From Heroes to Sellouts

I'm always a bit wary of making a list of Heroes in the fight against increasing the numbers of H-1B visas and Green Cards being issued. One must always contend with the possibility of Today's Hero becoming Tomorrow's Sellout.

One name that always keeps popping up in the "Heroes" category is Dino Perrotti from ComputerWorld. Yesterday, he came through again with his excellent article, "IEEE Betrays American Engineers and its Members".

Here's a brief synopsis of the issue. The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has consistently been working on behalf of its members to lower the number of visas issued to foreign technology workers. Last March, IEEE-USA (the political action arm of the organization) came up with this seemingly generous compromise, guaranteed to make people from both sides of the issue hold hands and skip down the path, smiling happily ever after. Instead of dealing with that pesky issue of H-1B visas, where low-wage workers are here today and gone tomorrow, why not issue more EB-4 and F-4 immigration visas, which would allow workers to start on the path towards U.S. citizenship, and therefore somehow level out the playing field for American workers?

As I read this March 20, 2007 article earlier today, (written by, of all people, Dino Perrotti), I rolled my eyes and thought "How could these people be so gullible?" I've been getting a steady diet of these "You don't like H-1B's? Let's issue Green Cards and keep the jobs in the US so they don't get offshored" articles for the last several months. I've interpreted each of these articles as exceedingly clumsy attempts to try to fool people into thinking that this path will magically lead to more jobs for American workers. However, a lot has happened since March. Who knows? If I was somehow transported by a time machine to seven months in the past, maybe I'd think it was a good idea.

Fast forward to October 11, 2007, when the IEEE-USA and the SIA (Semiconductor Industry Association) issued a joint letter to Congress that not only asked for higher limits for EB and F-4 visas, but also recommended that all graduates in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) be able to get their Green Cards as quickly as possible, without having to wait the usual 5-10 years! Excuse me, but, how is this supposed to help the American worker? Since American industry will not hire American engineers, they'll hire foreign workers instead, and their taxes will help pay for displaced American engineers to start their own landscaping businesses?

To Dino's credit, he is fighting mad! He doesn't sugarcoat anything in his article. Here's some interesting background on how all of this started:

Once all the engineers sat down for a pre-lobby meeting [in 2006], the chief lobbyist began explaining that what engineers should ask their representatives for is EB and F-4 visas instead of H-1B visas. EB and F-4 visas are a form of legal immigration for high-tech workers. Most engineers became upset and started to argue why they should ask for more green cards instead of asking for less H-1B guest workers. They argued that in both cases, American engineers are getting undercut by foreign labor.

Then the IEEE-USA lobbyist explained that legal immigration is better for American engineers because it takes "much longer" to process [emphasis is mine]. So this would put the potential H-1B engineers on the slow track of legal immigration, which will give IEEE-USA time to lobby in favor of American engineers. He said that it is safer for America because legal immigrants must go through a rigorous background check for ties to terrorism. He argued that it is better for the foreign nationals and it is better for Americans.

Most of the engineers were confused but believed that IEEE-USA was looking out for their best interests. After all, nobody else seems to even care about American engineering careers. So off they went to speak with congressional representatives or their staffers about this new EB and F-4 agenda, hoping that it will bring some relief to their career problems.

Some activists warned that IEEE was using the engineers as pawns to push legal immigration for engineers in addition to guest worker programs. At the time, it was hard for most to believe that such a conspiracy existed [emphasis is mine]. Now, almost a year later it is revealed that the chief proponent of H-1B visas, the SIA (Semiconductor Industry Association) has joined with IEEE-USA to support more green cards for foreign nationals with the caveat that they are fast-tracked. In other words, any foregn [sic] national who has a job offer at the time of graduation, gets an instant greencard. [Emphasis is mine.) American engineers felt betrayed. Is it possible that IEEE used these engineers as pawns as part of a grander scheme?

Why the sudden about face by IEEE-USA?

After, the article titled "IEEE-USA vs. Bill Gates" was printed; a delegation of top Microsoft representatives went to IEEE. They told IEEE that they contribute financially to many IEEE programs and asked why IEEE-USA is fighting Microsoft on the H-1B issue. At the time, IEEE-USA representatives told Microsoft representatives that the H-1B issue was what engineers indicated was their most important issue. At the time, IEEE-USA leaders told this author that they stood up to Microsoft to defend its members.

What happened since then? Well, you can probably guess, but you can read the rest of Perrotti article for the rest of the story. As part of the coup de grace, Perrotti gives us this gem:

Is it possible that there is no country called America, that the world is truly flat? Is it possible that there is just an agglomeration of super-wealthy international corporations who claim to be American companies but are actually countries without borders? Do these corporations care about America or the American people? Do they control America?

Then Perrotti reminds us:

This is no longer a battle for the H-1B visa cap. The H-1B visa cap is now moot because there are so many other fast-track proposals to bring in foreign engineers, computer scientists and other high-tech professionals. Other professions are next. Nurses, doctors, accountants and every other profession are also being targeted. This is now a fight for the heart and soul of America and what it stands for.

This is precisely why this battle does not just affect tech industry workers. If corporate America can turn their backs on Americans who possess skills that are supposedly in such high demand, what does it mean for the rest of us?

(Cross-posted at Carrie's Nation.)