker visas, and supports insane free trade agreements.

We must concentrate on Congress because that's our only hope of halting the destruction of the American middle class.

Please sign up for the free email "Job Destruction Newsletter" to keep up with the latest developments in H-1B. This Infoworld article is great, but I wrote newsletters last year explaining why these candidates support H-1B increases. This is not new news, although I'm happy that a mainstream media writer exposed it.

Go here to sign up:
http://www.jobdestruction.info/ShameH1B/JobDestructionNews.htm

Anyone who seriously thinks the U.S. has a shortage of technical resources has never worked in a company that has (1) increased its Indian staff and (2) reduced its U.S. technical staff.

Anyone who believes that this cannot legally be done has never witnessed a U.S. technical worker sitting side by side training his Indian replacement. Failure to cooperate will result in immediate dismissal of the U.S. worker. The U.S. worker has to comply to collect severance and have a decent reference from his employer.

It's corporate greed and laws that promote these practices that allow it to be done under the guise of a shortage of qualified U.S. people.

We need to reign in the abuse of L-1 visas (intra-company transfer) with the same vigilance as H-1Bs. It's appalling that the "pricing" of L-1 fees is under $2000 to bring in a "temporary" worker for 5 years. That's total.

Congress tried to close the loophole for contingent workers (job shops like InfoSys) in 2004 based on amended language, but Bush'es DOL toadies say they cannot interpret this new wording as clearly disqualifying the Indian job shops. Mind you, L-1 has no numerical limit on visas, explaining why the action has shifted from H-1Bs to L-1s.

The only effective way to stop this crass manipulation of the tech labor market in favor of employers is to raise L-1 visa fees to exactly cancel out the wage differential. Yep, charge $50K a year for L-1s, and no clever lawyer will be able to circumvent the will of his/her fellow citizens. This would be very effective as a jobs program for Americans, boost earning power and consumer confidence in a meaningful, ongoing way, and not cost the Govt. a cent --- it would actually reduce the deficit.

What defines a country? These things: borders, language and culture. When these things erode away, the country falls. Sadly, this country is in a slide as we have lost our grit to protect the borders, defend a national language, and show pride in a uniquely American culture. Allowing an ever-increasing number of foreign workers, when domestic talent is available, only adds to the problem. And IF the premise is true that there is not enough home-grown talent, then the focus needs to be on the systemic problem leading to this condition. Adding more H-1B visas is not the solution.

Let's get to work fixing the foundational problems with this country.

To My Congressmen :

TAX BURDENS?

To better understand the competitive forces in our global economy, investigate India’s software development industry in the context of corporate taxes. review India’s Income Tax Circular (November 23, 1994) http://tinyurl.com/5jpd2 and what we find here is the term “Tax Holiday” recurring over and over again specifically for “Software Technology Parks (STPS)” and “Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (EHTP)”. There are both 5 year tax holidays and 10 year tax holidays which are a guarantee from the Indian government to the companies who locate onto the shores of India that they will not have to pay any taxes at all for 5 or 10 years… i.e. a Corporate Tax Rate of 0.00 %.

Next, look at the WTO Subsidies Agreement http://tinyurl.com/qu4wb which defines a subsidy as including “- foregone government revenue (e.g., a tax credit)”.

The WTO Subsidies Agreement http://tinyurl.com/qu4wb defines Actionable Subsidies as follows…

A subsidy granted by a WTO member government is "actionable" under the Agreement (again, certain exceptions are made for agricultural subsidies) if it "injures" the domestic industry of another country, or if it causes "serious prejudice" to the interests of another country. Serious prejudice can arise in cases where a subsidy:

—impedes or displaces another country's exports into the market of the subsidizing country;

—impedes or displaces another country's exports to third countries;

—significantly undercuts the price of a "like product" (e.g., an identical or similar product produced by another country; or,

—increases the world market share of the subsidizing country for a particular primary product or commodity.

0) Now, have our jobs been impeded and displaced? Yes.
1) Have our exports been impeded and displaced? Yes.
2) Have other countries exports been displaced? Yes.
3) Has the price of software been significantly undercut? Yes.
4) Has India's subsidies increased their world market share in
the technology industry (hardware + software + services) Yes.
Is this subsidy Actionable by our U.S. Trade Representatives? Yes.

India’s tax holidays seem to be a clear violation of the WTO Subsidies Agreement.

WHY DOESN’T CONGRESS URGE THE US DOC Trade Representatives to Raise this dispute with the WTO?

THIS IS ONE OF THE MAJOR / KEY ROOT CAUSES OF OFFSHORING.

India’s Free Trade Zones ( Free Tax Zones ) is just a single country example.

There are many other examples.

These WTO Subsidies Violations HURT US WORKERS.

PLEASE DON’T EVER SAY YOU DIDN’T KNOW OR

THAT YOUR CONSITUENTS HAVE NOT RAISED THE ISSUE.

THIS ISSUE IS WELL KNOWN.

