The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers urged the Senate to oppose legislation that would more than double the H-1B visa program for high-skilled workers, arguing there is no shortage of U.S. workers capable of filling the jobs the foreign visa holders would get.
“Employers’ claims of a [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math] labor shortage are unchanged for over 25 years. If the H-1B program is meant to resolve a labor shortage, then it has demonstrably failed. A better explanation is that employers have simply become dependent on a renewable supply of 800,000 young, dependent, precarious, foreign temporary workers who have no leverage in the labor market,” the labor union said in a letter Wednesday to Senate lawmakers.
The H-1B program gives out 85,000 visas annually through the Department of Homeland Security to foreign workers in fields such as software development and engineering through a lottery. Last week, Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jeff Flake of Arizona introduced the Immigration Innovation bill, which would expand that to potentially as many as 195,000 people if certain unspecified requirements are met. It also would allow the spouses of visa recipients to work in the U.S. and give visa holders a grace period to find a new job without losing their status.
The senators are expected to try to add the legislation as an amendment to any bill to resolve the political standoff over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration program, should there be a floor debate on it.
The legislation is being heavily backed by business groups, especially the tech industry. Microsoft President Brad Smith called the legislation “an important step in protecting U.S. workers, investing in STEM education, and ensuring that we can recruit people to fill jobs here in the U.S.”
The union countered that the legislation would distort the high-tech labor market, driving down wages and dissuading students from pursuing the careers in those fields. “[The legislation] sends a negative market signal to students considering STEM careers, and to families making the investment of a lifetime in education for their children,” it said.
The legislation likely will be resisted by the White House, which has been seeking to scale back the H-1B program. Officials within the Department of Homeland Security are reportedly planning to revise the law to reduce the number of visas. In a December public notice, DHS said it would considering limiting the ability of spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants to be eligible to work in the U.S.
