Immigration Law

H-1B ADVOCATES PESSIMISTIC ABOUT NEAR TERM CHANGES

By Greg Siskind

Several good immigration bills continue to be held up by an inability to agree on the question of incremental versus comprehensive improvements to the immigration system, according to a panel that spoke to the Heritage Foundation yesterday.

On the H-1B question, Republican Immigration Subcommittee Counsel George Fishman, someone who I usually disagree with on most immigration issues, had some interesting points to make on the subject:

Although Smith's brief "emergency" H-1B bill doesn't propose new checks on the system, Fishman said his boss is aware of concerns about their abuse and wants to strike a balance. On the one hand, high-tech companies like Microsoft and Google prize H-1B visas because they say those work permits allow them to fill gaps in their operations for which there is a shortage of qualified Americans. On the other hand, some American programmers say abuse of the system has displaced American workers and depressed their wages.

There's truth to both perspectives, Fishman said, adding that the Department of Labor isn't as well-equipped to fight suspected fraud in the H-1B program as it could be. Part of the reason, he said, is that the system is based on "attestations" from employers that they're hiring employees with the proper qualifications and at the requisite wage levels, and the Labor Department "has to wait around for some to complain" before it opens an investigation, Fishman said.

"The H-1B program can and usually does operate to the benefit of both American high-tech companies and American workers," he said. "It is the job of Congress to ensure that it always does."

I've said many times in this blog that the laws necessary to address abuses that occur from time to time with H-1B employers are already in place. If abuses are occurring without check, it is either the fault of a Labor Department that simply doesn't care, a Labor Department that is incompetent, or a Labor Department that lacks the resources to do the job (or a combination of all three). If more money is needed to help the Labor Department better enforce the laws on the books, then that needs to be addressed by Congress.

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on May 13, 2008 (boomark / email).