Amid bitter partisan divisions over immigration, Democrats and Republicans in Congress have come together in support of a bill under close watch in Silicon Valley that would make it harder for certain companies to employ skilled foreign workers.
The plan, expected to go before Congress in the new year, is aimed at reforming the H-1B visa program, which critics say allows companies to bring in cheaper, skilled foreign labor at the expense of American technical workers.
“We created a reform that will minimize the abuses,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, author of the “Protect and Grow American Jobs Act” that emerged from the bipartisan House Judiciary Committee.
The bill would likely put Indian outsourcing firms, outfits that specialize in supplying cheaper visa workers to larger firms, at a particular disadvantage. But it seeks to avoid hurting tech companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm and others that say they’re highly dependent on H-1B workers to stay competitive.
H-1B is a non-immigrant U.S. visa that allows American companies to hire graduate-level foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as IT, finance, architecture, engineering and medicine, where there may be a shortage of suitably trained domestic employees.
Many tech firms say the visa is critical to ease a shortage of employees with highly technical skills, but outsourcing firms, accused by lawmakers of hiring cheaper, foreign labor, have drawn particular ire.
Silicon Valley companies, long dependent on skilled foreign workers to fuel their growth, began bracing for changes to immigration policy as soon as Trump was elected. The president made immigration central to his campaign, and has singled out the H-1B program.
The stakes are particularly high in the Bay Area. Although the federal government does not release H-1B visa holder population data by region, a Brookings Institution study found the Bay Area had about 27,000 H-1B visas approved in 2013, trailing only the New York metro area. An estimated 57 out of every 100 jobs in Silicon Valley requiring a bachelor’s degree or more is filled by someone who wasn’t born in the U.S., according to a 2017 report by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
Issa said the bill is the first step in overhauling a program that has become problematic in the past 25 years. Over time, its $60,000 minimum salary requirement has lost monetary value and become a loophole for companies to pay foreign employees significantly less, according to Issa.
He said lawmakers and government officials realized that many H-1B allocations were going to relatively low-paid, low-tech candidates, which has made it difficult for companies to “expand the universe of high-tech, immigrant labor.”
The legislation would require firms to either pay employees a minimum of $90,000 per year or prove they previously attempted to hire American workers to fill the jobs. It also prohibits employers from replacing American workers with foreign workers.
Perhaps most significantly, Issa’s bill changes the definition of “H-1B dependent” companies, which must prove they attempted to hire American workers, among other requirements. Under the bill, at least 20 percent of a firm’s workforce must comprise H-1B visa holders to be deemed H-1B dependent, a change that critics say protects tech giants like Facebook but not outsourcing firms. The current threshold is 15 percent.
Among the top 10 employers that used the H-1B program and offered outsourcing services in fiscal 2016 were Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consulting and Accenture, according to a data analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy. None of the firms could immediately be reached for comment.
The plan has some influential opponents, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has urged lawmakers to amend the bill, saying it “would hurt both workers and employers in a variety of economic sectors.”
“The Chamber acknowledges that the wage thresholds for exempt H-1B non-immigrant workers needs to be updated, but this bill proposes a shock to the system that could have negative economic repercussions in various industries,” the chamber said in a November letter.
Issa said that although it may seem like the bill targets the roughly 12 employers — most of which offer outsourcing services — that receive the bulk of H-1B allocations, it levels the playing field for smaller firms looking to hire the “best and brightest.”
“If (outsourcing companies) are saying they’re being disadvantaged then the question is, aren’t they already getting a huge benefit?” Issa said. “This will rebalance their share to give small and medium U.S.-based companies a better chance to get the H-1B employee they want and add them to their workforce.”
Added Issa: “Those companies get a couple of Ph.D students that otherwise might not get a job at all.”
Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents major technology firms in Silicon Valley, said Issa’s objective to redefine H1-B dependent companies and call for higher wages is reasonable.
“That is a level playing field,” he said. “The importance of startups being able to get talent is a significant component because they’re already at a disadvantage.”
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, who helped write the bill, said the H-1B visa program allows the U.S. to fill critical needs, but acknowledged “deep and long-standing flaws” in the system.
“Every year, tens of thousands of H-1B visas are taken by outsourcing companies whose business models rely on paying foreign workers less,” Lofgren said in a statement. “In the IT sector, for example, these companies bring in H-1B workers at reduced wages to compete against American IT workers in companies and organizations across the country. When the work is outsourced, the American workers are laid off. In some cases, the American workers are even asked to train their replacements.”
Lofgren, a staunch supporter of immigrant rights who normally opposes Republican policies against foreigners coming to the U.S., said that while the bill would help prevent displacement of U.S. workers, much more needs to be done.
“We might take care of one abuse just to see others pop up later,” Lofgren said. “We need to more fully curb abuses in the H-1B program, including by reforming wage systems and enhancing protections to prevent displacement.”
The rare bipartisan support that Issa’s bill received wasn’t lost on its supporters. Guardino said the mere fact that lawmakers crossed party lines to craft the bill is worth noting.
“In 30 years in public policy, I’ve never seen my nation so divided and divisive about issues on immigration,” he said. “To have Issa and Lofgren working together on a bill that’s good for the economy, good for workers and innovation can only add value to the current political climate in Washington.”
