American Business for Legal Immigration (ABLI), is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents a number of associations and employers, and commissions academic studies to support its love of H-1B. Check out their Petition of 418 American Companies that want to raise the H-1B limit.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association represents a group of lawyers that will do anything to maximize profit for the H-1B body trade. They give advice to immigration lawyers on how to use and abuse all the loopholes that H-1B provides.  ITAA consists of 400 direct and 26,000 affiliate corporate members throughout the U.S., and a global network of 41 countries' IT associations.

One of their skunkiest lawyers, Joel Stewart, says that "When employers feel the need to legalize aliens, it may be due to a shortage of suitable U.S. workers, but even in a depressed economy, Employers who favor aliens have an arsenal of legal means to reject all U.S. workers who apply. "

They are opposed to importing H-1B lawyers because they claim that foreigners don't have the "proper" qualifications. Of course everybody else is fair game because that is how these lawyers become obscenely rich.  For this I nominate them as the greatest hypocrite of all the skunks.

ShameH1B acquired tapes from the AILA 1999 Conference. These scandalous tapes reveal how immigration lawyers exploit H-1B for profit. Too bad the AILA has barred me from letting you listen in on the action.

In 1997 and 1998 it was the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and a Silicon Valley employer group that carried the ball for a significant expansion of guest worker quotas The ITAA did it with a masterful PR campaign based on job vacancies that they characterized as shortages and proven by a glossy survey report.

Harris Miller, the president of ITAA, worked as a lobbyist/consultant for California agribusiness in the late 1980s. His firm helped farmers to bring in "temporary" agricultural workers from Mexico. These farmers wanted to undercut gains that Cesar Chavez and UFW had made. This boosted the profits of Miller's agribusiness clients. Harris painted such pictures as "fields full of crops, just lying there, rotting in the sun because of the 'crisis' of a 'shortage' of farm workers." This was a prelude to using the same strategies for an organization that Harris founded in the late 1980s, the ITAA, which is a lobbying organization that represents "high tech" firms. He merely substituted the category of scientist and engineer that was in highest demand for the "high-tech bracero" agricultural worker. He has become very wealthy.

A spokesman for the Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc. said "he [Harris Miller] was a lobbyist/consultant to the growers and was very active for years on the agricultural guest worker legislation. "

This scofflaw said that critics who deny there's a high tech labor shortage probably also think that the world is flat. We can be thankful that he didn't accuse us of believing in the Tooth Fairy.

Harris Miller will be infamous in future history books as the man who helped bring down the great American empire. He is the ultimate skunk!!! Go here to see Miller's smug face while standing in his plush Washington D.C. office.

Harris Miller (see ITAA) was an associate with the  National Council of Agricultural Employers. This is a Washington D.C. based group that lobbies for cheap labor for large agricultural mega-corporations. Miller used the same rhetoric about the need for cheap farm laborers that he now uses to justify H-1B to import high-tech braceros.

Immigration Services Associates (ISA) is another Harris Miller organization. They lobby congress and the key departments and agencies of the federal government to increase H-1B and worker immigration quotas. They have lawyers that defend clients at immigration interviews and hearings and in proceedings before administrative law judges and for appellate review.

The American Electronics Association masquerades as an electronics professional organization. Don't be fooled, they are a corporate funded lobby group that shills for liberal H-1B policies. Don't confuse them with this organizations with the other AEA, the American Engineering Association who is an organization of and by career engineers.

The mid-1980's study conducted by the National Science Foundation - yes, the one that insidiously predicted a looming engineering shortage - has prompted an investigation by Congress of that organization. Hearings initiated by the House of Representatives' Sub- committee on Investigations and Oversight, part of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, began in early April. For that hearing, the president of the American Engineering Association, Billy E. Reed, submitted written testimony that included the statement, "I do not know of a working-level engineer who believes the National Science Foundation is friend of the engineering community." Here we have a U.S. government agency, the NSF, that is not "a friend of the engineering community," but rather has done harm to all engineers doing their part to improve the country's competitive technology stance. 

According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, "The National Science Foundation official who did the study, Peter House, defended it by telling the panel that he sought to depict a hypothetical situation. He said the study was never intended as a forecast of what might happen in the real world." Unfortunately, in that real world, real engineers have to practice their profession and earn their salaries. In his written testimony, AEA's Reed notes: "NSF itself has a vested interest in having a shortage. With a projected shortage, NSF is in a better position for additional funding, which keeps the bureaucracy expanding. The only loser is the working-level engineer who has no representation in the process." . Reed concludes with six recommendations: "Require any study or survey to be reviewed by an independent, neutral body before being released or leaked to the public or press. This body should be representative of the engineering workforce ... Require the effects of current market conditions to be considered as part of the overall study or survey as a leveling mechanism ... Require NSF to spend as much resources and effort in recalling' a faulted report as is spent in publicizing the release of the report ... Stop NSF from lobbying Congress on such issues as immigration, etc. It's one thing to testify on credible, scientific evidence, but quite another to spend taxpayer money to lobby for the NSF point of view ... Place working-level engineers in areas of responsibility within this process...Stop funding ESP--engineering shortage propaganda. This money could be better spent to create jobs for engineers." Amen. 

