ADVOCACY UPDATE
Vol. 4, No. 3, March 3,
2000
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Lamar Smith Introduces H-1B Bill that Business Community Opposes
On Thursday, March 2, Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, introduced the “Technology Worker Relief Act of 2000”, H.R. 3814, with original co-sponsors Tom Campbell (R-CA), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and Chris Cannon (R-UT). While Chairman Smith said the bill is a “measurable and reasoned response to the concerns of the high-tech industry,” business leaders expressed extreme disappointment. A press release by the American Business for Legal Immigration (ABLI) stated: “Congressman Smith’s bill does not take into consideration the extraordinary growth in the economy and the high demand for highly educated professional workers, particularly those with expertise in math, science, engineering and other technical fields. The bill looks in the rear view mirror and does not adequately address the current economic realities facing U.S. employers.” AILA joins with its coalition partners in strongly opposing this piece of legislation.
The provisions of this bill include an increase of 45,000 visas for the current fiscal year alone. However, these visas only would be available once the Department of Labor issues final regulations implementing the 1998 H-1B law, ACWIA. By making the additional visas contingent on DOL regulations, Chairman Smith would allow the visas to be held hostage to bueracarcy. In addition, in order to apply for the additional visas, an employer must demonstrate that in the last year it has increased its overall employment of U.S. workers, its total payroll provisions in the United States, and its median income. The increased employment and payroll provisions amount to a new no-layoff attestation on all employers and make no sense in the current business climate where many companies need to let go of unprofitable departments and projects, but may still need the particular expertise of an H-1B non-immigrant in a new project.
Smith’s bill also would permanently change the H-1B program, by restricting H-1B sponsorship to employers that have $5,000,000 in gross assets, requiring that H-1B non-immigrants only work full-time (at least 35 hours per week), and eliminating experience equivalence to a degree for H-1B beneficiaries. These provisions effectively would shut out small business and start-ups from using the program and the degree requirement appears to directly conflict with United States commitments in the General Agreements on Trade in Services (GATS), in which the U.S. agreed that it would not further restrict H-1B’s educational requirements.
Other provisions include a fee increase for most H-1Bs to at least $1,210 from the current $610. This new fee includes an increase in the training fee created by ACWIA from $500 to $1,000 and a new $100 fee to fund INS and State Department H-1B fraud investigations. The bill also creates a new “expedited processing track” for employers that reported gross receipts of at least $100 million on their returns over each of the last two years, have no history of H-1B violations, and pay an additional $250 for this service. These provisions would bar small businesses from receiving expedited processing.
The Smith bill would require the State Department to take over responsibility for counting H-1B issuance under the cap, and investigate and verify H-1B beneficiaries foreign educational credentials. State Department officials often have stated their inability to assume these functions, given lack of resources and their continued reliance on INS data about the large number of H-1B non-immigrants who acquire status in the United States through INS filings.
Copies of Mr. Smith’s statement and summary of the bill are available on AILA InfoNet (document #00030104). The text of the legislation will be posted as soon as it is available.
On the Senate side, the Senate Judiciary Committee, under Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), is expected to mark up Chairman Hatch’s H-1B bill, S. 2045, which AILA and the business community strongly support, on March 9, 2000.
AILA advocates are asked to contact their
Representatives and urge them to oppose Representative Smith’s
H-1B bill and support H.R. 2698, Representative David Dreier’s
(R-CA) bill introduced last year. In the Senate, advocates
should urge Senators to co-sponsor S. 2045, the Hatch/Abraham
bill and urge those Senators who are members of the Senate
Judiciary Committee to support the bill during mark-up next
week. Log on to “Contact Congress” in the
Advocacy Center on AILA’s InfoNet to find out who is on the
Senate Judiciary Committee and how to contact them.