PLEASE, SUPPORT YOUR CONTITUENTS…

IT COULD HELP YOU IN THE NEXT ELECTION.

There is not, and there never has been, a "shortage" of skilled IT workers in the USA. What there is, and what the H-1B program addresses, is a desire by corporations to hire skilled people at lower salaries.

The corporate lobbyists have more political power than the people, that's the root of the problem.

IT is a comodity. Until the cost of building and maintaining software is reduced the best thing for our country is to allow intelligent, capable, and qualified individuals. Of course there's an alternative - outsourcing; not necessarily to other countries. It could be to someone like IBM who ships thousands of jobs to China, Manila, and India.

The H-1b and L-1 visa programs create an ever-growing pool of cheap foreign workers who have some knowledge of the technologies and business processes that are created in America and used by businesses based in America. Thus, as more and more of these visas are issued over time, then it becomes easier for employers of all sizes to ship more and more jobs overseas.

Of course, not every professional job can be offshored. Sadly, those jobs that are difficult to offshore are being increasingly filled by low wage H-1b slaves that are desperate to get a greencard. More visas and more greencards means more offshoring as well as further wage suppression in the remaining jobs that aren’t offshored.

The H-1b and L-1 visa programs accelerate offshoring and the employment-based greencard program skewers the supply and demand so that there are more applicants for the remaining jobs, thus causing wage arbitrage here in the U.S.

The H-1b, L-1, and employment-based greencard programs are dismantling the ladders of upward mobility in America. It’s time to shut these career destruction programs down completely.

Fat, lazy, over consuming Americans who cannot compete with better qualified Indians become WHINERS as is the nature of LOSERS!!!

These WHINERS seem to think they are entitled to a job over a better qualified Indian simply because they were born here or one of their relative died in some stupid war!

WHINER; Wake up! Globalization means the BEST QUALIFIED will be hired regardless of borders!

Rather than spend so much time WHINING, maybe you should polish up your skills so you can COMPETE with better QUALIFIED Indians!

Enough of this RACISM already!!!

Indo-Americans are organizing so we can FIGHT BACK against the racist WHINERS!!!

Fat, lazy, over consuming Americans who cannot compete with better qualified Indians become WHINERS as is the nature of LOSERS!!!

These WHINERS seem to think they are entitled to a job over a better qualified Indian simply because they were born here or one of their relative died in some stupid war!

WHINER; Wake up! Globalization means the BEST QUALIFIED will be hired regardless of borders!

Rather than spend so much time WHINING, maybe you should polish up your skills so you can COMPETE with better QUALIFIED Indians!

Enough of this RACISM already!!!

Indo-Americans are organizing so we can FIGHT BACK against the racist WHINERS!!!

I am an Indian and I am sad to see an immature comment from someone like Raj. Raj, you are not helping yourself or others who think like you by posting such lowly comments.

WHY OUTSOURCING?
----------------
The issue at crux is CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE.

1 US $ = approx. 40 Indian Rs

This makes is cheaper for American/European companies to send work offshore because while it looks cheaper in US, it is a lot of money in India.

SLIDING DOLLAR AND LARGE US DEBT (over 9 trillion)
----------------------------------------------
But the US dollar is sliding down like crazy due to massive spending by US in things like war and collapse of housing market bubble and little savings and large national debt ($9.3 trillion, about $79,000 in average for each American taxpayer).

INDIA WILL BE REPLACED BY CHEAPER PLACES
----------------------------------------
Compare this to less than 2 years ago:

1 US $ = approx. 50 Indian Rs

So USD has already fallen 20% against Indian currency while salaries in India have been rising fast.

This means that soon the simple economics would stop offshoring to India based simply on cost. The US companies will then move their operations elsewhere. There is always demand for right talent so the talented ones in India would make it through.

NOTE: Outsourcing to US, Europe, Australia and Japan only accounts for less than 10% of Indian GDP.

How to fix the H1B system
---------------------------
The small number of H1B's are insignificant in bigger scheme of things. H1B's pay the same taxes as a US Citizen but are not even eligible for the portion of social security taxes that they paid.
H1B visa system had been exploited by Indian and American outsourcers (such as IBM, EDS) to bring in Indian/Foreign labor for out placement at American companies.
This loophole needs to be fixed in the H1B and L1 process. Any company making use of these visas should not be allowed to place these employees as contractors/consultants at a client site.
This will push out the companies that bring in foreign labor ***in bulk*** just for client placement but still allow for American companies/organizations (be it Microsoft, Oracle, Freddie Mac, NASA, and other non-profits and hospitals, etc.) to hire foreign talent based on their needs. These companies in general pay prevailing or better wages to H1Bs compared to out-placement firms.

If Raj thinks that it's about skills, and not about money, let's place a "tax" on companies that employ people with H1 and L1 visas. Make the tax equal to the difference in pay between what they would pay a U.S. citizen and what they have been paying the H1 and L1 workers, given the same skill set. Then watch what happens to the demand for H1 and L1 visas...

