immigration bill would restore h1b visas

so McNealy warns of a "great sucking" of innovation out of the country... but just how much credibility does his warning have, when McNealy and Sun have been "blowing" jobs out of the USA as fast as they could --- both during the tech boom and after; both before 9/11 and after; and regardless of whether the h1b quotas were high or low? McNealy and his ilk have been exporting the jobs out of the USA as fast as they can, and now they're crying crocodile tears that they can't simultaneously import more cheap labor to fill the few remaining jobs here. meanwhile, bemoaning the supposed lack of qualified applicants among US citizens. what a crock.

Immigration bill would add visas for tech workers
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, March 10, 2006

Buried in the Senate's giant immigration bill -- hardly noticed amid a fierce debate over a guest-worker program for unskilled laborers -- are provisions that would open the country's doors to highly skilled immigrants for science, math, technology and engineering jobs.

The provisions were sought by Silicon Valley tech companies and enjoy significant bipartisan support amid concern that the United States might lose its lead in technology. They would broaden avenues to legal immigration for foreign tech workers and would put those with advanced degrees on an automatic path to permanent residence should they want it.

The measures include nearly doubling the number of H-1B skilled-worker temporary visas to 115,000 -- with an option of raising the cap 20 percent more each year. H-1B visas were highly controversial in the Bay Area when their numbers reached a peak of 195,000 in 2003.
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The provisions for highly skilled workers enjoy support in both parties in the Senate and in the Bush administration after a raft of high-profile studies have warned that the United States is not producing enough math and science students and is in danger of losing its global edge in innovation to India and China.

Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy echoed many in the tech industry at a conference in Washington on Wednesday when he warned that if skilled immigration is not expanded, "There will be a great sucking sound of innovation out of the U.S.''

Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr suggested at a technology summit last fall that the United States "should staple a green card to every kid, every foreign national that graduates with a degree in engineering and science, so that they stay here. Imagine innovation in America without Andy Grove, without Jerry Yang, without Sergey Brin -- Hungarian, Chinese, Russian. These immigrants have contributed enormously to innovation and our well-being."

But House Republicans are cool toward any increase in legal immigration, including skilled workers, and are at sharp odds with the White House. They passed a bill in December to crack down on border enforcement, calling for construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico.

House Republicans omitted skilled immigration from their "Innovation and Competitiveness Act," released with much pomp last week, prompting House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to blast the proposal as doing nothing "to ensure that the best and brightest from around the world are able to contribute to innovation in the United States."

Nor has Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, shown much enthusiasm for more skilled workers, preferring her own plan for a guest-worker program limited to agriculture. Feinstein questioned the tech proposals in an interview last week.

Her stance has angered California's high-tech business community. Industry officials said CEOs from California and across the country have pleaded with Feinstein to no avail. They complain that she is ignoring the technology industry, which they contend is vital to the state's economy, but is willing to provide amnesty to 900,000 Mexican farmworkers, most of whom work in California.

Opponents of broadening immigration for skilled workers said doing so would defeat efforts to get more Americans interested in science, math, engineering and other technological fields.

"It sends the message to students in those fields now, why bother if you're going to have a hard time getting a job in the U.S. because we're importing workers in those fields who are working for less than it would take to hire an American worker," said Caroline Espinosa, spokeswoman for NumbersUSA, a group opposed to expanding immigration.
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