Senate's H-1B foes begin new attack

[ChromeFoundry]

Source: ComputerWorld

February 1, 2011 06:00 AM ET

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- With the cap on H-1B visas reached last week, proponents have renewed calls for a higher cap. But two leading critics of the program may be getting ready to seek new restrictions on the use of foreign labor.

U.S. Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter Monday to Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano that outlined their concerns with the H-1B program. They were responding to a Government Accountability Office report this month that recommends reforms to the visa program.

Among the changes the GAO is seeking is better accounting of H-1B use. The government doesn't know how many H-1B workers there are in the U.S. or how many stay after their visas expire, the watchdog agency said.

The the senators wrote, "We are deeply troubled that DHS has no idea how many H-1B visa holders are working in the United States at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed."



Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9207458/Senate_s_H_1B_foes_begin_new_attack_

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. The same scrutiny should be applied to all work visas. n/t

[n2doc]

2. Given the unemployment rate

They should make all work visas contingent on the employer having done a nationwide search at 150% of the proposed salary level first, and requiring them to swear a binding oath that no Americans are able to do the work.

[EnviroBat]

3. I agree. Most of our H1-B workers spend more time on the phone

lining up their next gig, than doing the work we are paying crazy hourly rates to have them do. Earlier this week I interviewed another "consultant". He actually had the nerve to tell me that he has three years of experience using a software language that I made up, (Orangutan-PHP doesn't exist to my knowledge), but this guy had experience using it! His "resume" went into the trash as the door hit him in the ass on the way out...

[gmpierce]

8. Monkey business

EnviroBat - Sounds like this guy understands both the market and the people doing the hiring. In too many companies the HR department comes up with a list of alphabet soup acronyms for "skills" that they do not understand. They then forward the request to a recruiter who doesn't understand any of this stuff himself.

Anyone who answers honestly is rejected, even if the "skill" makes no difference to the ability to actually complete the project. People who make up stories get hired and afterward they find out that the project will actually be done in Visual Basic.

If most of the people hiring were competent, this would never work, but in general something like 80% of those hiring have no clue what they really want. This has been true for about thirty years (that I know of) and it never changes.

[EnviroBat]

9. Agreed. And if the guy had told me he had no clue what I was talking about,

it would have greatly improved his chances.

[BobbyBoring]

5. Ed Zachery!

Canada requires that any immigrant seeking work will not replace a Canadian worker. That's a pretty good plan. However, I don't know how many of us would want to work at the poultry plant ripping the beaks of chickens for $7.00 an hr.

[trud]

6. binding oath

Yeah, that'll work :-)

[LiberalEsto]

4. Tax the crap out of companies that hire them

or ban them outright.

[shanti]

10. that's what obama promised to do

:( unfortunately, he lied.

[OhioChick]

7. "DHS has no idea how many H-1B visa holders are working in the United States "

That is truly fucked up.

Time to stop the program until they can figure it out.
Wow.