Most of the comments posted before mine (here) are generalizations, and miss a specific, but important subtlety: Current H1-B caps cause significant problems for real life.

Engineers are not, in fact, fully fungible. You can't always substitute a desired foreign person with a U.S. alternative. Certain people have specific characteristics / skills that an employer might need, and the visa limits prevent it. For instance, if Gerard Depieu (fictitious name) is an expert in a particular technical area, and if a company really, really, desperately wants to move this person from (e.g.) France to the U.S. to install them in a core team for a specific project that has to start NOW, the current visa caps preclude the company from meeting. Or consider an open-source project where the open source project lead is a non-U.S. citizen, but wants to come to the U.S. to start a company around the project, due to access to capital, access to additional engineers, etc. Don't we want to let this person in so they can _hire_ a bunch of U.S. engineers?

H1-B currently interferes with these reasonable situations, and the number of additional paths to follow to get it done are also insufficient. Maybe there need to be additional visa types, or maybe it's solved with H1-B visa cap growth.

But at the end of the day, engineers are not fungible - sometimes you simply need a specific non-US person, and the H1-B caps are interfering with what it takes to make a business successful. Blindly fighting an increase is short sighted, and not in the best interest of our country's long-term economic success.

I understand the frustration and anguish here.....but fail to understand "H1 = hiring of cheap labor" part here. Offshoring maybe for cutting costs but do you really think H1 workers here are "cheap"? Sorry to say but thats not reality. H1 positions do get very competitive salaries based on their skills and expertise. These are by no means "cheaper" compared to what an American would get.

This is an interesting story. I read about the same issue here - TechBanyan http://www.TechBanyan.com and started searching for other blogs which had a similar immigration related story. Views nicely put!

For anyone that thinks that Americans/Europeans are whiners and losers I have this to say... Just what made an Indian person with little or no experience in India more qualified in IT/Programming or whatever skill over someone living in America/Europe who has many years of experience? The bottom line is that it is about money and the bottom line. Their are new companies that have sprung up whose only purpose is to receive the vastly inferior work from India or other places and correct the issues as it is still cheaper than hiring someone in America/Europe to do the same job.. I agree that wage equalization should take place in the form of a import duty or tax on the corporation. With all things being equal, we'll see who is the better qualified. Besides, once your country becomes too expensive to do business in, then I guess you will be the whiners and losers... Pathetic and arrogant!

Joe said:
----
"For anyone that thinks that Americans/Europeans are whiners and losers I have this to say...

With all things being equal, we'll see who is the better qualified. Besides, once your country becomes too expensive to do business in, then I guess you will be the whiners and losers... Pathetic and arrogant!"
----

Joe, does the last sentence apply to you as well?

I would apply to me if I was the one who was not qualified to do my job as effectively as another person. Arrogance would be my complaining that someone else got the job for their skills, not the fact that they are willing to take far less to do the same job. Pathetic would be my continuing to complain without doing something about improving my skills.

Since that is not the case here, how would it apply to me? I can remember meeting some very nice and skilled people with H1-B visas, but they still had skill sets below those of local people. They also earned far less than those local people with equal and more skills.

Can I safely assume you are one of those people who believe that you have an absolute right to be poorly compensated so long as you are compensated? What will YOU be saying when those same jobs move to Malasia, the Phillipines, Pakistan or wherever the next wave of Global outsourcing will take us all? It is about Corporate profits and nothing more... Why do you not just work for firms in your own country that require your services for other firms in your company? Or would you be so accepting of losing your job to someone else who follows in your footsteps?

Joe said:
"Can I safely assume you are one of those people who believe that you have an absolute right to be poorly compensated so long as you are compensated?

What will YOU be saying when those same jobs move ..."

No you can't. Sorry. Just not true. I work in the field of business intelligence and data warehousing and I am on H1B and I work hard to keep my skills up to date. People come to me when they can't solve their problems and I am compensated much better than most of my American co-workers and have normally received higher raises than them over the years.

I am not worried about where the jobs move. I have the right skills and I can adapt to suit my skills to the time and place of right opportunity.

Your talk reeks of misplaced xenophobia and I will leave it at that.

In,

I have been in and out in US on H1 & L1 few times and absolutely support the idea that H1/L1 sponsor must not be able to subcontract foreign worker as consultant, that's the loophole that needs to be closed.

As far as arguing with Joe and the likes who strongly believe that their holding US citizenship must carry price premium is futile effort.

I currently work in South East Asia on work visa similar to H1B. I don't know why but local employees seem to be willing to pay salaries that on par with US (120-150k USD/annum) even though per Joe there must be cheaper local labor, but apparently local guys of that level don't work cheap here too. So an interesting phenomena is that salary disparity between fresh graduate and architect level could be by factor of 8 while in US that's no more than 3 at the most leading to conclusion that talented folks in US are not likely to see much of price pressure, mediocre people are very likely to be squeezed by global competition.