San Francisco Examiner

INS turns blind eye to visas for high tech
Jim Herron Zamora
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Feb. 25, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Examiner


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/2000/02/25/NEWS16145.dtl


No follow-up on workers; critics say system ripe for abuse


Despite all the attention on work visas for skilled professionals,
especially those in the high-tech trade, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service doesn't check up on the workers once they arrive in the United States.


As long as the paperwork looks right, a person claiming to be a computer
engineer can come to Silicon Valley and end up washing dishes in a Bay Area
restaurant instead. The INS, which oversees the H-1B visas for skilled
professionals, will never be the wiser unless someone tips off the agency.


A variety of problems with the H-1B visa program was to be the focus at a
congressional hearing Friday in San Jose sponsored by Rep. Zoe Lofgren,
D-San Jose.


The H-1B visa is reserved for foreign workers with special skills in jobs
that are otherwise hard to fill.


Congress is considering nearly doubling the number of H-1B visas to 195,000
next year, but as the system now stands there is no follow-up to see if
those workers are performing the jobs listed on their visas.


"Right now we mainly act on tips," said Eyleen Schmidt, a spokeswoman for
the INS in Washington. "Our enforcement operations are lead-driven. We do
not make any random site visits in H-1B cases that I know of."


The criminal case of a software consulting business owned by Berkeley's
Reddy family points out flaws in the visa program, which is designed to
help technology and other companies seeking workers with specialized skills.


Like other cases of H-1B visa fraud around the nation, the Berkeley case
came to the attention of the federal government only because of a local
police investigation.


"There's no follow-up at all," said John Miano, chairman of the the
programmer's guild, a national organization of computer programmers opposed
to H-1B visas. "There's no way to prove that this person is really working
for the company that sponsors him or doing what he is supposed to be doing."


Skilled workers scarce


Silicon Valley companies claim they can't find enough skilled workers in
the United States and have lobbied to increase the number of visas issued
annually, enabling them to recruit overseas. The program grew from 65,000 to


115,000 last year. All of the available slots for 1999 were filled in seven
months. The openings for 2000 are expected to be filled in March, which
means that any employer who wants to bring in a worker is out of luck until
next year.


Led by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, two dozen U.S. senators sponsored a bill
Feb. 9 to increase the number of H-1B visas to 195,000 for each of the next
three years.


But the bill does not allocate any money for INS investigations into
possible H-1B fraud. And the INS has no plans to focus on H-1B cases
despite the program's growth.


The INS doesn't regularly visit any companies where H-1B workers are
placed, nor does it have a tracking system to follow up on the employees.


"Its ridiculous to just take their word for it," Miano said. "If you make
it easy - and profitable - to lie and cheat, then of course people will do
just that. If you leave a loophole this big, someone is going to abuse it.
It's inevitable."


The INS was unable to say how many cases of H-1B fraud have been
investigated. Nationwide, H-1B fraud is estimated to comprise less than 1
percent of known immigration fraud cases. Creating fake "green cards"
(permanent residency permits) or bogus marriages are still the most common
methods for falsifying a person's right to live and work in the United States.


Low priority for INS


Consequently, the INS has spent little effort investigating H-1B
complaints. Instead, its primary focus is deporting convicted felons. Next
on the priority list are low-tech industries - such as construction,
restaurants and janitorial firms - with long records of hiring undocumented
workers.


"In our 49-county district, I don't know of any cases where we have a
criminal case of H-1B fraud" except the Reddy investigation, said Sharon
Rummery, spokeswoman for the INS in San Francisco.


In that case, multimillionaire landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy and his son
Vijay Kumar Lakireddy allegedly smuggled several people from India using
fraudulent information on work visas.


Reddy and his son petitioned immigration officials for H-1B and other visas
on behalf of workers they said would be employed at


Active Tech Solutions, a software and temporary staffing company the family
owns in Berkeley.


Instead, the workers were employed at Reddy's apartment buildings, office
buildings and restaurants, according to the indictment.


The indictment also alleges that two teenagers were smuggled into the
country by Reddy under the false pretense that they were daughters of a man
who fraudulently obtained an H-1B visa. The two girls were allegedly used
for sex by Reddy. The allegations only came to light after one of the girls
died of carbon monoxide poisoning the day before Thanksgiving.


Critics said the tragic death of the young girl illustrates flaws in the
H-1B visa program. Beyond the Reddy case, critics said the whole program is
ripe for abuse.


UC-Davis Professor Norman Matloff noted that the girls' purported father -
a civil engineer with no computer skills - was able to easily obtain an
H-1B visa. That man, referred to in court records as Venkateswara
Vemireddy, ended up washing dishes and wiping tables at Reddy's Pasand
restaurant in Berkeley.


"To me, a case like this is absolutely appalling," Matloff said. But he
added that there are probably many other illegitimate H-1B cases out there
with less tragic consequences.


Up to six years


The H-1B program, created in 1990 with a cap of 65,000 visas per year,
grants visas for up to six years to noncitizens with college degrees. The
maximum period of admission in the United States is three years, but it can
be extended for three more.


The H-1B visa category includes specialty occupations which require a
bachelor's degree, or fashion models of international acclaim. Typical H-1B
applicants include architects, engineers, computer programmers,
accountants, doctors and college professors.


To get an H-1B visa, a company must tell the U.S. Labor Department that it
can't find local talent for the job. The company agrees to hire the worker,
then files an application with the INS. If approved, that application is
taken to a U.S. consulate in the worker's country, where the State
Department reviews the application.


"Probably 99 percent of people here under H-1B are here legally doing what
they were hired to do,"


said Thomas Homan, assistant director of investigation in INS office in San
Antonio. "But in any program where there is room to make a profit, there
will be abuse."



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