Tear-Jerker Series:Part 2

Tear-Jerker Series:Part 2 - AILA sharks

Date: Friday, October 03, 2003 1:29 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Daryl Buffenstein, an immigration lawyer, admits that H-1B is abused
but complains that the proposed bill to reform it goes way to far. He
wants to fix H-1B with a "precision instrument, a scalpel not a
sledgehammer". Buffenstein's plea that these reforms are too tough
should fall on deaf ears because he makes a living by instructing
lawyers how to use the loopholes in the law. I once had taped sound
clips online of a workshop for the aspiring lawyers of the American
Immigrations Lawyers Association. Buffenstein's lectures to these
sharks included topics such as:

Question: Who Does the Employer Terminate?
Answer: The least desirable option is to terminate the H-1B.

Question: What is an Acceptable Terminations
Answer: Buffenstien explained that there are situations where it is
acceptable to replace American workers with H-1Bs. He gave an example
where the employer wants to terminate a couple of American software
engineers and hire an H-1B, and he explained how loopholes in the law
can be used to dump the software engineers.

For more info on Buffenstein and his band of sharks, go to this page:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/CensoredTapes.htm
Unfortunately the AILA sharks forced me to remove the tapes, so all you
can do know is to use your imagination.

Carl Shusterman, one of the most infamous and politically active of the
H-1B immigration attorneys, has one more lament to make you wet with
tears. He worries that next year teachers and health-care workers won't
be able to get visas. Shusterman of all people knows that teachers are
exempt from the limit but he doesn't stop with just one little white
lie:

"We won't bring over after January or February of next year
any more professionals no matter how bad the need is," he
says. Nonetheless, he adds, he knows of no effort by hospital
groups or school administrators to seek an increase in the
number of visas. "I can't get them excited," he laments.
"Hospitals are used to lobbying on Medicare reimbursements
but not on immigration."

Shusterman's lament may be music to your ears, but don't believe it.
The sharks at AILA are getting ready for a huge lobbying campaign to
raise H-1B and they only care about health-care if they can make money
by issuing visas for doctors and nurses.

Wednesday, October 1, 2003

Foreign Workers Will Soon Get Fewer U.S. Visas

By Marjorie Valbrun and Scott Thurm

IT'S ABOUT TO GET tougher for foreign workers to get into the U.S. The
visa programs companies use to bring in foreign workers are popular
with U.S. employers, as well as with foreign companies that have U.S.
operations. But one such program just shrank by two-thirds, and high
unemployment has caused lawmakers in Congress to propose scaling back
another.

H-1B visas allow specialty professional workers, generally with college
degrees, to work in the U.S. for up to six years. The majority of these
visas have been used for computer programmers, engineers and other
high-tech workers, but recently they have gone to teachers and
health-care workers as well. L-1 visas allow companies -- both small
businesses and multinational corporations -- to transfer executives,
managers and workers with "specialized knowledge" of the company from
overseas operations to U.S.-based divisions.

American workers and labor unions have long criticized the widespread
use of the visas, contending that U.S. companies are often replacing
American workers with lesser-paid foreign workers. They also complain
that some companies bring in workers and then exploit them by hiring
them out for huge sums and paying them below-market salaries.

Today, a legal provision will allow the annual cap for H-1B visas to
revert to 65,000, down from an annual limit of 195,000 in effect since
2000. Congress isn't expected to extend the increase. In addition,
bills in the Senate and House are likely to further tighten
restrictions on both the H-1B program and L-1 visas, giving employers
far less flexibility in using them and making them a riskier bet for
foreign employees seeking a long-term future in the U.S.

Mitchell Wexler of Hirshon, Wexler, Perl, an immigration law firm, says
the proposed restrictions are misguided. "These companies help the U.S.
economy and create jobs," says Mr. Wexler, whose firm has offices in
the U.S. and Toronto that handle visa and work permits for about 1,500
companies. "If we make it too tough for foreign firms to set up shop in
the U.S., they will go to Canada or Mexico and use them as launching
pads for their North American operations."

Introducing the legislation in the Senate in July, Democrat Christopher
Dodd of Connecticut said that loopholes in the current law allow
companies to bring in foreigners, "pay them less and replace good
paying American jobs otherwise held by American citizens." The
legislation he is sponsoring has a companion bill in the House. Both
have bipartisan support.

There's also separate legislation in the House that would impose a
35,000- person annual cap on L-1 visas and add other restrictions.
About 314,000 L-1 visas were issued in 2002, both to workers and their
relatives. Among the proposed restrictions: the elimination of
so-called blanket approval, which allows multinationals to avoid filing
individual applications for each employee seeking an L-1. A competing
Senate bill would be less restrictive and is aimed at weeding out
abuses of the L-1 program.

Daryl Buffenstein, a corporate immigration lawyer for Paul, Hastings,
Ganofsky & Walker and general counsel for Global Personnel Alliance, a
business-backed organization, supports the latter bill. "The abuse can
be fixed with a precision instrument, a scalpel not a sledgehammer," he
says.

While most of the debate around H-1B visas has revolved around
technology uses, some immigration attorneys say the biggest impact of
the lowered cap may be felt in other fields, such as health care and
teaching. The number of H-1Bs issued to doctors, nurses and teachers
rose in 2002; together those groups received more than 20% of H-1B
visas.

Carl Shusterman, an immigration attorney in Los Angeles, worries that
next year teachers and health-care workers seeking visas will be shut
out. "We won't bring over after January or February of next year any
more professionals no matter how bad the need is," he says.
Nonetheless, he adds, he knows of no effort by hospital groups or
school administrators to seek an increase in the number of visas. "I
can't get them excited," he laments. "Hospitals are used to lobbying on
Medicare
reimbursements but not on immigration."

The H-1B cut is also stirring relatively little unease in Silicon
Valley, where use of the visas has plunged in recent years along with
the fortunes of the technology industry. The higher ceiling resulted
from fierce lobbying in the late 1990s by tech companies complaining
that they couldn't find enough U.S. engineers to fill their rapidly
expanding ranks. In the federal fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2002, new
H-1B visas issued for computer-related occupations fell nearly 77%, to
25,637, from 110,713 a year earlier, according to the Department of
Homeland Security.

At some companies, the decline has been even more drastic. Cisco
Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of computer-networking
equipment, sponsored 791 H-1B visas in 2001, a spokeswoman said. Last
year, it sponsored 11, and so far this year, it has sponsored five.

Still, a spokeswoman for semiconductor maker Intel Corp. calls the
65,000- person annual cap "insufficient," particularly if demand for
tech goods -- and tech workers -- rebounds. The Intel spokeswoman and
others say the practical limit on H-1B visas will actually be lower
than 65,000. Some 20,000 applications from the last federal fiscal
year are likely to be approved in the fiscal year that starts today,
and nearly 7,000 H-1B visas have been set aside for applicants from
Chile
and Singapore under free-trade pacts.

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