February 08, 2005

In response to growing complaints that the United States was neglecting unemployed Americans by making it too easy for U.S. employers to hire foreigners, Congress last year tightened some programs that allow companies to bring in workers temporarily from overseas.

Congress reduced by roughly half the cap on visas, known as H-1B, available for college-educated skilled workers, and kept the allotment for H-2B visas - which cover unskilled non-agricultural workers such as hotel employees and landscapers - at the same number it has been since 1990.

Proponents of strict immigration laws lauded the move, but they want to see even more restrictions and better oversight of the worker visa programs.

But as the economy grows, and companies scramble to fill jobs they say few Americans qualify to do, the business world and immigration lobby groups are sounding alarms about the tightened visa process. Their concern gained momentum after the cap for the H-1B visa was reached on the first day employers were allowed to file petitions, and the cap for the H-2B visa was met within just three months.

Critics of the restrictions say that unless the government eases work visa programs, the United States is in peril of losing its global competitive edge. Some employers say the new restrictions have made it harder for them to hire qualified workers, thereby forcing them to cut back on services or drop programs.

"These programs enable employers to get people with cutting-edge skills," said Joanna Hedval, who specializes in business immigration matters for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, D.C. "This is not only an immigration issue, but a competitiveness issue."

Hedval notes that the programs do not just provide work opportunities to people living overseas, but also to foreign students at U.S. universities who have expertise or training in an area that is hard to fill with qualified Americans.

More than half of all engineering master's degrees and doctorates awarded in New Jersey's main engineering universities, for instance, are to foreign nationals, according to 2003 data compiled by the American Association of Engineering Societies.

"If we don't hire those folks, who are getting their education and degrees at U.S. universities, they'll go abroad and work for our competitors," Hedval said.

A frustrating exercise

Employers complain that hiring foreigners for highly skilled jobs is an increasingly frustrating exercise.

"You're not taking the easy way out when you hire a foreigner," said the head of a health-care business in central New Jersey. "It's expensive. It's a lot of paperwork. You have to wait. It's a complicated process. Most of us turn to this only when you can't find an American."

In the nearly 10 years he has run his business, he has never had as hard a time recruiting foreign workers as in the last year, said the entrepreneur, who didn't want to be named for fear competitors would benefit from knowledge of his difficulties.

"There are few Americans trained to do this kind of therapy," he continued. "It takes many years of college and medical training to learn this. We need people who can take care of our patients now. We cannot wait for Americans to get trained. When you can't get the foreign workers, not only business suffers, patient care is also affected."

The U.S. government has long issued "H" visas for foreign workers with special skills, but in 1990 began classifying them according to areas of expertise, said Chris Bentley, spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That year, Congress set a cap of 65,000 for the H-1B visa, and 66,000 for the H-2B visa.

The tech boom and bull market economy of the late 1990s forced Congress to raise the cap for H-1B visas to 115,000 for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. But demand continued to grow, and Congress obliged, lifting the cap once again, to 195,000 for fiscal years 2001, 2002 and 2003.

"There was an increased demand and a real need for those types of workers to come into the United States," Bentley said.

But after the tech bubble burst, the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred and the economy weakened, employers began laying people off. Tech workers found themselves especially hard hit. And so Congress adjusted the H-1B cap again, reducing it to the original level of 65,000 for fiscal year 2004.

After an outcry by the business community, Congress approved last fall a $388 billion spending bill that included a provision allowing 20,000 additional highly skilled foreigners to work in the United States. The measure, pushed largely by Republicans, specified that these additional visas were for foreign nationals who "earned a master's or higher degree" at a U.S. institution.

Those who favor strict immigration policies objected.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in Washington, D.C., said in a statement after the bill passed: "What possible justification could there possibly be for giving companies that are laying off American workers and cutting wages access to still more foreign guest workers?

"We have just gone through an interminable campaign in which politicians of both parties looked voters in the eye and told them that they feel their pain," Stein said. "Yet their first order of business - before the new Congress is even sworn in - is to rub salt in the wounds and reward powerful special interests with more guest workers."

But employers reject the notion that they are special interests.

Effect on employers

For instance, the head of a private Bergen County academic enrichment program said he had to eliminate physics and biology from the curriculum after a Korean national with qualifications to teach math, biology and physics was denied a work visa.

"It became harder after Sept. 11," said the director, who asked not to be identified either by name or by his academy out of a desire to keep his struggles private from his competitors.

The director said that it is difficult to find people who can teach physics well, and even harder to find one person who can teach physics as well as biology and math.

"Most people will not take a job offer for just math or biology or physics unless we offer a lot of hours, which I cannot afford and do not need," he said. "But one person who can teach all these subjects will have enough hours. It was lucky to find someone so qualified like the Korean college graduate, but it did not work out for him. It had an impact on many more people than just this person. It forced me to drop classes and it deprived the kids in the academy of the classes."

But others, including unions and immigration conservatives, say some employers abuse the program. They charge that some employers pay vulnerable foreign workers less than the prevailing wage and subject them to conditions that an American worker would not accept.

They argue that with so much to be gained by hiring a foreign national, few employers are motivated to provide the training needed for American workers to qualify for certain jobs.

"Nobody in the government checks up on that," said Jack Martin, special projects director for FAIR.

A 2003 U.S. General Accounting Office study on the H-1B program's impact on the American workforce backed Martin's claim.

"Although some employers acknowledged that H-1B workers might work for lower wages than their U.S. counterparts, the extent to which wage is a factor in employment decisions is unknown," the report said.

It stated that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, had incomplete information on when H-1B workers entered and left the country or changed their immigration status. As a result, the report said, DHS was unable to determine how many H-1B workers who ended up unemployed remained in the United States.

"Allowing unemployed H-1B workers to remain in the United States may have implications for the labor force competition faced by U.S. workers," according to the report.

While nodding at the business community's needs, Congress took note of the report's findings last year.

It doubled most H1-B visa-application fees for businesses from $1,000 to $2,000. Congress also broadened the authority of the Department of Labor to investigate employers. Beyond that, it tightened other work visa programs, such as the one known as L-1, which allows companies to bring an employee to the United States from one of its overseas offices.

Source : http://www.northjersey.com/