State celebrate immigrants’ contributions, but wary of jobs going to foreigners.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: Call it hypocrisy, irony, being afraid of the dark seeing shadows as ghosts, or just plain protectionism, but California State Assembly’s Resolution, calling for a federal investigation of the abuse of the H-1B visa program, passed on Monday – the same day it lauded the contributions of immigrants declaring June Immigrant Heritage month – is yet another indication of a bipartisan movement gaining strength in the country to ensure that foreign workers do not displace American workers.
That the move comes from California, home of Silicon Valley which has been a staunch supporter of expansion of the H-1B visas for skilled workers and often lament the lack of skilled tech workers to take the country to new creative, entrepreneurial heights, comes as a surprise too. It seems the lobbying of Mark Zuckerberg and Co. is not working anymore.
“Immigrants continue to develop and expand businesses, innovate, strengthen our economy, and create American jobs in California,” declared House Resolution 25, in a nod to those immigrants who have immigrated successfully, before the ruling Democrats, including the Latino Caucus, threw in their demand for investigation of the H-1B visa program, opposed by the pro-business Republicans.
Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, who is Chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy, pushing the Assembly Joint Resolution 12 (AJR 12) seeking a federal investigation of the H-1B visa program, said: “This program (H-1B visa) was created to provide businesses with foreign workers who have skill sets that cannot be obtained here in our country, not to displace hardworking Americans,”
At the core of the resolution is to curb further instances of the much publicized humiliation faced by hundreds of tech workers at Southern California Edison and Disney, displaced by workers from India on H-1B and possibly L1 visas hired by IT giants like Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services; and forced to train their replacements with a ‘good attitude’ to secure severance pay.
California Republicans didn’t buy the Democrats’ argument though which was based on the fact that the state is having an unemployment rate of 6%, and condemned the resolution, saying it was premature, reported the Sacramento Bee.
“It is unfortunate, unfair and essentially at this point unproven,” Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine was quoted as saying, calling the measure “very, very unfair to a very important business here in all of our communities.”
But there is enough indication from top Republicans that the matter of H-1B visas is no longer agreeing with top corporates and their lobbyists for more skilled labor. They have determined it’s bound to become a focal talking point of the presidential elections, and sensed the mood of the country which is yet to regain strong economic legs, with millions of Americans still out of work, or those who have stopped looking for work. These Republicans have come out in greater numbers than ever before against the work visa program.
GOP presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina, a former top executive, is one of them. In a recent interview to the Daily Caller, Fiorina opined that the program has changed in the last 10 years since she herself advocated for the program to bring skilled workers in.
“There is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore,” Fiorina said in 2004, when she and other tech executives defended their decisions to move company jobs overseas.
But now Fiorina thinks the program should be scrutinized to check for abuse.
“The H1B Visa was very different 10 years ago than it is now. In some cases, there are legitimately positions that can only be filled with people who have a different set of skills, but it’s pretty clear that the H1B visa program is an issue,” she said in the interview to the Caller.
”It’s become an issue, where people are using it as almost an industry. It’s become an issue where it appears that some companies that are abusing that program and asking American workers to train H1B visa replacements so they can lower wages. That’s a terrible thing. I would never defend that. And so, for those companies that are abusing that program, shame on them,” Fiorina added.
The US Department of Labor is investigating Infosys and TCS for H-1B visa violations, which Infosys has countered saying it’s only a auditing issue. However, the message is clear: the US will be looking more seriously into visa violations by the major tech companies based in India, and also the mid to small firms here who act as middlemen to procure H-1B visa workers to corporates.
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)
19 Comments
Abolish H1-Bs and deport Paul Ryan!!
Got news for you… H1B’s are NOT IMMIGRANTS!!! They are foreign labor… end of story. Do not try to portray them as immigrants because they are not in the immigration process nor is H1B part of the immigration process; it is just cheap foreign labor. End of story.
The mere fact that you try to portray it as such shows your own bias.
Let me ask one question here. I hope that you guys will think about. How many of you are standing up for ‘YOURSELF’ and fighting injustice, if you were replaced by a H1b worker. How many people have guts to take on the corporations for a Just fight. This h1b replacement is happening in EVERY company major and minor corporations. How come we really don’t hear a squeak from people. Only Edison, CA utilities, Toysrus, and Disney had a few gutsy people who came out. Maybe you guys should stand up and fight…. there are all kinds of websites offering to help displaced workers (I mean even law firms) willing to protect us workers like protectusworkers.org etc. Why not form a plan to fight back…… Start the fight against unfair practices….. you will find whole Organisations will stand behind you…..YES the corporations have lawyers. But LAW is more powerful than LAWYERS. If the law itself seems unfair then fight to change the laws…… that is what democracy is about….. when I go on youtube and look at the videos on major issues and the views generated on major issues like TPP (trade agreements) the views are pathetic….. but junk and garbage videos on youtube will generate millions of views. The number of people who are interested in even educating themself on the issues are too few. Maybe the comedians and the sportsmen should start about major problems facing america, maybe then people will stand up for themselves……
Comment where it matters. Sign the petition to congress:
http://www.petition2congress.com/7637/abolish-h1b-visa-program/view/1
It is pure nonsense that they say H1B needs investigation all the time. In reality, it is the most highly regulated visa, like having to pay prevailing wages, market labor test attestation, specialized knowledge requirement, site inspection, on and on..