The American Engineering Association states its aims as being dedicated to enhancing the engineering profession and U.S. engineering capabilities. 

Electronic Design  MAY 1. 1992 

The H-1B Hall of Shame thanks Richard Tax, vice president of the American Engineering Association for donating this article on the NSF. The AEA is an organization opposed to H-1B and truly represents the interests of American engineers.

For further information about AEA, contact 

Richard Tax, AEA vice president, at 

For more on the NSF see How and Why Government, Universities and Industry Create Domestic Labor Shortages: An Introduction to the Real NSF 'Shortage' Study. By Eric Weinstein

Dr. Norman Matloff blasts the newest NRC report in his newsletter "We Ask for the Scientific Method, But We Get Political Science".

The Immigration Reform Coalition  is another Washington D.C. group founded by Paul Donnelly. The IRC proposes replacing H-1B visas with instant green cards, and seeks to redress some inequities in family-based immigration, such as long waits for green cards by immigrant spouses. Don't be fooled about the family value stuff here, this organization is a wolf sheathed in sheep's clothing. The IRC says that they want a kinder, gentler immigration policy. They actually want to make it easier for immigrants to take away our jobs.

A Baltimore Sunspot article said that on March 15, 1991, Morrison's press secretary, Paul Donnelly, set up a company in Hyattsville called Investment Immigration Consulting Co. Its purpose, according to Maryland records, was to provide consulting and other services related to the investor visa program.

Looks like Donnelly has been in the visa business for quite awhile.

The Immigrants Support Network is a militant organization set up to lobby for foreign workers in the US. They claim to be a non-profit organization made up of over 17,000 current H-1B visa holders in the United States.  ISN lobbied in 1998 for an increase in the H-1B quota, and in 1999 were lobbying for removing the per-country limits for employer-sponsored green cards. ISN wants open borders so that any immigrant can work in the U.S. whenever they feel like moving here.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is split into factions; some support H-1B and others don't. They have taken much more of a pro instant Green Card stance since Paul Donnelly started working there. Adding to the suspicion that the IEEE no longer supports American engineers, the front page of the ISA website says "all efforts are funded and supported directly by the members of the coalition.  IEEE-USA provides administrative support."

Barbara Simons, recent president of the Association for Computing Machinery, said that "the IEEE-USA was absolutely wrong to oppose the H-1B bill, which is catering to xenophobia." This statement almost makes me want to remove the IEEE from the Skunks.org page.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was created by the United States Congress to advise the government in scientific and technical matters. It has been dominated by high dollar lobbyists pushing special interest agendas.

The Congress mandated using the "best possible means" to survey the IT workforce to determine the extent of employer age discrimination. They did this after raising the H-1B limits from 65,000/year to 115,000/year. In other words congress knew that H-1B would make age discrimination worse.

These hearings were held by the NAS at San Jose, CA; New York, NY; Boston, MA; and Austin, TX. The hearings are a farce that is dominated by the ITAA. These hearings are not objective. They are designed to promote the views of pro H-1B advocates. They give no time on the agenda for IT workers to present their perspective. The conference conveners have made testifying difficult by not giving significant advance notice. There have also been NO articles in the local papers in advance of the meetings to advise programmers of their opportunity to testify.

Gene Nelson, of the Programmers Guild, did his best to testify in the hearings. They didn't want to hear what he had to say so they made it as difficult as possible for him to talk about the H-1B scam. 

The Chinese Professionals and Entrepreneurs Association , consists mainly of H-1Bs from China. It's no surprise that they support H-1B. 

American Association for the Advancement of Science, warned that a shortage of several thousand new PhDs in science and Engineering would hit the united states late in the decade" [1990s]. Of course that shortage never happened but it hasn't stopped pro H-1B lobby groups from repeating the same story.

According to the president of the Association of American Universities Robert Rosenzweig and his Co-author John Vaughn (also of AAU), Unless prompt action is taken, a sharply increased demand for Ph.D.s in the United States will outstrip a comparatively level supply before the turn of the century. 1990

Association of International Practical Training is a body broker that specializes in bringing immigrants over on the 18 month J-1 visa long enough for them to get H-1Bs. 