Essential
Worker Immigration
Coalition Increases Presence on Capitol Hill
As reported in previous issues of Advocacy Update, a coalition of service sector employers and associations of employers of entry-level, unskilled, and skilled workers (“essential workers” in industries including hospitality, health care, construction, retail, and manufacturing) have formed in Washington D.C. to lobby Congress to increase the immigration avenues available to their employees. Along with AILA, the members of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition (EWIC), include the American Hotel & Motel Association, the American Health Care Association, Associated Builders and Contractors, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
EWIC has sent two strong letters to Congress outlining the continuing difficulty its employers face in locating and retaining a large enough and stable workforce. These employers face two problems. First, due to the low unemployment and ongoing demographic changes in the U.S. workforce, they face extreme shortages of able, willing and employable workers. Second, although these employers try to comply with the prohibitions on employing undocumented workers, some or many workers are undocumented.
EWIC participated in last month’s worker shortage House subcommittee hearing organized by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the Education and Workforce Committee under Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI). During this hearing, EWIC members testified about their difficulties. EWIC also has begun a promising dialogue with some representatives of family and ethnic immigration organizations regarding possible confluence of interests, since, in many cases, the employees EWIC is seeking are constituents of the family and ethnic groups.
AILA will continue to work along with these groups to educate Members of Congress about how U.S. immigration policy can continue to support our economic growth and prosperity.
Section 110 Coalition Begins Discussions with Chairman Smith
Following tense and inconclusive House and the Senate negotiations, Chairman Lamar Smith has made an overture to the members of the Americans for Better Borders coalition (of which AILA is a founding member) to discuss the possibility of a compromise. It appears that Representative Smith may be willing to mitigate the provisions of Section 110 of the Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRAIRA), which mandated implementation of an automated entry-exit control system at all U.S. ports of entry. Items under discussion include: a series of studies of various border issues that would make recommendations as to how the borders could work better, removal of any mandatory implementation deadline for an entry-exit system until such studies are completed, and the requirement that Congress vote on such a system before it can be instituted.
In the meantime, H.R. 1650, the Border Improvement and Security Act, introduced by Representatives Fred Upton (R-MI), John LaFalce (D-NY), and Henry Bonilla (R-TX), has 126 co-sponsors, a number which has put additional pressure on Chairman Smith and the House leadership to address Section 110 this session. AILA advocates should continue to urge their Representatives to co-sponsor H.R. 1650 and their Senators to co-sponsor S. 745.
AILA has received strong indications that Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) will be pushing during this legislative session his deeply flawed INS reorganization bill, H.R. 2528, which he has co-sponsored along with Representatives Harold Rogers (R-KY) and Silvestre Reyes (D-TX). H.R. 2528 meets none of AILA’s INS reform principles: a single person in charge with clout who sets and supervises national immigration policy; separating, but coordinating, enforcement and adjudications functions; and adequate funding for adjudications that includes direct appropriated funds to supplement user fees. As a result, AILA strongly opposes H.R. 2528.
In addition to failing to address AILA’s principles for real reform, H.R. 2528 also would place the responsibility of border inspections and the power to make decisions on detention or parole entirely within the enforcement bureau. Making inspections part of the enforcement function would ignore that the vast majority of the work border inspections officers perform is reviewing applications, and would offer little protection to asylum seekers and juveniles who arrive on our borders. Initially many business representatives and tourists from Canada and Mexico must apply for visas at the border through an inspections officer, rather than at a consulate. And many juveniles and asylum seekers are traumatized and afraid as a result of their experiences in countries that have persecuted them. As a result, AILA supports the service side of INS having a strong presence at our borders, adjudicating applications and making final decisions over who enters our country.
AILA supports H.R. 2680, sponsored by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX). This bill meets AILA’s principles for meaningful reform and addresses our concerns on inspections, detention and parole. AILA also supports S. 1563, sponsored by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Spencer Abraham (R-MI). This bill also meets our criteria for meaningful reform and addresses some of our concerns on the issues of inspections, detention and parole.
We urge AILA members to let their representatives know that we want reform, and seek responsible reform. We want a restructuring that results in better services. Our message is:
· True reform demands strong leadership and a unified immigration policy;
· True reform demands coordination; and
· True reform demands adequate funding.