>From _The Washington Post_ -- Be Careful! This page refused to load and crashed my browser several times, and it cannot be found from the _Post_ front page when you try to get to it with a text-only browser such as Lynx. So, cut-and-paste the following URL into your commandline. I dunno, would it be paranoid of me to suspect that an H-1B employee of the _Post_ deliberately fixed this to kill browsers to that nobody would know that even the _Post_ finds this worrisome? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7445-2002Feb26.html Hiring of Foreign Workers Frustrates Native Job-Seekers By Carrie Johnson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 27, 2002; Page E01 At a time when few technology companies are hiring and many have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, the government issued tens of thousands of coveted H-1B visas that allow foreign workers to hold jobs in the United States for up to six years. American tech companies have insisted for years that the visas are essential to their ability to hire the right people for key jobs, and they have persuaded Congress to increase the number of visas in the H-1B program several times. But many out-of-work American engineers and their advocates see it as a giveaway of jobs to less-expensive foreign labor. Government statistics on foreign workers are incomplete. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service said this week that 28,000 skilled foreign workers were approved for visas during the last three months of 2001, down from 50,000 during the same period a year earlier, when employers were rushing to submit applications before a fee increase took effect. The 28,000 are in addition to the 163,000 applications the INS approved in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 -- including six months when, economists say, the recession was in full force. Immigration analysts suggest that tens of thousands more workers entered the country in the past fiscal year to work for research institutions, colleges and other employers that are not included in INS statistics. The H-1B visas -- more than half of which have been used to fill engineering, programming and other computer-related jobs -- allow U.S. companies to sponsor skilled workers from overseas to work here for at least six years. Employers are supposed to certify that they cannot find qualified Americans to fill the jobs, but critics of the so-called high-tech visa program say such rules are routinely flouted. Georgetown University scholars estimate that as many as 710,000 H-1B permit holders are in the United States. About 9,500 H-1B employees work in Northern Virginia alone, according to a report issued by George Mason University in December. The latest figures have reignited a debate over immigration limits, especially among trade groups that represent minority and older workers. Last month, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley began a campaign to increase the number of African Americans in technology jobs, pointing to businesses' dependence on foreign labor as one reason blacks have failed to advance in the field. "It's impacting workers of all races," said John Templeton, founder of the coalition. Groups such as the Black Data Processing Associates and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA offer support to members who were laid off in the past year and have yet to find new jobs. "The principle behind the H-1B visa is they [foreign workers] would not be taking the place of permanent residents," said Ned Sauthoff, past president of the IEEE-USA. "We know that unemployment in fields that we foster has more than doubled. There's capacity there that's not being applied." Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that lobbies for reduced immigration, said of companies' H-1B use: "It's already too much." But firms such as Texas Instruments Inc. say that seeking overseas employees is necessary, even during periods of slow economic growth. Paula Collins, a lobbyist for the Dallas manufacturing company, said it needs more electrical engineers than it can find in the United States. Texas Instruments hired 178 H-1B holders in 2001, a decline from 225 the previous year. That reflected changes in the economy, Collins said. The company has brought in about 35 foreign workers through the program so far this year. Employers such as Texas Instruments say it will take time to fill the pipeline with qualified American candidates as demand for technology professionals grows. Employment forecasts by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that the number of technology-related jobs in the United States will rise from 3.3 million in 2000 to 5.5 million in 2010. What's more, the H-1B program's boosters say, computer firms are not the only ones to use the visas. Traditional manufacturing companies and those in the financial services, consulting, health care and biotechnology sectors also rely on overseas workers. "There was always this misperception that the H-1B program was exclusively a tech program," said Sandy Boyd, an assistant vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers. The program's critics, including Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who has introduced legislation to reduce the number of H-1B visas, remain unconvinced. "We're certainly in a position to rethink the idea and have them prove for us the need was still there in light of the hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed or underemployed," Tancredo said. One such person might be Chris Williams. He has a master's degree, a family of six and a dozen years of experience at firms such as IBM and Perot Systems. What he doesn't have is a job. Since last May, Williams has searched fruitlessly for a management-level position. He recently began teaching five courses at a Denver technology school, for 