GAO Myth Disproved

Date: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 6:13 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

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This article said that according to the GAO 400,000 foreign workers
have lost their jobs in the last two years. I thought that was rather
odd, especially since the GAO claims that more tracking of H-1Bs is
necessary.

GAO also found that DHSs ability to provide information on H-1B
workers is limited because it has not issued consistent guidance
or any regulations on the legal status of unemployed H-1B workers
seeking new jobs.

In a letter to Mark Udall within the GAO report:

The continuing use of H-1B visas, which allow employers to fill
specialty occupations1 with foreign workers, has been a

contentious

issue between U.S. workers and employers during the recent

economic

downturn. From March 2001 to March 2003, unemployment among highly
educated individuals increased by about 400,000, resulting in 1.2
million of these individuals being unemployed.

Apparently the authors that wrote this article confused US workers who
lost their jobs versus the foreign workers who took their jobs. Tsk!
Tsk!

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15201196

Investigators: Homeland Security Needs To Better Track Foreign Workers

The General Accounting Office says the new department should keep track
of when foreign workers admitted under H-1B visas enter and leave the
country, as well as develop rules for workers who lose their jobs.

By Jonathan D. Salant, Associated Press Writer, InformationWeek
Oct. 2, 2003
URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15201
196

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Homeland Security Department needs to keep a
closer eye on the high-tech workers admitted to the United States under
a special visa program, congressional investigators said Thursday.

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said
the new department should keep track of when foreign workers admitted
with what are known as H-1B visas enter and leave the country, and
develop rules for how long workers who lose their jobs are allowed to
remain in the country.

"Much of the information needed to effectively oversee the H-1B visa
program is not available," the GAO said.

The Homeland Security Department agreed with the recommendations.

With the strong support of the high-tech industry, Congress has
authorized hundreds of thousands of skilled foreign workers to obtain
the visas and obtain jobs in the United States. They can stay for up to
six years. Unions have fought the program, saying that companies should
train U.S. workers to fill those positions.

In the last three budget years, 195,000 of these visas could be handed
out each year. In the budget year that began Wednesday, that number
dropped to 65,000 a year.

With the economic downturn, 400,000 of these foreign workers lost their
jobs in the last two years, the GAO said. The number of workers coming
to the United States dropped dramatically. And only 40 percent of those
hired in 2003 were working in the high-tech industry, as compared with
65 percent in 2000.

Homeland Security is responsible for keeping track of nonimmigrants who
enter and leave the country, including H-1B workers. But the GAO said
that the two different systems the agency uses to track the foreign
workers do not share data with each other, and the information is not
consistent, leaving an incomplete picture of the number of H-1B
workers, including which employees change their immigration status and
become permanent residents. If a person with a student visa becomes an
H-1B visa worker, for example, the department cannot track this until
that person leaves the country and then attempts to return under the
new visa. And in one-fifth of the cases, the Homeland Security
Department did not have information about when the foreign workers left
the United States.

The Homeland Security Department told the GAO that it is in the process
of changing the systems used to track the foreign workers.

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