San Diego Union-Tribune

High-tech firms ask Congress to up foreign worker limits

By Finlay Lewis
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

July 4, 1999

WASHINGTON -- Qualcomm and other high-tech firms across the nation
again are urging Congress to increase the number of foreign computer
programmers allowed into the United States.

The industry effort was prompted by the announcement several weeks ago
by the Immigration and Naturalization Service that the industry had
reached the program's annual legal ceiling of 115,000 visas.

It was the third consecutive year that the annual quota of so-called
H-1B visas has been exhausted months in advance, and some industry
sources say that next year the limit could be reached as early as
December -- just three months into the fiscal year.

Legislation is being prepared by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, that would
allow 200,000 foreign computer scientists and engineers to enter the
country next year, easing what the high-tech firms say is an acute
shortage of U.S. workers qualified to hold down jobs in certain
specialty occupations.

Congress raised the cap on H-1B visas last year for the current and
upcoming fiscal years from 65,000 to 115,000.

Opponents, meanwhile, accuse the industry of seeking to tap into a
worldwide supply of cheaper foreign labor.

Complicating the issue is the contention by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas,
chairman of the House immigration subcommittee, that the H-1B program
suffers from what he describes as "pervasive fraud."

And another critic, Norman Matloff, a computer scientist at the
University of California Davis, has made available an extensive
critique of the program on the Internet.

He says that the "only shortage is one of cheap labor, especially in
the form of foreign nationals who make on average 15 to 30 percent
less than comparable natives."

Matloff contends the industry's highly selective hiring practices,
relatively flat wages and 17 percent unemployment rate for programmers
over 50 all belie the existence of a shortage.

He says that age discrimination is rampant in an industry that prizes
employees willing to work long days and weekends without complaint.

In a study of information-technology workers in the United States, the
Computing Research Association recently concluded there is no clear
resolution to the debate because of the absence of "adequate data to
directly count either supply or demand."

"It is likely that there are spot shortages, both in specific
geographic regions and in specific occupations," the association said.
"In a field experiencing rapid growth and rapid technological change,
it would be surprising if there were not such shortages."

The nonprofit association represents more than 180 academic high-tech
departments, government research labs and technology companies.

The association's research also suggests that help might be on the
way. A survey conducted in 1998 notes that undergraduate enrollments
in computer sciences and computer engineering increased about 40
percent in both 1996 and 1997.

William A. Bold, director of government affairs at Qualcomm, sees that
trend appearing in the University of California system.

Bold says Qualcomm supports a raising of the H-1B ceiling. He also
says the company would like Congress to devise a more lasting solution
to the worker-supply problem by focusing on education and training.

"We need to ensure that universities have the resources to bring
students into engineering programs and (that we) don't turn promising
students away because of a lack of classroom space," Bold says.

Each H-1B visa is good for up to six years, and U.S. high-tech firms
frequently consider that when hiring foreign students graduating from
U.S. colleges and when recruiting workers in foreign countries.

Jennifer McCarthy, a government affairs specialist at Qualcomm, says
there is "a shortage of skilled workers, and we need to have access to
workers wherever they are coming from."

Many workers who obtain the visas stay the full six years and then
apply for a permanent green card, which entitles them to work in the
United States. That also puts them on the road to citizenship.

Smith recently wrote to Doris Meissner, head of the INS, and demanded
that the administration crack down on fraud in the H-1B program. A
spokeswoman for the INS says Smith's letter is under review.

At a hearing of Smith's subcommittee last spring, William R. Yates,
director of immigration services for the INS, said that the American
consulate in Chennai, India, and the INS jointly examined 3,247 visa
applications for possible fraud.

Yates said that about 21 percent of the visa petitions involved
outright fraud. In 45 percent of some other petitions, investigators
were unable to verify the authenticity of the education and
work-experience credentials of the workers seeking the visas.

India sends the most computer scientists and engineers to the United
States under the program, and the American consulate in Chennai
processed 20,000 visas last year, more than any other post in that
country.

In his letter, Smith declared that his hearings "clearly established
that pervasive fraud in the H-1B program has had a major impact on the
availability of the numerically limited visas."

However, some industry sources dismissed Smith's evidence as largely
anecdotal.

"I can't categorically say there is no validity to these things, but
it seems to me that these assertions raise more questions than they
answer," says Cornelius Scully, who retired two years ago as director
of legislation, regulations and advisory assistance in the State
Department's visa office.

Foreign workers admitted under the program supplement an industry
staffed by an estimated 2 million U.S. information-technology workers,
according to government statistics.