IDIOTORIAL: Triple the H-1B cap

Date: Sunday, June 11, 2006 5:21 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1498 -- 06/11/2006 >>>>>

This stinker from the Star Telegram contains so much Texas style baloney
it's probably not worth my time to pick everything in it apart. One thing
that needs to be carefully considered is the following statement: "The U.S.
Senate and President Bush clearly get it. The U.S. House doesn't, at least
not yet."

Steve Jacob is talking about the Senate immigration bill (S. 2611) that
contains a massive increase in the H-1B cap. The House version of the
immigration bill (H.R. 4427) doesn't have an increase in H-1B. Jacob is
imploring the House to not only agree to the Senate's increase, but to
triple the cap instead of merely doubling it. On top of that, he thinks
"market forces" should determine how many H-1Bs are allowed. The euphemism
"market forces" is corporate speak that actually means "unlimited".

In case you are wondering what kind of idiot would write such a thing - he
is the publisher of the newspaper. To make matters worse he is also on the
board of directors of the Colleyville Chamber of Commerce in Texas.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/14778843.htm

Posted on Fri, Jun. 09, 2006

More foreign workers? In fact, it's a good thing

By Steve Jacob
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau

We need to expand immigration. Immediately.

Triple the current level, at least. Maybe lift the restrictions altogether.

Our economic future depends on it.

The U.S. Senate and President Bush clearly get it. The U.S. House doesn't,
at least not yet.

Two weeks ago, the Senate approved its version of sweeping immigration
reform that, among other measures, proposed raising the limit of H1-B visas
for skilled foreign workers from 65,000 to 115,000. The Senate bill also
exempts immigrants with certain advanced degrees from H1-B caps.

The House, obsessed with controlling the borders and the workplace, does
not deal with this issue in its immigration bill, so the H1-B visa limits
will have to be negotiated in conference committee.

Although most of the current debate centers on illegal immigration, legal
immigration is badly in need of reform to be more responsive to economic
conditions.

The current rhetoric is focused primarily on creating red tape, reprisals
and barriers. What is being ignored is the crucial importance of
streamlining the visa process for knowledge workers who supply the
intellectual capital to help maintain America's competitiveness in the
global economy.

A six-year H1-B visa is given to a non-U.S. citizen who holds at least a
bachelor's degree in a specialized field and is sponsored by a U.S. company
or organization that wants to hire the individual. The vast majority of
these visa holders are high-tech workers, including engineers,
mathematicians and scientists. We are importing workers largely because not
enough U.S.-born college graduates earn math and science degrees.

During the 1990s dot-com boom, high-tech industry lobbyists persuaded
Congress to triple the number of H1-B visas to around 200,000 a year. That
expansion expired in 2003 while the economy remained in a trough.

Now the economy is recovering, and the 65,000-visa level is clearly
inadequate. The quota for fiscal 2007 -- which begins in October -- was
filled last week, four months early. The allotment of H-1B visas was used
up before the fiscal year began in eight of the past 10 years.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates leveraged his rock-star status to make a
personal pitch on Capitol Hill this spring to raise the visa limit.

In February, Bush said the U.S. needed more engineers, chemists and
physicists and called for Congress to raise the visa limit. Bush said: "I
think it's a mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who can fill
the jobs that are having trouble being filled here in America -- to limit
their number .... Of course, we want every job that's ever generated in
America filled by Americans, but that's not the reality today."

Consider these statistics from the National Science Foundation:

The U.S. will need an additional 1.25 million science and engineering
graduates by 2012. The number of jobs requiring technical training is
growing at five times the rate of other occupations.

High-tech's share of U.S. manufacturing has grown from 12 percent to 30
percent since 1990. Science and math are at the heart of the training for
those jobs. But only one-third of U.S. fourth- and eighth-grade students
are proficient in math and science, and less than 20 percent of
12th-graders are at that level.

In 2000, 51 percent of engineers with doctorates in this country were
foreign-born, as were 45 percent of life scientists, physical scientists,
and mathematical and computer scientists with Ph.Ds. (Some U.S. employers
joke that green cards should be stapled to every advanced U.S.
technical-degree diploma earned by an international student.)

Highly skilled immigrants helped fuel the dot-com bubble in California's
Silicon Valley. According to a study by the Public Policy Institute of
California, they composed one-third of the scientific and engineering work
force, and Indian or Chinese CEOs ran one-fourth of the region's high-tech
firms. Google, Intel and eBay all had foreign-born founders or co-founders.

The last major legal immigration overhaul predated the digital economy and
did not envision the fact that industry-specific labor shortages could be
addressed with internationally recruited employees.

The visa limits have predictable results. U.S. companies are opening
offices overseas to have unfettered access to international brainpower.
Their salaries, research breakthroughs and entrepreneurial spirit reside
elsewhere, and the U.S. economy becomes a little less competitive.

Ironically, many politicians who complain loudly about the outsourcing of
jobs overseas are also immigration-limit advocates.

Market forces -- represented by U.S.-company sponsorships -- should dictate
the number of H1-B visas rather than arbitrarily legislated limits.

Steve Jacob is publisher of the Star-Telegram/Northeast.
sjacob@star-telegram.com 817-685-3955

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