URL: <http://www.knoxnews.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=GUESTWORK-09-11-00&cat=PP>

Federal auditors find flaws in high-tech visa program
By MICHAEL DOYLE
Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
September 11, 2000

WASHINGTON - The high-tech worker immigration program Congress wants to
expand is also undermined by flaws that need correcting, federal
investigators say.

The weaknesses newly identified in the politically popular H-1B program
arise just as Silicon Valley presses for a big increase in the number of the
visas issued annually. Central Valley farmers are simultaneously pressing
for their own foreign guest-worker program, which some hope can move in
tandem with high-tech's wish list.

"There's still a great deal of distance between the advocates for the
growers and the advocates for the farm workers, but it's not beyond the
realm of possibility that those distances can get bridged," Rep. Howard
Berman, D-Los Angeles, said in an interview.

Berman is discussing with Ceres Democrat Gary Condit, a member of the House
Agriculture Committee, as well as with key senators the prospects for a
mutually acceptable guest worker and legalization plan. On Thursday, the
House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on one version of the
agricultural guest-worker plan.

This version, authored by Tracy Republican Richard Pombo, includes neither
the worker protections nor legalization options immigrant advocates insist
upon. Behind-the-scenes action - though some participants voice more
optimism than others - is where the serious negotiating will take place.
"It's the most positive we've ever seen it in a long, long time," Manuel
Cunha, president of the Fresno-based Nisei Farmers League, said Monday of
the private discussions.

Because only a few weeks remain for action this year, the new General
Accounting Office report could prove particularly influential as lawmakers
weigh immigration requests from both high tech and farmers.
The GAO is the congressional watchdog agency that previously has raised
doubts about whether there's a national farm worker shortage that justifies
a new guest-worker program. The investigative agency's latest report
examines the separate H-1B program that allows skilled foreigners - nearly
half of them from India - into the United States for up to six years of
work.

Despite success at helping employers, GAO auditors conclude the H-1B program
is also "vulnerable to abuse" and plagued by "delays and administrative
problems." As with the agricultural programs, moreover, auditors note some
skeptics "believe that (high-tech) employers have exaggerated the need for
foreign workers." The auditors don't necessarily endorse this view, though
they do highlight program problems.

"The program is vulnerable to abuse, both by employers who do not have bona
fide jobs to fill or who do not meet required labor conditions, and by
potential workers who present false credentials," the GAO said.

Auditors cited "increasing instances of program abuse" in which immigrant
workers were being paid less than they were supposed to be, or who got a
visa but not a job. Systemic problems allowed the Immigration and
Naturalization Service last year to admit at least 136,888 H-1B visa
applicants, even though the legal limit was supposed to be 115,000.

California lawmakers, as well as presidential candidates Al Gore and George
W. Bush, support expanding the H-1B high-tech program beyond the 115,000
annual visas currently permitted. The visa total is soon scheduled to fall
back to 65,000, but high-tech's friends on Capitol Hill have proposed moving
this to 200,000.

"We're continuing to press the White House and Democratic leadership to
recognize that we need H-1B legislation passed, and to separate out the
other issues," said Margita Thompson, spokeswoman for the Palo Alto-based
TechNet group that represents some 200 high-tech companies.

Berman and some other Democrats hope the H-1B issue can help create momentum
for other immigration proposals that include providing green cards for
Central American refugees.

Different unresolved questions face the agricultural guest-worker proposals.
These include what kind of workplace, transportation and housing protections
foreign guest-workers can expect. There are also questions about what kind
of "adjustment of status" program might permit illegal immigrants currently
in this country to eventually become legal residents.


(Michael Doyle is a Washington reporter for Scripps-McClatchy Western
Service.)