High-tech job sector threatened by visa-related bill, says activist (OneNewsNow.com)

High-tech job sector threatened by visa-related bill, says activist

Chad Groening - OneNewsNow - 3/25/2008 9:30:00 AM

Indian passport Immigration reform activist Rick Oltman says a bill introduced by an Arizona congresswoman would do serious damage to the American technology job sector by doubling the number of foreign worker visas issued to high-tech workers.

Democrat Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) has introduced HR 5630, which is being called the "Innovation Employment Act." The legislation would increase the cap on what are known as H1B visas from 65,000 a year to 130,000 annually, and to 180,000 (in the years 2010 to 2015) if the 130,000 cap were reached the year before. Moreover, it would place no limit on the number of H1B visas issued to foreigners who came as graduate students in technical fields to U.S. colleges.

Rick Oltman of Californians for Population Stabilization says companies that want more high-tech worker visas to be available "make it sound as if there's not an available pool in this country -- which of course there is."

But according to Oltman, corporations like Microsoft are pushing for this legislation in order to get cheaper foreign high-tech workers. "What the corporations get with the high-tech worker visas is willing workers who are willing to work for less," he explains. "And also there's the fraud that goes along with it."

The activist notes he has heard reports of secretaries and other non high-tech workers in the U.S. on H-1B visas. "Frankly I don't buy it," he says in response. "If there was a shortage of high-tech jobs, wages would be going up in that sector -- [and] I don't see wages going up there."

Oltman believes a flood of additional high-tech workers would discourage American students from entering those technological disciplines, seriously damaging that portion of the nation's job sector.

According to H1Base.com, the H1B is the most sought after USA work visa. It must be applied for by an employer and issued for a specific employee. Typically valid for up to six years, the visa is normally issued for an initial period of three years and then must be extended.

The Department of Homeland Security reports it approved about 132,000 H1B visas in 2004, and about 117,000 in 2005. The top five U.S. high-tech companies receiving H1Bs in 2006 were Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Cisco, and Intel. Microsoft received almost three to four times as many as any of the other four.