Plan to Boost Tech-Worker Visas Is Victim of Election-Year Politics
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, August 25, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/25/MN5429.DTL


Washington -- Mix two of this year's most hotly contested political blocs, stir rapidly right before an election, and you can pretty much expect an explosion.

And that's what happened to one of Silicon Valley's most coveted priorities -- a big increase in temporary visas for skilled workers that was expected to breeze through Congress with huge bipartisan majorities.

But with Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush speaking Spanish to Latino voters and Democratic nominee Al Gore speaking geek at Silicon Valley fund-raisers, tech visas proved highly combustible.

With just four work weeks left before Congress adjourns, the Clinton administration is refusing to accept a big increase in so-called H-1B visas for the high-tech industry unless the increase is tied to amnesty and green cards for up to 2 million Latino immigrants who have been living illegally in the United States for years.

``My fear,'' said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant lobby, ``is that the Democrats will say to Latinos, `We're on your side and they're not.' The Republicans will say to Silicon Valley, `We're on your side and they're not.' And both high-tech and the Latino and immigrant communities will go home empty-handed.''

ISSUES DIVIDE BOTH PARTIES

Amnesty provisions, particularly for illegal immigrants, deeply divide Republicans, and the last thing they want is a messy vote on Latino immigration a month before an election when their candidate is reaching out to Latino voters.

Handing out more visas for skilled labor divides Democrats, but they do not want to be fingered for killing a top Silicon Valley priority when their candidate is campaigning on the New Economy.

Relations between the chief House co-sponsors of the H-1B bill, San Jose Democrat Zoe Lofgren and Covina Republican David Dreier, have deteriorated into a public spitting contest since the administration tied the two measures together in a letter to Congress last May.

Things are no better in the Senate, where Majority Leader Trent Lott and Minority Leader Tom Daschle are hurling accusations at each other.

High-tech lobbyists are furious. ``If H-1B legislation ultimately fails, then the people who have unnecessarily complicated it will have to explain to the high-tech community why they did that,'' said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America.

Despite personal pleas by executives from Intel's Andy Grove to Microsoft's Bill Gates, it now appears there will be no vote to increase tech visas. The best that either side can hope for is a last-minute, closed-door deal between GOP leaders and the White House, although what that could be is anyone's guess.

``The fact that this has been stalemated for five months doesn't lead you to believe that magically it's going to resolve itself,'' said a GOP aide. ``So basically, high-tech could be out of luck.''

SMOOTH, BIPARTISAN START

Things started out smoothly enough last spring, when Dreier and Lofgren teamed up to raise the cap on H-1B visas to 200,000 from the current 115,000.

The visas allow college-educated foreigners to work in the United States for up to six years. The industry ran out of this year's allotment in March. Under current law, the cap will drop to 107,500 in the next fiscal year, starting in October, and to 65,000 in 2002.

High-tech companies say they have hundreds of thousands of jobs going vacant and will have to move operations overseas if they can't get more visas. Although next year's fresh allotment of 107,500 visas becomes available in October, tens of thousands of applications already are backed up, potentially filling next year's quota before the end of this year.

``It's conceivable that the program could cease to function in January,'' said Tom Stohler, director of workforce policy for the American Electronics Association.

EFFORT TO WIN AMNESTY

Latino and immigration advocates just as deeply want amnesty and green cards for immigrants who are already in this country -- many for 15 years or more. They say these immigrants were unfairly denied residency during the broad 1986 amnesty or were unfairly excluded from special green card provisions covering Central America.

But their measures never had the high profile -- or the votes -- of the tech visas until the White House decided to link the two.

White House economic adviser Gene Sperling asserted at the time that no bipartisan consensus on a tech visa bill existed -- despite many indications that one did -- and that the administration was trying to foster ``a good-faith, bipartisan negotiation that could lead to a quick resolution of this issue.''

The result proved quite the reverse.

Republicans said they saw a political trap -- a big floor debate on a controversial amnesty where Democrats would accuse them of being anti-Latino

--and refused to go along.

Republicans are terrified of bringing up the Latino immigration measures, fearing the issue would cause an explosive split between their pro- and anti-immigration factions.

``Late amnesty will blow up the Republican conference in the House,'' said one lobbyist. ``It's one thing to support legal immigration. It's a whole other to go on record in support of giving amnesty to illegal immigrants.''

HEAPING FUEL ON FIRE

On July 11, Lofgren heaped fuel on the fire with a letter to Dreier, signed by Palo Alto's Anna Eshoo, Visalia's Cal Dooley and others. The letter said the Democrats would accept a stand-alone H-1B bill -- in effect abandoning the Latino caucus -- but also upbraided Dreier for not including ``important fairness issues'' for Latinos.

``We view your decision,'' the members wrote, ``with great disappointment, as it will mean thousands of honorable persons in the United States living lives in limbo will continue in that mode for the foreseeable future.''

