February 3, 2003 (Computerworld) Washington—In a year when the U.S. began what has been characterized as a jobless recovery, immigration authorities issued 79,100 H-1B visas, a sharp decline from previous years. But that's cold comfort for displaced workers.
The number of H-1B visas issued in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 was well under the 195,000 cap set by Congress, and less than half the 163,600 issued by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in fiscal 2001.
Supporters of the H-1B program say the decline indicates that the program is working, is self-regulating and isn't being abused by employers. H-1B visas are used to bring skilled workers, many of them IT professionals, into the U.S. They are good for up to six years.
But opponents, who are increasingly coalescing into grass-roots organizations, say the H-1B numbers tell only part of the story. They contend that employers are still bringing in large numbers of foreign workers, but they're doing so under programs such as the L-1 visa, which is used for employees who are transferred by multinational firms to work in the U.S.
Much attention, however, will be focused on the H-1B cap, which will remain at 195,000 this year but is set to decline in fiscal 2004 to 65,000.
Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va., said he doesn't know whether his industry group will fight the decrease to 65,000. "It will be hard to convince Congress" of the need for a higher cap "if you have no recovery or a jobless recovery," he said.
Among the grass-roots opposition organizers is Peter Bennett, a Danville, Calif., resident who operates a Web site called NoMoreH1b.com. According to Bennett, many displaced workers are ready to act if Congress moves to increase the cap. "It will trigger an onslaught of calls" to lawmakers, he said.
5.1% Unemployment Rate
One organization that has been critical of the H-1B program is the IEEE-USA, a unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 94,000 unemployed computer scientists in the U.S. That's an unemployment rate of 5.1% in that field, said George F. McClure, who chairs the IEEE's Career and Workforce Policy Committee. H-1B visa holders "are all competing for the same small pot of jobs, and we don't think that is a good thing," he said.
Eight weeks ago, some unemployed IT workers in Connecticut formed The Organization for the Rights of American Workers. It started as an informal networking effort, but an organizational meeting required a hall to accommodate 65 attendees. The group now has 200 members.
"We have members that are about to lose their homes," said John Bauman, vice president of the Meriden-based organization. "We have to make the public aware of what's going on."
Nate Viall, a Des Moines, Iowa-based recruiter who specializes in finding candidates for IBM iSeries application development, said that although there's no shortage of qualified U.S. workers to fill those jobs, he has seen U.S. workers lose out to H-1B visa holders. "It's always about the money," said Viall.
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