WASHINGTON — The technology sector, a little-publicized but key player in the coalition pushing for an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, has given mixed reviews to the reform framework Senate Democrats unveiled last week.
Public dialogue on immigration has focused largely on a path for legalization of the estimated 11 to 12 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. But technology companies have lobbied for years to streamline and ease the process of hiring skilled legal immigrant workers. They are hoping to capitalize on the current momentum around immigration reform.
Peter Muller is director of government relations for Intel, one of the largest sponsors of H-1B temporary visas for skilled workers. The company was approved for 723 new H-1B visas in 2009. But he said Intel has been hindered in hiring and keeping the most qualified people by the annual caps on H-1B visas and the sometimes decade-long delay in processing green card applications.
Provisions in the Democrats’ reform framework that impact the tech sector
- Green cards (legal permanent resident visas)
• Foreign students who graduate from a U.S. school with an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics would automatically be eligible for a green card if offered a job by a U.S. employer.
• Proposal would eliminate the “per-country caps” that limit the number of immigrants who can come from specific countries. - H-1B visas (temporary work visas for foreign workers in specialized jobs)
• Would forbid employers from giving priority to H-1B applicants and would limit the number of H-1B employees that large employers may hire.
• The Department of Labor would be authorized to investigate applications for fraud and would be required to audit companies with large numbers of H-1B employees.
“To not be able to hire the people who really drive innovation in our company is a frustration,” he said.
The number of H-1B visas issued each year is capped at 65,000, with another 20,000 reserved for foreign-born students who graduate from U.S. schools with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and math – programs from which companies like Intel recruit many of their workers. In past years, the allotment was often gone within days after the application period opened in April. Last year, it took until December to hit the cap.
But even with a slower economy reducing demand for workers, tech companies said they want the system reformed.
“Companies are still hiring, so fixing the problems and fixing the system is important,” said Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, co-executive director of the Compete America coalition of companies lobbying for high-skilled immigration reform. “It’s an issue today for some companies, and it’s going to continue to be an issue that needs to be addressed.”
For H-1B workers who want to stay in the country permanently, the wait for a green card can take years. Ashish Sharma, an Indian citizen working for a technology company in California, has waited in line for a green card for seven years. At one point, Sharma said he considered leaving the United States because of the uncertainty of his status.
“The long wait does bother people,” he said. “I did look at what Canada was offering, where they give you a green card within three months.”
Sharma ultimately decided to stay for the sake of his two children, who were raised in the U.S. But some employers as well as workers have chosen to go abroad. Microsoft, a top sponsor of H-1B visas with 1,318 petitions approved in 2009, opened a development center in Vancouver, B.C., in 2007, in part to take advantage of Canada’s more lenient immigration laws.
Compete America praised some aspects of the reform framework put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Robert Menendez, D-N.J., last week.
The coalition favors a proposed provision that would offer green cards to foreign students graduating from U.S. universities with advanced degrees in specialized fields. But it is pushing back against provisions in the Democrats’ framework that would limit the hiring of H-1B workers and increase government scrutiny of companies that sponsor the temporary visas.
The language in the Democrats’ framework dealing with the temporary visas came largely from a bill introduced last year by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, intended to curb abuses in the H-1B system.
Durbin said in an e-mailed statement that the H-1B program is currently too easily abused by employers who use it to, in effect, outsource jobs that could be filled by American workers.
“Congress created the H-1B visa program so an employer could hire a foreign guest-worker when a qualified American worker could not be found,” he said. “However, the H-1B visa program is plagued with fraud and abuse and is now a vehicle for outsourcing that deprives qualified American workers of their jobs.”
Tech industry representatives disagreed.
“We are all for strong enforcement,” Herrera-Flanigan said. “But the way the provisions are written, it’s much more far-reaching than that, and it could have an adverse effect on companies that are not bad actors.”
The provisions came in for criticism from people representing immigrant workers as well as employers. Aman Kapoor, president of Immigration Voice, a network of skilled immigrant workers, called the proposal draconian and said that the restrictions could render the H-1B process essentially useless.
Schumer’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Advocates in the broader immigration reform coalition said support from the technology industry will be key to winning the broad political support needed to give a comprehensive bill a shot at passing.
“I think it is important, and in part that is because tech is one of the key business sectors that will be necessary to bring the Republican votes we will need, in the Senate especially,” said Jeanne Butterfield, a senior adviser for the National Immigration Forum.
Technology companies make up a substantial portion of the voices lobbying for federal immigration reform. Of the 288 federal lobbyist filings that had reported lobbying on immigration issues in the first quarter of the year as of Monday, an analysis shows that about 17 percent came from companies and organizations representing the technology and engineering sectors. Others represented fields like medicine and education, which are also interested in skilled immigration.
The people lobbying on behalf of the tech sector said, although their issues with the immigration system are specific, they have no plans to peel off from the broader reform coalition to pursue a more tailored bill.
Muller said word from Capitol Hill has been that immigration is too contentious an issue to tackle piecemeal.
“They need to be able to build a coalition to support a bill, and breaking it off into pieces makes it more difficult,” he said.