Dreier, whose Southern California district is heavily Latino, was enraged. ``At the 11th hour they decided to come in with two issues that I happen to support,'' Dreier said, calling the letter ``very, very harsh, saying I unilaterally was slapping those Latinos in the face.''

Lofgren responded, ``He's ridiculous. It's just preposterous for him to say that.''

``He wanted to move it along, we said fine, move it along,'' Lofgren said. ``The truth is, the Republicans have stalled the Latino fairness issues for almost two years. It's the No. 1 agenda item for the Hispanic caucus and it is a huge issue all across the country, and if they don't understand that, they really must be out of touch.''

Dooley accused Republicans of trying to blame New Democrats for blocking a big high-tech bill.

``I don't understand how anyone can accuse Democrats of blocking this,'' Dooley said. ``We're going to vote for H-1B legislation, but we can't vote for it if the Republicans don't bring the bill to the floor.''

SEPARATING THE ISSUES

Michele Davis, spokeswoman for Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, said the Latino provisions are ``a completely separate issue'' from high-tech visas, and that the GOP has refrained from adding any of their own controversial riders.

``Our position is that we should take care of this H-1B thing on its own, not have this poisonous debate about a completely unrelated provision,'' Davis said. ``That's exactly what the Democrats want to turn it into. They want to have a floor debate that's all about illegal immigration.''

Davis said Lofgren showed ``zero interest'' in the Latino immigration provisions when drafting her H-1B bill.

``Only when the administration suddenly wanted to attach this unrelated illegal immigration provision, she completely changed her position,'' Davis said. ``I don't think there could be any more evidence of politics at work here.''

Lofgren conceded that she pushed the Latino provisions onto the H-1B bill after the Clinton administration suggested it.

``They proposed it, and we said we thought it was a good idea,'' Lofgren said. ``If the Republicans don't think it's a good idea, we told them to go ahead, don't do it. They're in charge, not us.''

What happens next is anyone's guess.

``I have no idea what they're doing,'' Lofgren said of the Republicans, ``and my fear is they don't either.''

Dreier insists he will ``continue to work in a bipartisan way'' to get the visa bill through.

High-tech lobbyists are issuing warnings.

``I think there's a huge risk for the White House on H-1Bs, not so much for Clinton but for Gore,'' said Sandy Boyd, chairwoman of American Business for Legal Immigration. ``Tech is a constituency that he very much wants to have.''


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THE H-1B AND AMNESTY ARGUMENTS
The Clinton administration wants to tie any increase in temporary visas for skilled workers to amnesty and green card provisions for largely low-skilled, illegal Hispanic immigrants now living in the United States. Both efforts are now bogged down in election year politics.


H-1B VISAS

Q: What are they?

A: H-1B visas allow college-educated foreigners to work in the United States for up to six years. They are used primarily by the high tech industry, but also by universities and research institutions. Nearly half of H-1B visas go to workers from India.

Q: How many H-1Bs are there?

A: The number of visas is capped this year at 115,000. Under current law, the cap will to drop to 107,500 in the next fiscal year, starting in October, and to 65,000 in 2002.

Q: What would new legislation do?

A: Pending legislation would nearly double the cap to 200,000 and raise visa fees to fund education and training of U.S. workers.

Q: What does the industry say?

A: The tech industry says it faces a desperate worker shortage, and that companies will be forced to start moving operations overseas if they don't get more visas now.

Q: What do opponents say?

A: Opponents charge that the high-tech industry discriminates against older workers and minorities in search of cheap foreign labor.


AMNESTY AND GREEN CARDS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Hispanic and immigrant advocacy groups seek changes in immigration law that would cover anywhere from 1 million to 2 million immigrants.

Q: What would new legislation do?

A: The measures, called ``H-1B Plus,'' would extend amnesty to immigrants who entered the United States illegally before 1986 -- instead of the current 1972 -- and grant permanent residency, or green cards, to immigrants fleeing civil strife in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti.

The legislation also would reinstate an immigration provision that allows people who are in the country illegally but are seeking green cards to remain in the United States and pay a $1000 fine while their applications are pending.

Q: What do proponents say?

A: Immigration advocates say it is unfair to ignore poor and low-skilled Latino immigrants while approving a huge expansion in H-1B visas for professionals. They say many of these immigrants have been living in legal limbo for a decade or more and were promised green cards.

A: What do critics say?

A: They contend that the amnesty provisions are unrelated to the H-1B bill and should be dealt with separately.


THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Vice President Al Gore: The Democratic nominee supports the H-1B visa increase and challenged his rival to join him in backing the amnesty and green card measures too.

``I call upon George W. Bush to make clear his stand on this issue,'' Gore said in a July 28 statement. ``I believe we should correct this long standing injustice.''

Texas Governor George W. Bush: The Republican nominee strongly supports an increase in H-1B visas and does not want them ``bogged down in other, more contentious issues,'' said campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan.

Sullivan said Bush ``does not support blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants.''

E-mail Carolyn Lochhead at lochheadc@sfgate.com

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