Lou Dobbs Might Have Been Frustrated

Last week, in a room atop a tall Wall Street building overlooking the Statue of Liberty, leaders from various sides of the heated immigration debate came together to have a discussion that was unique in at least one way -- it was constructive.

If Lou Dobbs were there, he might have been frustrated.

Members of Congress agreed immigration has become the "third rail" of American politics. Immigration advocates acknowledged the steep climb that lies ahead. And business leaders said they had given up on Washington -- with its obsession with "inside baseball" -- and simply moved on.

But all agreed on one simple, common-sense and achievable step that could be the first ray of sunshine on an otherwise dark horizon. There is a bipartisan bill making its way through Congress that just might surprise some people by demonstrating the possibility of cooperation and progress on a modest but significant issue within the larger debate.

The bill, HR 5882, which passed through the House Subcommittee on Immigration last Friday, was authored by Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), and would recapture unused permanent resident visas, "green cards," lost through bureaucratic delay each year. Under current law, these green cards -- allocated for both professional and family unification purposes -- simply disappear if they are not issued in the year they are allocated. Cumulatively, hundreds of thousands of green cards go unused -- not for lack of demand -- but instead thanks to administrative and processing issues. Their recapture would help to begin to reduce the massive backlog in demand that exists for these visas.

As with the overall lack of access to professional (or "H1-B') visas, where demand vastly exceeds supply, the holdups in green card processing are hurting U.S. businesses and ultimately costing us American jobs. The Partnership for New York City highlighted the larger problem earlier this year in its report "Winning the Global Race for Talent: How U.S. Visa & Immigration Policies Threaten the New York Economy and Cost American Jobs -- And How We Can Fix It," and called for the cap on professional visas to be raised to meet market demand.

During last week's discussion, hosted by the Partnership and the New York Immigration Coalition, Robert Greifeld, CEO of NASDAQ, suggested that if a fix is not achieved soon, multinational companies would vote with their feet and locate jobs and operations overseas. The consequences of Congress not acting will be loss of American jobs and U.S. tax revenues.

And it's not just big business that gets hurt; the delays in processing employment-based visas are also creating recruitment and retention challenges for innovative small businesses -- and uncertainty for critically needed employees. For families, the delays in processing contribute to a 7 to 10 year wait for legal permanent residents to be reunited with their spouses and minor children. These delays strain families and interfere with the process of integration as legal permanent residents struggle to support two separate households.

The Lofgren/Sensenbrenner legislation will help address these backlogs without creating a single new green card, providing modest but important relief to our economy, small businesses and families alike. The U.S. State Department has testified that this is the "perfect solution" to the annual loss of green cards through processing delays. It is the only piece of immigration law that actually has a chance of passing this year.

Placed into the larger, and daunting, context of comprehensive immigration reform, this is just a modest first step. But it does provide reason for some optimism. Perhaps both sides can work together on a crucial issue, maybe common sense does indeed stand a chance, and maybe - in the not-too-distant future -- Lou Dobbs might end up a little frustrated.

Kathryn S. Wylde is President & CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a non-profit organization of the City's business leaders dedicated to maintaining New York City as a center of world commerce, finance and innovation. The full report is available on the Partnership's web site at www.pfnyc.org.

Comments

[RtwoDeeTOO]

One of the biggest reasons this country cannot achieve sensible immigration reform is that so many people speak so passionately out of total ignorance. The fact is that businesses are not able to find enough highly skilled Americans to do certain jobs. If they can't import that talent they'll just more their operations out of the country- to places like London, where they can easily get the talent they need. The political stalemate over immigration is hurting the American economy and costing jobs. It's a failure of our political system that common sense solutions aren't being implemented (and that this country cannot produce enough educated/skilled workers to grow our economy)!

[iambusto]

lets get a few facts clear ok.a disclaimer first.

Disclaimer: H1-B worker for 6 years, currently undergoing permanent residency application (through employment and marriage).

1) H1-B workers are not "undocumented" or "illegal". dont confuse the terms "h1-b" with "illegal alien" ok.

2) I dont have exact survey/statistic but I dont mind going out on a limb and say that the average education and qualification of a H1-b worker is way higher than your average american citizen applying for same job.

3) Not all industries have H1-B applicants. Majority of the H1-B applicants are all in IT/Software fields. Some industries such as Banking/In­surance/De­fense/Cons­truction etc dont even sponsor H1-B applicants.
My interest lies in banking and finance but until i get my green card (through marriage or job, whichever comes first) i cant switch to finance because H1-B ties you to your current employer that sponsors you.