Employment Policy Foundation  is a fancy title for just another group of worker shortage shouters.

The Essential Worker Immigration Coalition is a coalition of businesses, trade associations, and other organizations from across the industry spectrum that advocate H-1B as their salvation. They claim there is simply not enough workers in the U.S. to meet the demand of our strong economy, and therefore we must import more grunts to work cheap for them.

RHETT DAWSON is president of the Information Technology Industry Council, which lobbies in Washington D.C. for huge IT companies such as Intel, Unisys and Hewlett-Packard. He calls us extremist groups masquerading under names such as the Coalition for the Future American Worker and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He is pouting about the TV ads that are running that showing the damage done by H-1B. He whines that we are unfairly attacking Sen. Spencer Abraham and R-Auburn Hills  for accepting the corporate bribe money to import indentured slaves. He warns that extremist groups are targeting those who support the high-tech industry's efforts to pass what is known as H1-B visa legislation. I think what he is saying is that we should declare war over all workers that want a fair wage.

The American Immigration Law Center instructs lawyers in all facets of how to abuse the loopholes in immigration laws. They advertise "Coming Soon!  Form a Company in any state in the United States and begin setting yourself up for Residence in the United States." 

The Arizona Software & Internet Association are shortage shouters who shill for H-1B. Ed Denison, the president, says that "The industry is dying for workers, and the national statistics are real grim." He is right about one thing, things are looking very grim for the American worker.

Semiconductor Industry Association claims they are the leading trade association representing the computer chip industry.  SIA president, George Scalise, says that Dr. Norman Matloff's proclamations about abuse in the guest worker program only "perpetuate the myths surrounding the H-1B visa program." Here is an excellent Salon article that discusses Matloff's activism. Scalise applauded Congress and the Clinton administration for "working together in a bipartisan manner to address issues that are pivotal to the growth of the chip industry" - in other words be is very happy that Clinton caved into rubber stamping the H-1B program.

The National Research Council did a study that was mandated by Congress in 1998, as part of legislation which increased the H-1B quota. The NRC was dominated by industry representatives and allies of industry from academia. The committee includes members from Intel and Microsoft, the latter representative being Ira Rubinstein, Microsoft's chief lobbyist for H-1B visas. More can be found about the NRC at Norman Matloff's "Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage".

The committee's chair, Alan Merten, is president of George Mason University.  Merten sits on the boards of several high-tech firms, such as BTG Inc., Comshare and the Indus Group. (Washington Technology, August 29, 1996.) At least one of those, BTG, hires H-1Bs at below-market rates. Use the H-1B Visa Database to see what these companies are up to.

The Garner Institute tries to perpetuate the shortage myth because they are hoping to cash in on some of the training money that H-1B visa fees are supposed to generate. Barbara Gomolski, research director, says that the government realizes that the technical skills shortage is an "inhibiting factor to growth" for many companies.

Computing Technology Industry Association is one more of the shortage shouter organizations. Manager of government relations, Grant Mydland, says that "What was once seen as a problem for Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin is now a problem for the entire country."

Grant Mydland of CompTIA is also director of the Technology Workforce Coalition, an Arlington, Va.-based industry alliance pushing for federal and state tax incentives and other programs to address the shortage. "The skills deficit is no longer just a problem for IT companies," Mydland says. "Because of the Internet, it has spilled over to IT-enabled [user] companies as well."

The National Association of Software and Service Companies is an Indian lobby that tries to get more government handouts for H-1Bs. They seek an early signing of a ''totalisation agreement'' with Washington to eliminate payment of social security charges by Indian workers in both countries.

NASSCOM President Dewang Mehta said the industry wanted an immediate removal of such barriers and added costs, which he said were non-tariff trade barriers.

The Business Round Table consists of CEOS of some major US companies such as TRW, Sprint, and State Farm. They are, of course, thrilled that President Clinton signed the H-1B law into increase. 

The BRT is funding a TV ad to help Heather Wilson, the pro H-1B congresswoman from New Mexico. The ad shows a bunch of 6 month old babies of different races go across the television screen with a voice over that says children are our future. They deserve excellent health care, an outstanding education, and meaningful work. It claims that Heather has been doing all of these things for our future. Then it ends with "Call Congresswoman Wilson and THANK her for work." Wilson's agenda is to import cheap foreign laborers and their families here to ruin our way of life. ShameH1B says thanks, but no thanks to Heather Wilson!

