http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/05/19/BU50808.DTL


Battle Against H-1B Visa Increase Is Underwhelming
Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, May 19, 2000

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Although the effort to lift the cap on H-1B visas has been an
emotionally charged issue for some computer professionals, the
political battle against the legislation has been pitifully small,
loosely organized and largely ineffective.

By contrast, the supporters of the bills have waged an aggressive
campaign, with lobbyists representing all of the nation's major tech
companies and millions of dollars in political donations.

``We're very disorganized,'' admitted Terry Oldberg, chair of the Bay
Area chapter of the Programmer's Guild, a group representing software
workers.

It's no surprise that tech workers have been outgunned by the
high-tech industry on this issue, said Claude Barfield, an economist
for a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank called the American
Enterprise Institute.

``They don't belong to a union. There's no association of workers or
professional association (in Washington) that have taken it up,''
Barfield said.

In fact, tech professionals are represented by only a handful of
organizations, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Programmer's Guild and American Engineering Association.

The lobbying efforts of the guild and association have been hampered
by their small size and limited funds. Both are encouraging their
members to e-mail and call their federal legislators this week, but
neither has planned any formal protests.

Last year, the IEEE, the largest organization of computer
professionals, put its weight behind opposing a raise in the H-1B cap.

This year, the group has concentrated its efforts in advocating that
the H-1B program be replaced by a program that would make it easier
for workers to get ``conditional green cards.'' However, that effort
failed to get much notice and is not supported by any legislation in
Congress, IEEE spokesman Paul Donnelly acknowledged earlier this week.

University of California at Davis professor and anti-H-1B crusader
Norman Matloff said the mobilization efforts against raising the H-1B
visa cap have been hampered by ``ignorance and apathy'' among computer
professionals. ``The vast majority of them are not even aware that
there is legislation pending,'' he said.

Instead, one of the most active groups against raising the H-1B cap
has been an anti-immigration organization, Washington D.C.'s
Federation for American Immigration Reform.

That group has spent an estimated $500,000 to $700,000 on local
television commercials in the district of Sen. Spencer Abraham,
R-Mich., attacking his proposal to increase the yearly visa limit from
the current 115,000 to 195,000.

Although the AFL-CIO has spoken out against raising the quota, it has
focused its efforts on attaching provisions to the legislation that
would protect U.S. workers.

One professional organization that has made an effort to fight the
legislation is the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley, a
group representing African American professionals in Northern
California.

Yesterday, the coalition placed an ad in Roll Call, the newspaper that
chronicles congressional actions, criticizing the plans to raise the
quota and complaining that an amendment that would encourage companies
to try harder to recruit African American candidates before seeking
H-1B workers was not included.

E-mail Carrie Kirby at ckirby@sfgate.com.
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