4) Majority of the H1-B workers (a vast number of my colleagues are same category, a lot of my grad school friends the same), get paid pretty well. They pay into the system a lot more than your average "single mother welfare queen". (you know who i am talking about ok.).

bottom line, learn the difference between an "illegal alien"/"un­documented immigrant" and a legal immigrant (aka H1B and the like).

[texastrixie]

As a Texas citizen who is being courted to approve a new hospital district in my county to pay for the health care of illegal aliens and their family members, I really don't know why this is supposed to help me. It is nearly impossible anymore to have work done on your house - roof, fence, renovations - and have anyone on the job speak English. Our "economy" in this state is going gangbusters - for companies, highly paid tech workers, etc. Regular blue collar types and office workers -not so much. Our school districts have to pay extra to hire bilingual teachers, and thus there are fewer paychecks to be had. This pushes up the number of students in every classroom. Thank goodness the minimum wage is going up. One day that will be the prevailing wage for most people in this country.

[olephart]

“lack of access to professional (or "H1-B') visas, where demand vastly exceeds supply, the holdups in green card processing are hurting U.S. businesses and ultimately costing us American jobs.”

And the lack of slaves has put a dent in the plantation business. Each H1-B visa takes one US job. The majority are issued for lower skilled professional jobs simply to pay substandard wages. While there is a legitimate need for some, the overall use and misuse by many corporations has greatly damaged the credibility of the program. This coupled with the non enforcement of laws against employers hiring the undocumented have made this the “third rail” of politics. Many lower skilled jobs that once were a ticket to the middle class have had their wage scales halved by the illegal use of the undocumented. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t allow business to break the law and have the law work for you.

[RobinSeattle]

olephart is absolutely correct. This is outsourcing overseas by bringing overseas to U.S. workplaces.

And as for his second point, about once family wage construction jobs being whipped out from under American citizens by low wage illegal alien workers, all you had to do is go to any construction site in California to see that in action. This has also exacerbated unemployment in the inner cities and accelerated their deterioration.

[DuganS1]

Wages isn't the sole reason businesses in the construction industry have for hiring illegals - and most the spanish speaking folk aren't "illegal" by the way. Hispanics are almost always show up everyday and one time and work hard and don't complain, whereas most urban unskilled workers often call in sick or simply don't show up, are late, don't work hard, and complain. The difference between the hispanic workers and American urban workers is dramatic. Businesses simply need to hire good dependable workers and hispanics are that, even when not taking wages into account.

[trinity]

I do believe that many companies abuse H1-B visas as part of their business practices. I worked in a steel company's HR a few years back. We got thousands of applications from citizens and legal residents for engineerin­g/research positions with top notch education backgrounds. Yet the company purposely chose to bring workers in from China & Russia on H1-B visas. They did what they had to do to get around hiring an American citizen/resident. You mean to tell me that there are no qualified researcher­s/engineer­s in the United States?

[PublicAdvocate]

Green cards allocated for professionals and reuniting families should be suspended immediately until 100% of legal Americans are guaranteed full employment, job security, a living wage, and access to a bright future. Yes. Legal Americans should be the beneficieries of the fruits of our nation not illegals or new immigrants.

Legal Americans should not be treated as 2nd class citizens just to satisfy artifical quotas for immigrants whose aim is to steal their jobs, undercut wages, and overburden our social services. Our nation is already overcrowded and overburdened with immigrants lowering the quality of life for citizens.
I am not surprised that Congress has proposed a compromise bill. Democrats and Republicans have a knack for putting the interests of American citizens last and putting lobbyists for corporations, foreign governments, and the immigration lobby above the general welfare and quality of our nation.
http://www.cis.org/

[deFudge]

disinformation dis-in-fer-MAY-shun noun : false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disinformation

Programmers Guild was formed by John Miano to lobby against H-1B, L1 and employment based immigration (EBI). John Miano and Norman Matloff have written FLAWED CIS reports; it is hard to find a CIS report that is not FLAWED.

As a result, there is considerable disinformation (this blog) about H-1B, L1 and EBI. As a national policy formulation endeavor, it is very unhealthy to refute H-1B/L-1/EBI need based on disinformation.

The following blog (not attached occasionally, specially evening/weekend) puts a kibosh on some H-1B/L-1/EBI disinformation.