75 percent less than he earned on his previous job. The slowdown in technology spending and the waves of layoffs prompt Williams and others to ask why companies imported so many foreign workers during the recession. "That's what happens when you get a mix of politics and labor and economics," said Williams, 38. Williams said he's being recruited fromsuch countries as Switzerland, Germany and India. "Yet it's hard to get the time of day in Denver," he said. Meanwhile, advocates for overseas workers say they, too, have suffered in the economic slump. Amar Veda, a New Jersey computer programmer, said many of his friends are unemployed and some have left the country because they could not find jobs. "See all the job ads?" said Veda, an official of the Immigrant Support Network, a group of H-1B visa holders. "Many of them now say they want five, six years of U.S. experience. They also specifically state the people have to have a green card or citizenship. It's a very lamentable situation." --30-- Now, for some comments. If you'd like to see what the modes and methods are for the "Immigrant Support Network", please read a speech of theirs from 200, detailing their strategies. It's located at http://www.fairus.org/html/isn.htm >From that document: Framework for legislative success Rick Swartz has provided us with a credible and compelling framework, which can energize our cause and advance our issues legislatively. We believe that with Rick's help, we will succeed in bringing our most pressing concerns to the negotiating table in Washington, and maximize our chances for legislative success. There are no guarantees of success in politics, but the only way to win is to find a strategy that could work and carry it out. This is what we are now proposing. You, our members and your active participation are the key to our success. ISN strengths ISN is a new organization that we created ad hoc over the internet just over a year ago. We have achieved tremendous progress in little time. Our membership has increased dramatically to nearly 10,000 and our website receives almost 50,000 hits a day. We have established ourselves as the premiere website for H-1B visa holders to retrieve information about immigration issues and communicate with others who are in similar situations. We have successfully created a forum in which we can organize H-1B visa holders around the country to change policies that adversely affect our lives here in the United States. The future of ISN It is now time for ISN to move to the next level. Our goal is to systematically and effectively establish ourselves ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ outside of the internet as a strong organization that can influence policy decisions in Washington. We believe that by ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ uniting with powerful national organization around the country and in Washington, we will be able to become an overnight "force" in shaping immigration policy in the near-term as well as the future. >From another website, http://www.kamya.com/misc/links.html -- page after page of links on how to scam the system: Other Resources US Immigration FAQ US Visa FAQs INS Service Center Processing Times INS District Offices INS District Office Processing Times CSC JIT Report Information Immigrant Support Network (ISN) U.S. Immigration News Designated Civil Surgeons I-130 Discussion Forum Immigration-Related Links Shusterman's Immigration Update U.S. Congressmen U.S. Senators Vital Records Lawyers Matthew Udall Carl Shusterman Rajiv S. Khanna James R. Gotcher Siskind, Susser, Haas & Devine True, Walsh & Miller Jackson & Hertogs National Immigration Services Damon Key Chang & Boos The Ruth Law Firm Sachs & Kolken George M. Sabga John F. Roth Valentine J. Wallace Law Office of Bobby C. Chung Immigration Lawyers on the Web (ILW) American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) This is not an endorsement of any of these lawyer sites. We am not affiliated with any of these law firms. Forms And for an example of the "high-quality" coding available from imported "programmers", see the Immigrants Support Network itself: http://www.isn.org/ Isn't it odd how H-1B visa holders -- by definition these are not immigrants! not supposed to be, anyway -- call themselves "Immigrants"? One page they have archived there, which gives a great deal of credence to the assertion that these workers are imported specifically to drive down the wages of American skilled workers, is at http://www.isn.org/news/20020210090930.html Authorities Investigate Factory For 'Virtual Slaves' by AP, The Associated Press --------------------------------------------------- TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Labor is investigating a welding factory accused of locking up off-duty employees and forcing them to work for little more than $3 per hour. The John Pickle Co. of Tulsa is treating its employees -- men from India -- as ``virtual slaves,'' federal officials said. The Labor Department's regional office in Little Rock, Ark., is looking into the allegations. The men were given food that was barely edible, authorities said. And records show the workers were not paid more than $3.17 an hour -- far below the $5.15 federal minimum wage. The company says the foreign workers actually were employees of a company in Bombay, India, and were paid wages considered fair by Indian standards. Federal officials rejected that explanation. ``It doesn't matter where you are from or who is signing your paycheck,'' Diana Petterson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Labor, told the Tulsa World. ``If you are performing work on American soil, you are entitled to $5.15 an hour. That's the law.'' Officials also are concerned about reports that the Indian workers were confined against their will to a barracks on the factory grounds.