Employers opposed to advertising positions and recruiting Americans before sponsoring H-1b workers to fill U.S. jobs

Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) introduced the “H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud Prevention Abuse Prevention Act of 2007.” (S.1035) According to a bulletin by immigration attorney Greg Siskind, employers object to the time and expense of offering jobs to Americans:

"The chief objection to this usually relates to the details of the recruiting requirement and how this would significantly slow the process for bringing in a worker that may be needed immediately. Employers would have to advertise a position for 30 days before they could seek an H-1B approval."

H-1b proponents also object that the Durbin-Grassley bill would stem H-1b bodyshops. "This is seen as potentially very disruptive to the information technology sector..." writes Siskind. Rather than being hired for a specific job, H-1b bodyshops first secure H-1b workers, then they agressively apply for external job openings. Legally U.S. employers cannot give preference to Americans - even when several American applicants are clearly qualified for the job: If just one of the 100 H-1b resumes from H-1b bodyshops is "more qualified," by law, the employer must hire the H-1b, or be subject to a claim of "discrimination based on immigration status or national origin" - thus drumming up more business for AILA lawyers.

Currently the DOL and USCIS know of 130,000 U.S. job openings that will not be filled until October 2007. But these agencies will not disclose these jobs to U.S. workers. Instead they conspire against Americans by reserving these jobs for H-1b workers. The Durin-Grassley bill would require that DOL make post the job openings represented by H-1b applications on their website for 30 days, giving Americans the opportunity to inquire about the positions.

Both AILA and H-1b employers are aware that qualified Americans are being displaced by H-1b workers. And their opposition to the basic protections in the Durbin-Grassley reveal their true motive of keeping it that way.

This "we don't have the time to hire American workers" posture goes far beyond any legitimate claim of a labor shortage. Congress should act in the interests of American workers and co-sponsor the Durbin-Grassley protections.

Immigration attorney alleges that many of the 130,000 H-1b applications were duplicates

In his blog "IS THIS CHEATING?" AILA member Gregory Siskind warns of "many companies sending in multiple H-1B applications for the same employees." Siskind speculates that the reason employers filed multiple applications is to improve the odds that at least one of the applications would be selected in the lottery. "The sole goal is to increase one's odds at the expense of others," writes Siskind.

USCIS could have avoided this lottery sham by giving preference to the higher-paid applications. But USCIS stated that they deem hotel clerks equally qualified as genetic researchers. USCIS has already completed their lottery, gambling away another 65,000 U.S. jobs, in spite of qualified Americans available to fill them.

USCIS deems hotel clerk and PhD Genetic Researcher as "equally qualified"

Even after the H-1b applications for U.S. grads with masters degrees are processed under the separate 20,000 quota, there are 119,193 other H-1b applications for 65,000 slots. Historically these requests will range from hotel clerks and accountants earning less than $16 per hour, to genetic researchers earning over $100,000.

In the Wednesday April 11, 2007 article Most H-1B seekers lack grad degrees in SF Chronicle, staff writer Tom Abate covered our suggestion that "immigration officials should hand out the remaining visas based on salary -- a proxy for skill -- rather than by chance. "

(NOTE: This article was later retracted due to the technical error that many of the H-1b within the 65,000 quota hold masters degrees from foreign universities. But the points raised in this blog are independent from that issue.)

Immigration spokeswoman Sharon Rummery said that by law the remaining visas must be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. "As far as we're concerned, they're all equally qualified," she said.

Rummery's position is illogical and as far as we know not mandated by any statute: A "lottery" is not "first-come, first served," and arguably a genetic researcher is more qualified than a hotel clerk.

NO NEED TO RAISE H-1B LIMIT

More importantly, this Chronicle article reveals that we have not come close to reaching the cap on U.S. grads with advanced degrees.

H-1b proponents like Compete America and ITAA argue ad infinitum that we need more H-1b because 50% of graduates with advanced degrees (MS or higher) are foreign students, and we should not be rejecting these "best and brightest." They argue this because they know at the BS level the vast majority of U.S. Engineering and Computer Science graduates are Americans.

So watch ITAA pedal backwards:

"Jeff Lande, spokesman for the Information Technology Association of America, argued that the crush of applications makes the case for a higher H-1B quota. Reacting to Berry's comment about the number of applicants with bachelors degrees, Lande said critical skills vary from job to job, adding that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates didn't finish college but would certainly qualify as one of the world's "best and brightest.""

If finishing college is not a proxy for skill, then why does Microsoft require at least a BS degree for every position? Why do so many positions require an MS degree?

All this proves is that Bill Gates would have no chance of getting hired by Microsoft through the HR bureaucracy intended to filter out the thousands of applicants for each position.