Actually, the rampant abuse happens in categories like L1 (intra-company transferee) and EB1C (this is immigrant visa i.e. GC). Both programs DO NOT need Labor certification, there are no minimum wage requirements, have not heard of site inpections either. I actually suspect many of those TCS/Infosys guys displacing american workers may be from these two categories. Not sure if the L1 abuse and GC fraud investigation is going to happen or not !!
Google “h1b fraud” and you can find plenty of articles detailing H1B fraud including employers running “fake ads” to avoid Americans applying for the jobs, fake qualifications for a position (super high that no real applicant possesses but an H1B with a fake resume then qualifies for),
Perhaps the biggest fraud of all, ironically, is that H1B’s and outsourcers save employers and consumers money or make a company more profitable for shareholders. Target famously used outsourcing and H1B’s for their store credit payment systems and security. (They even set up schools to teach Indians IT skills rather than hire Americans. Something to think about during your next shopping trip!) Major security breach happened and millions of cardholder’s numbers stolen by Russian hackers. CTO fired and later CEO as well (no doubt paid well for their incompetence and corruption.) Windows 8 by Microsoft. ’nuff said. The list goes on. H1B’s do shoddy work. Why are they hired?
Google “Apex bribery indictment” for an answer to that question.
Although there were many other factors at work from the start of the H1b visa program (9-11 attacks, wars, housing market bubble collapse), the H1b’s entry into the American economy has been part of a downward spiral in the standard of living for Americans overall. America is still better than India, a little, but increasingly not by much. We aren’t a third world poverty stricken country.
Yet.
Are you an IT executive by chance? Or an H1B worker?
Nonsense Obama never passed such thing called unlimited H1B. Infact the H1B visa issual has become very very strict after Obama came into power. I am on H1B, i know how strict it has become even at Port of Entry also.
Go home Haji!
How can you Import millions of impoverished people from India who will work for anything and NOT drive down wages and salaries here?
go home H1B scab trash, you’re not welcome in the U.S. Go home, stay home, fix your own country, what we have doesn’t belong to you Raja
I’m tired of hating on them. It’s of no use – as long as our corporate and political traitors provide them with any opportunity by bribing and exploiting the legislative loopholes, they will continue coming, like any people would do. Perhaps, a more effective approach (besides electing Sanders as President, of course) would be to equalize them with the domestic workforce, so it becomes less lucrative to hire somebody on the other side of the globe for logistical reasons if anything. Another thing, it’s beyond me why we are not seeing more successful startups from Indians to compete with Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others. Even China came up with Alibaba which bit off a significant portion of market from Amazon and Ebay, and Russia with Yandex search engine (which I now use most of the time because I’m tired of Google and Bing spying and profiling). The Indians seem to have this “employee for life” mentality, submissive and obedient work units, incapable of presenting a competitive challenge outside the job seeker pool – that’s why the American companies like them, because no amount of knowledge transfer would ever be used against them to beat them in the business game.
Microsoft CEO – Nadella, Indira Nooyi – CEO Pepsi Co,Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup, Shantanu Narayen CEO Adobe Systems, Surya Mohapatra CEO – Quest Diagnostics, Dinesh Paliwal CEO Harmon Sound Systems
Ajay V. Bhatt is an Indian-American computer architect who helped define and develop several widely used technologies, including USB (Universal Serial Bus), AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), PCI Express, Platform Power management architecture and various chipset improvements.
I am not saying all Indians are smart, but there are some really talented kids who deserve the right opportunity. This country was built by immigrants. It is as unfair/illegal of Americans to pay cash and mow lawn using a mexican non documented worker as well. In all honestly there is no righteous here – sink or survive
Point to note: Visas are being pushed by billionaires like Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, HP ceo, Intel Ceo, ATT ceo, Google, Amazon, IBM …….. the list goes on……….
They want cheap labor to supplement the billions they already have in their banks, they use L1 to transfer people from their office in India to USA on a L1 and they are not regulated by visa restrictions. The ceos claim skill shortage and then push for H1bs. Can people fight the H1b increase by writing to their senators all the time. The CEOs are putting money into congress to push their agenda, of course bodyshoppers will game the system. The Greed at Amerian Corporate level is creating a false need. The Indian body shoppers are gaming it. They are not above blame. But understand the US Govt and the US corporations need to take care of their people …. really hating body shops who are dipping into the pie is not the way to go……. The corporate greed and the congress lax laws are enabling it.
This is how it works. Infosys or TCS gets a big outsource contract, SCE becomes the training ground for H1B workers. TCS or Infosys will keep change H1B workers in and out of different department in IT to learn different skills to put on their resume. They can be use to different out source projects.
We already fought one Civil War to get rid of slavery.
Anyone who is in favor of H1-B is an enemy of the Untied States.
let’s form an I.T. association like AMA.
Good. start it in India
All this discussion is moot. All this so-called investigation is just window dressing for the elections,, The TPP has been passed by Obama and the aim was to make sure there is unlimited H-1B into this country, Obama has won. Both Democrats and Republicans are just the same; beholden to the rich and care two hoots for the middle class.