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We need H-1B guest worker Visa reform and no, we do not need what Corporate lobbyists want.

Dr. Norm Matloff, probably the most definitive expert on H-1B guest worker Visas, has written a new paper, Fixing Our Badly Broken H-1B Visa and Employer-Sponsored Green Card Programs. This is a must read.

what the industry lobbyists say is taken at face value, no questions asked. Yet the industry has a huge monetary incentive to push for more H-1Bs, which obviously can and does color their remarks. Thus their claims must be viewed with skepticism, indeed very severe skepticism in light of their record.

Here is a bulleted summary of Matloff’s paper.

• The industry claim to need H-1Bs to remedy a labor shortage is false. Their claim that the H-1Bs are “the best and the brightest,” needed to keep American firms innovative, is also false in the vast majority of cases. Instead, the employers’ goal is use H-1Bs as a source of cheap labor.
• Government officials and industry representatives have explicitly stated that the goal of H-1B is the importation of cheap labor.
• The abuse of H-1Bs for cheap labor is widespread, actually standard. It extends throughout the industry, including the large, household-name American firms. It is not limited to the Indian-owned firms by any means. The loopholes are used by the most prominent immigration law firms.
• It is crucial to keep in mind that use of H-1Bs for cheap labor is fully legal, due to loopholes in the law’s prevailing wage requirementit is NOT fraud. One must distinguish between the terms abuse, i.e. using the program for inappropriate, though legal, purposes-and fraud, i.e. unlawful actions.
• Accordingly, solving the problem requires eliminating the loopholes, NOT increasing enforcement
• Though some foreign workers are facing long waits for green cards, “the best and the brightest” applicants are in a separate category with much higher priority, and have a wait of only a few months.
• The industry lobbyists are incorrect in claiming that we risk losing workers of outstanding talent who may return home rather than endure a long wait for a green card.
• The industry lobbyists have lost credibility. Reform will require that Congress start to give serious consideration to the overwhelming evidence that the H-1B program is fundamentally broken and needs a thorough overhaul.

I disagree with Dr. Matloff that the solution is not just prevailing wage, there are also the fundamental laws of supply and demand in play. Flood the labor market by any means and wages, job security will drop. That said, his analysis is blunt, goes through the explicit details on how corporations labor arbitrage Americans with these Visas and how much Americans and their desire to stop this practise are blocked by powerful corporate lobbyists and complicit legislators.

Labor arbitraging and displacing Americans is perfectly legal. Something Matloff makes indisputable.

Matloff probably has the most astute observation I’ve seen in a while with respect to labor arbitraging American professionals -

The H-1B program is causing us to lose our top talents, an internal brain drain

Take Action! Please write your Senators and congress reps and ask them to co-sponsor these bills:

• S.1035 : H-1B and L-1 Visa Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 2007 (Durbin-Grassley)
• H.R.2538 : To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide greater protections to domestic and foreign workers under the H-1B nonimmigrant worker program. (Pascrell)
• H.R.2504 : To amend the Immigration and Nationality Act with respect to the admission of L-1 intra-company transferee nonimmigrants. (DeLauro)
• H.R.548 : To establish a Congressional Trade Office (DeFazio)