Valuable H-1B Workers Alberta-Bound As Congress Fiddles By Paul McDougall | Information Week, Jul 23, 2008
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/valuable_h1b_wo.html

The rebuttal does not mean that disinformation will stop: if it stopped, it wasn't disinformation in the first place!

Please post this URL in H-1B/L-1/EBI disinformation infested blogs!

[TiaGal]

It always makes me nervous when corporate interests play in our politics. Haven't we sold off enough of our goverment to "special" interests. I would be interested to know exactly how American jobs could be saved. Are we talking about American jobs that are currently being held by foreign workers? Couldn't Americans be hired and eliminate the need for green cards? If anyone knows how this really works I'd like to know.

[iambusto]

how about stopping people to come to US on the basis of political assylum.
how about erecting a wall on mexican border and stopping the mexicans from coming. How about kicking the illegal aliens out first.

only then can you talk about eliminating the need for green cards. the H1B workers are better educated, more productive part of the society compared to the dregs that are bankrupting this country ok.

[deFudge]

1) According to U.S. Legal Permanent Residents: 2007 By KELLY JEFFERYS AND RANDALL MONGER | Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security, Mar 2008
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/LPR_FR_2007.pdf

a) 1,052,415 immigrants were granted legal residence in 2007.

b) Employment-based preferences 162,176 (15.4%)

c) The other categories are family-sponsored immigrants 689,820 (65.5%), Diversity programs 42,127 (4.0%), Refugees and Asylees 136,125 (12.9%), Parolees 1,999 (0.2%), Other categories 20,168 (1.9%)

2) According to Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, published by Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) (available at Spotlight on Legal Immigration to the United States By Gretchen Reinemeyer and Jeanne Batalova | Migration Policy Institute, November 2007).
http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=651

a) 1,266,264 immigrants were granted legal residence in 2006.

b) Employment-based preferences 159,081 (12.6%).

However, 87,702 (or 55.1%) of the employment­-sponsored immigrants were spouses and children of principal applicants.

The share of employment­-preferenc­e immigrants has varied between 3.3 percent (59,525) in 1991 and 22 percent (246,878) in 2005.

c) The other categories are family preference (802,712), refugee + asylee (216,454), Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 + parolees (43,546) and Diversity Lottery (44,471).

[deFudge]

cont ...


3) All employment­-preferenc­e immigrants (through H-1B) have high skilled jobs for 5+ years. However, 400K legal residents were new arrivals in 2006. There is no reason to believe that the remaining immigrants (in other categories) have been contributing to economy for 5+ years.

4) According to Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B): Fiscal Year 2005 November 2006, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS), DHS
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/H1B_FY05_Characteristics.pdf

a) 88% of H-1B petitions approved had BS degree or higher; the remaining had a professional degree. Some of these H-1Bs apply for green card.

b) 88% of immigrants in other categories will not have BS degree.

[americaforme]

A nontransparent secrect meeting in the (wall Street Building) doesn't impress me. It's another slick way of keeping (we the people) out of major financial decisions for America. Who gave these suits the right to decide imagration policys. If America doesn't get the fact that we are a Republic, and as a Republic, we the people make the decisions.­..

[TuffPosh]

In the above, "Lou Dobbs" is shorthand for "the vast majority of U.S. citizens as opposed to corrupt special interests.­"

[deFudge]

3) How many H-1B visa workers? Counts vary VALLEY EMPLOYERS AMONG TOP USERS By Chris O'Brien | Mercury News, 07/15/2007
http://www.mercurynews.com/search/ci_6380617

The federal government awarded 124,096 H-1B visas in the fiscal year ending October 2005, the most recent annual totals available. That includes renewed visas, which don't count against the annual cap.

4) Page 5 of Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B): Fiscal Year 2005 November 2006
http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/H1B_FY05_Characteristics.pdf

Number of H1B petitions approved for initial employment is 116,927.

5) Page 31 of Driving jobs and Innovation Offshore, The impact of high-skill Immigration Restrictions on America National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) Policy Brief, Dec 2007
http://www.nfap.com/pdf/071206study.pdf

New H-1Bs Petitions Approved in FY 2006 is 109,614.

[deFudge]

1) Lou Dobbs Tonight, 03/28/2007
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/28/ldt.01.html

It's pretty remarkable. Four hundred thousand H1 visas each year.

2) H-1B + L-1 = OFFSHORE By danarothrock (Programmers Guild) | Daily Kos, Mar 28, 2007
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/28/82450/4208

Over 400,000 H-1B visas are now issued each year.

continued ...