TechNet is a lobby group made up of technology firm CEOs in Silicon Valley. They don't want to have to be "burdened" with looking for US citizens to fill their jobs. They feel they should be able to hire H-1Bs without all of the DOL paperwork and restrictions. Attorney Jeff Modisett said "It [proof they looked locally for workers] may have surface appeal, but it would be a bureaucratic nightmare for the industry."

National Association of Foreign Student Advisers is an advocacy group dedicated to bringing foreign students into the U.S. The think they deserve special treatment and out government agrees with them. Their web site says, "The higher education labor market is fundamentally different from the private sector labor market; accordingly, it deserves separate consideration. Regardless of which specific bills or provisions are considered, the goal of higher education is to ensure that colleges and universities have full access to H-1B professionals throughout the year. "

The National Society of Professional Engineers claims that they are the only engineering society that represents individual engineering professionals across all disciplines. They actually represent the corporate CEO's view on engineering. According to the NSPE, the engineering profession is facing not only a dearth of engineers in general, but a lack of diversification. 

Linda Lindsay, manager of Congressional and State relations, said they "decided not to take a position on the issue [H-1B]. As the committee's discussion suggests, it would be difficult to arrive at a consensus viewpoint." In other words, they support H-1B but hate to have to officially say so. 

The National Engineers Week is a sister organization of NSPE. They claim engineering shortages have caused an urgency to encourage girls to excel in math and science as early as elementary school -- and continue to excel -- so they'll be ready for formal engineering courses in college. They want more engineers to ease the so called shortage.

The American Society for Engineering Education mission statement says that they are committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology. The ASEE does some very useful things to promote quality technical education. Their mission does have a conflict of interest because they need to prove that engineers will be entering a field that has massive shortages. 

The ASEE claims that there is "sobering news that the number of recipients of Bachelor's degrees in Engineering peaked several years ago and has declined some 15% or more. The decline has come in part because the economy is generally doing well and since engineering and science are demanding courses of study, some students may perceive that a good job awaits them even without a degree in science or engineering (though probably not with a signing bonus!)". Perhaps he is right that students shun engineering because they want a long term career that is not cut short by gluts and mass layoffs.

American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) claims that they want balanced reforms to expedite the permanent immigration of skilled foreign-born engineers and scientists while safeguarding the rights of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. They claim they want to ensure that the expedited admission of foreign born professionals does not adversely affect educational and employment opportunities for similarly qualified U.S. citizens. The AAES is repeating the same old tiresome rhetoric that H-1B and Instant Green cards can be used to import labor and yet at the same time American workers can be protected. These two goals are mutually exclusive and judging by the weak protections we now have, there is no reason to expect these goals to ever be met.

The AAES says that they believe that guest worker programs should be truly temporary in nature, reduced in duration and numbers to reflect the specific needs of educational and research institutions and other short term employment demands. That sounds real good in theory. In practice H-1B is a temporary program that has increased every year since 1990. Companies will never want this "temporary" source of cheap labor to dry up.

The Engineers' Joint Council, Inc. (EJC) says they want to minimize America's qualified and skilled high-tech workforce shortfall. They use this propaganda to try to seduce naive high school students into the engineering colleges by telling them there is a massive shortage.

The early engineering shortage propaganda prognositcator was the Engineering Manpower Commission (EMC) in the 1970s. The Engineering Manpower Commission (EMC) of the 1970's was part of the Engineers Joint Council (EJC). EMC is now part of AAES. 

Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPTP)  was formerly the Scientific Manpower Commission. The Commission claims that they collect, analyze and disseminate reliable information about the human resources of the United States in the fields of science and technology.  Their so called "reliable" information is based on junk science. The now deceased Betty Vetter, former Executive Director, was one of their chief shortage shouters

The American Insititute of Physics  have shouted about shortages of physicists since the 1970s. They advocate "increased pooling of international scientific resources" to relieve this so called shortage. In other words they support H-1B physicists coming into the U.S. to take jobs.

Anti-labor pressure lobby Labor Policy Group is an organization that represents human resource executives of 200 corporations. They oppose all unions and praised the Senate when they passed the increase of H-1B in 2000. LPA wants unlimited H-1Bs with no restrictions or regulations on how they are used or paid. They successfully defeated union attempts to select a top level domain name of ".union".

The Structural Engineers Association refuse to take a position against H-1B. SEA seems to be a typical engineering association. The policy makers within the organization are representatives of big money corporate executives and not the engineers that the organization supposedly represents. IEEE is another excellent example of this. The SEA won't oppose H-1B because the policy makers support the H-1B law and hiring foreign professionals. They see nothing at all wrong with hiring H-1B Civil or Structural Engineers, Architects, and draftsmen as long as they can save on staffing costs.