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There is NO shortage of employees with highly technical skills in America. These foreigners are brought in to lower the wage structure thereby allowing big businesses to get richer. You would think that Liberal Rich Business hating Democrats would side with Trump to keep the wage I.T. American wage structure high and thereby redistribute more taxable money from the Rich Big Businesses into the hands of the working class stiffs. But to a Liberal H-1B under the Obama administration, it was ALWAYS about unrestricted immigration, and the darkening of the American skin color to redistribute American wealth overseas, not about maintaining an American tax base where American excellence could grow, and the I.T. technology used for the military establishment and American security would stay here on the North American Continent. Profit motivated Big Business of course played THEIR part by buying and contributing to Republican ESTABLISHMENT candidates who also sold out American interests of WE THE PEOPLE with BOTH left and right inspired self-interested fists.
Exactly. WE HAVE thousands upon thousands of graduates getting degrees IN THOSE tech classes, so should EASILY be able to fill the worker # requirements that those companies need. SO IMO WE shouldn’t even HAVE the whole H1b visa system period.
Well I guess the law in the eyes of business will read like this;
If you cannot find an American to do it for our price then we can get a foreigner to do it for the same price without healthcare!
Since the year 2000 I have written to congress about this issue and had to take less money in order to stay in my trade and to live in a very expensive part of the country, NY tri-state, just so two foreigners for the price of me could be brought in to do work that I and fellow Americans should have been doing. But we must lose our way of life so these people can get a better standing in life. All this according to big business and the libertards.
You too livo54.
I, along with many of my colleagues, were laid off because of H1B’s being brought in to work for less than half of our earnings. The thing is, if existing immigration law was enforced, the lion’s share of these workers would be forced to leave. They cannot legally be hired, right now, if US citizens are available to do the jobs. They are used because they can be had for more much less money, then dumped when no longer needed with no repercussions.
And i know a # of others who were in the same boat, and WORSE many of them were “LEGALLY” told (legally according to rules in those Commie states such as Taxechuttests or CA) that they had to train their foreign replacements if they actually wanted to GET PAID For being fired… Otherwise they’d be replaced but NOT earn a single penny in severance pay.
TO ME THAT IS BLOODY WRONG and should be illegal.
I’m hoping Trump can thread the needle between two extremes here. So long as the H1B visa allows skilled techies to come here, but not at an advantage that would displace existing American workers. I’m greedy. I want the best of both worlds.
Most conservatives are OK with proper immigration, just don’t bring in a bunch of criminals, Welfare bums, people with TB, etc. Intelligent hard workers? Yes we want them.
I don’t want an H1B that undercuts Americans and makes it hard for them to get hired, promoted, etc. We’ve all heard/seen the horror stories. It needs to end.
But I do want an H1B that extracts all the talent from India and other countries to bring them here to MAGA. Microsoft and Facebook can easily afford to double the immigrants’ salaries to match that of local Americans. They’re all about that minimum wage, right? Call this an immigration minimum wage. Immigrants will be twice as likely to flee India, China, etc. and bring their talent here. Everyone gets hired. Everyone is happy. Everyone that is, except China, India, etc.
If Trump can strike that balance he will have scored a big win.
I Disagree DrG. I don’t WANT him to find a balance. PUT American workers first!
Sorry, @DrGadget, but the H1b visa program needs to be eliminated in its entirety. For many years the H1b program has held technical job wages substantially lower even as the cost of a quality technical education in the US has risen dramatically. This makes the ROI for Citizens’ STEM degrees lower. There is no “balance” available within the current guidelines.
My experience is that the “They cannot legally be hired, right now, if US citizens are available to do the jobs.” as stated by @snattlerake is a fallacy. Under current law all the company needs do is advertise the job opening, and when the phrases “or foreign equivalent” OR “4 years experience in the job offered” appear in the ad; the job ad is being used to eliminate the potential Citizen applicants and therefore RENEW the current H1b visa holder’s visa for SIX MORE YEARS. That keeps the pay level down for 6 more years for that job.
The only real solution, therefore, is elimination of the H1b and refusal to renew any existing H1b. Even so, that will mean several years to remove the effective depression of STEM wages caused by the H1b visas.
If resolution of the issue of “unfillable by US Citizens” jobs is a reality, new laws which allow a company to sponsor an alien for employment should be created. The requirements should be: Documentation of advertising the job for 90 days with it’s requisite educational and experience AND expressed salary range & benefits. If a qualified US Citizen cannot be found within that time, the company would be allowed to sponsor an individual’s visa based on the individual’s specific experience, education, and other talents needed, for a period not to exceed 2 years. During that time the company must also sponsor the individual for US Naturalization AND pay a surcharge fee of 50% of the salary to the INS as a part of that sponsorship. If the individual possesses such a significant advantage for the company’s efforts, they should gladly go forward with the sponsorship.
I doubt, however, that many companies would do so because they’ve built a lot of their technical business models on the basis of the low wage H1b visa holders they currently have. So much so that currently they fight to get as many of the annually allowed number as possible. I believe that we’d have very few “unfillable by US Citizens” STEM jobs left in the country.
Companies wishing to hire H-1B candidates should be required to pay 125% salary for that position. That would give them incentive to hire American or even train someone for that position. We don’t owe it to India to employ their citizens.
No we don’t. Additionally, we should make it a crime for a company to tell their US Employees “You will train your foreign replacement, OR you will be fired with no benefits”..