http://detnews.com/EDITPAGE/0006/07/letters/letters.htm

Wednesday, June 7, 2000
Letters to the Editor

Sen. Abraham creates worker protections
Unfortunately, like other attacks on Sen. Spence Abraham and immigrant professionals, the May 20 letter “Visa bill targets phantom shortage” was factually incorrect.

The legislation Sen. Abraham is sponsoring to increase scholarships and training and provide additional temporary visas for skilled foreign-born professionals does not weaken or reduce any worker protections in current law. In fact, it was Sen. Abraham in 1998 who wrote these protections into law in the first place.

In the 1998 bill, Sen. Abraham wrote into the law three types of layoff protection for American workers:

* A company that is H-1B dependent (more than 15 percent of its workforce is on H-1B visas) must attest that it will not layoff an American employee in the same job 90 days before or after the filing of a petition for an H-1B professional.

* An H-1B dependent company acting as a contractor must attest that it similarly will not place an H-1B professional in another company to fill the same job held by a laid off American 90 days before or after the date of placement.

* If a U.S. employer commits a willful violation and underpays an individual on an H-1B visa and replaces an American worker, that employer will be hit with a three-year debarment from all employment immigration programs and be assessed a $35,000 fine per violation. This third provision applies to all employers, regardless of their level of H-1B usage.

Current law already requires that individuals on H-1B visas be paid the higher of the prevailing or actual wage paid to U.S. workers in similar jobs. Since 1990, the Department of Labor has found only seven employers have committed willful violations involving H-1B visas. Even with this low degree of demonstrated problems, Sen. Abraham’s legislation quintupled fines for violators and gave substantial new authority to the Labor Department to investigate alleged abuse without first receiving a complaint.

For the years 2000 to 2002, Sen. Abraham would create more than 40,000 scholarships in math and science and train tens of thousands of workers through a $500 fee attached to each H-1B visa. This balanced approach would help train and educate many additional U.S. students and workers, while extending a welcome to those who would help us innovate, create and keep jobs in Michigan, rather than sending those and related jobs overseas.

Stuart Anderson
Director, Immigration Policy
Senate Immigration Subcommittee
Washington, D.C.