ComputerWorld Article on ZaZona.com

Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2002 1:45 PM

*** H-1B NEWSLETTER ***

Get the Facts on H-1B at
www.ZaZona.com

I forgot to mention to Patrick Thibodeau of ComputerWorld that another thing
that causes my web traffic to jump is when Bush has economic forums about
the economy. When Bush talks about the economy people get nervous about
their jobs - and for good reason since he stated that he wants to raise the
H-1B limits and massively expand the H-2B program for Mexican workers.
http://www.zazona.com/ShameH1B/Library/Archives/BushH1B.pdf .

Normally I don't share my web site statistics with the world, but since most
of the people on this newsletter are technically inclined, the ZaZona
bandwidth statistics are listed below. Notice that as soon as Bush opened
his mouth the bandwidth on my site doubled! In the 3 year history of my
website this has never happened except for one time - immediately after
September 11, 2001.

The bandwidth in early August has been fairly typical this year. It has been
growing steadily but slowly for about the past 6 months.

Total
Bandwidth Date

186.68 MB August 05, 2002
139.20 MB August 06, 2002
176.61 MB August 07, 2002
162.04 MB August 08, 2002
158.49 MB August 09, 2002
101.13 MB August 10, 2002
170.11 MB August 11, 2002
319.90 MB August 12, 2002
333.97 MB August 13, 2002
260.15 MB August 14, 2002
290.51 MB August 15, 2002
253.55 MB August 16, 2002
105.06 MB August 17, 2002
93.74 MB August 18, 2002
302.62 MB August 19, 2002

Dubya sure helped ZaZona's web traffic but unfortunately he's not going to
fund it. Bandwidth costs money and if the monthly limit is exceeded the web
host company charges extra fees. Besides paying the other alternative is to
temporarily shut ZaZona down if the bandwidth gets close to the limit. Dubya
isn't likely to help ZaZona stay online so I need your help because this
site is funded entirely by donations.

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,73585,00.html

Congress May Bear Brunt of H-1B Anger

By PATRICK THIBODEAU
AUGUST 19, 2002

Washington

When IT companies announce layoffs, Rob Sanchez, an unemployed programmer
who says he lost his job because of the H-1B visa program, usually sees a
traffic spike from the downsizing company's domain on his Web site,
Zazona.com.

Sanchez says visitors to his Web site are checking to see if their company
is using H-1B workers. Using federal Freedom of Information Act requests,
Sanchez has built an online database of approximately 1.1 million "labor
condition applications" that list the firms using H-1B employees, the number
of those employees, their job types and their pay.

Sanchez is just one of many people unhappy with the H-1B program, and he's
fighting it with data. Another is Linda Evans, a woman in North Carolina who
writes letters to elected federal officials. She said her husband, a
longtime IT worker, was laid off because of the H-1B program. "People are
mad," she said.

The power of this grass-roots anger may well be tested in the next
congressional session, which begins in January, if an expected push by
high-tech lobbying groups to reverse a planned lowering of the H-1B cap
materializes. But so far, the economic downturn has kept H-1B applications
well short of this year's 195,000 cap.

Federal immigration authorities last week reported that they had granted
60,500 H-1B visas by the end of the third quarter of the government's fiscal
year on June 30, representing a 54% drop from the same period last year. The
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) isn't forecasting a total
for this year but has approximately 18,500 pending applications. And
although the cap wasn't reached last year, the number of H-1B visas issued
still represented a record number for what has been a controversial program.

Under pressure from high-tech lobbying, Congress raised the cap from 115,000
to 195,000 in fiscal 2000. It will remain at 195,000 during 2003 but is
slated to be cut to 65,000 in 2004.

High-tech groups are expected to begin lobbying Congress next year to
increase the 65,000 cap, but the ongoing demand shortfalls could make that
effort difficult, said Lynn Shotwell, director of government relations at
the American Council of International Personnel Inc. in Washington.

But "I would hate to see us put ourselves in a situation where the cap goes
back down to 65,000 and the economy heats up, and suddenly you can't get
workers in that you need," she added.

However, IEEE-USA, a unit of the Institute of Electronics and Electrical
Engineers Inc. in Washington, maintains that the H-1B program is responsible
for the fates of some of the 180,000 computer scientists and electrical
engineers it says are unemployed. At that level, "it seems difficult to make
the case that the higher cap needs to be extended," said IEEE Vice President
John Steadman.

In any case, lawmakers will continue to get an earful.

"Nobody should be blaming H-1B visa holders," said Sanchez. "Congress is the
one who created this mess."

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