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. ^[1]

American Association of Community Colleges spends a lot of their time promoting the idea that there is a huge demand for IT workers so that they can fill their classes. They even paid for the ITAA, the H-1B shills, to do a bogus study ^[52] that is being used to justify more H-1Bs being brought into the U.S.

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 and  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. ^[3] 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 American Association of State Colleges and Universities represents more than 430 public colleges, universities and systems of public higher education. Higher education is one of the loudest cheerleaders for H-1B ^[44] so it's no surprise that this organization advocates unlimited H-1Bs for educational institutions. One of the most shameless acts that AASCU did was to successfully lobby for legislation that exempted higher education from the H-1B visa cap on foreign faculty conducting research or teaching in the U. S. ^[45] This loophole opened the door for universities and schools to hire unlimited numbers of H-1Bs.

Members of the Association of American Universities includes 80 percent of the research universities in the United States. They lobby for legislation that favors these interests.

The H-1B fiasco began in the 70's when Universities, hungry for cheap labor, used the AAU to insert a clause into Title 8 of the U.S. Code. This clause had the effect of removing the universities from the uniform labor certification requirements and placing them within the 'Special Handling' regulation reserved for immigrant Basque shepherds. Universities were granted unique privileges to reclassify American researchers (for purposes of labor certification) as 'unavailable for work' in the event that a university succeeds in portraying a foreign applicant as even marginally more qualified. To this day, educational institutions are exempted from the H-1B quota. 

After gutting protections for American researchers, the AAU cynically claims that labor certification meaningfully protects them from unfair university hiring practices. If protections are in place then it's odd that former AAU president John Osvald patted Joshua Eilberg (author of the infamous Eilberg Amendment that declared Universities as having perpetual labor shortages) on the back when he said "...you have circumvented the primary rationale for denial of labor certification: that an unlimited supply of American manpower exists whose employment prospects are being usurped by alien labor. ^[55]

The AAU starting beating the drum for the first H-1B law in 1990. 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 ^[4]

Steven B. Sample, President, University of Southern California in 1993, said that bringing in foreign students to create labor gluts and lower labor costs was a good thing: "[The preponderance of foreign students in S&E programs] means that scientist and engineer gluts, and consequent gripes against universities, can be expected to continue. But why should we take this as a problem? As these Ph.D.s eventually take jobs downstream, their expertise becomes available to institutions and firms that can benefit from superior talent and education at unexpectedly affordable prices. ... This should be a matter for satisfaction, not lament." ^[57].  Another AAU president. Conelius Pings, was even more blunt about how foreign labor reduces labor costs: "when buying academic talent in such a buyer's market, augmented by sweetheart immigration legislation, don't have to offer the foreign scientist a lower wage than that of the American. They just offer the same low wage to all. That is either good or bad, depending on which side of the ox's horns you reside." ^[1]

American Business for Legal Immigration, is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents a number of big money employers who love H-1B. Check out their Petition of 418 American Companies that want to raise the H-1B limit.

Immigration attorney Austin Fragomen, who has lobbied Congress in favor of liberal H-1B visa policies, wrote in Workforce Magazine, March 1996, " when the Senate was considering scaling back the H-1B program in that year, "...The business community mobilized, forming American Business for Legal Immigration (ABLI), a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents a number of associations and employers, and commissions academic studies to support its position."

The American Council on Education members include accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and education-related organizations. Stanley Ikenberry, President of ACE, lobbied for unlimited H-1B visas for educational institutions and said, "This legislation is crucial to higher education and non-profit research organizations because it separates temporary foreign workers in academia from the yearly cap on H-1B visas. H.R. 3983 would reserve 10,000 H-1B visas each year for the next three years for academia. No other legislation in the House provides such relief for higher education. The loss of foreign academic talent at colleges and universities directly affects U.S. students and scholars by undermining U.S. education and research efforts."^[68]

The H-1B law of 2000 gave Ikenberry what he wanted, unlimited visas. This is a dangerous and under-reported escalation in the H-1B program because these H-1Bs are not counted in the yearly quota limit of H-1B visas issued every year. Universities, colleges, and schools are one of the largest employers of H-1Bs, and now this flood of cheap labor is uncontrolled.

The American Council on International Personnel  is a Washington D.C. association that lobbies for large corporations that want favorable immigration legislation such as H-1B. Infamous immigration lawyer, lobbyist, and tireless H-1B shill, Austin T. Fragomen, has been chairman of ACIP. Fragomen's presence means that this organization is very smelly. In a rare fit of candor, Fragomen said that "H-1B visas were not just used by high-tech companies, but also within large retail companies, financial service firms, and by professional services organizations". ^[69]

The ACIP. has expressed concern that a provision stipulating that employers pay H-1B workers during periods of downtime could lead employers to treat H-1B workers more favorably than U.S. workers, who ordinarily wouldn't get paid during such periods. ^[69]  They warned that American workers may lose their jobs before H-1Bs if this provision is passed. Their concern for American workers is probably secondary to their concern for not wanting to pay H-1Bs when they are benched without work.

Austin Fragomen, chairman of the ACIP, told Congress that the H-1B fraud issue is "overstated, there is no evidence that companies are violating the H–1B wage and working condition requirements."  If what they claim is true then they should have nothing to fear if the INS investigates these allegations of fraud. Instead the told Congress to back off and not investigate fraud. They told Congress that they "oppose increasing scrutiny of all employers or restricting the availability of H–1B visas as these will have little impact on fraud. " ^[97] 

Fragomen's experience as an immigration attorney didn't help his testimony in Congress when he said "there is an enormous skills gap in this country, we would assert that U.S. companies are taking steps to meet this challenge." Seconds later he said that "education and training will have little impact in the near term therefore we should not too closely link the H–1B program with opportunities for U.S. workers." So he is saying that Americans aren't educated enough therefore H-1Bs are needed, but then he said that even if Americans get that education, H-1Bs will still be needed. Isn't this a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario?

Fragomen even admitted to Congress that H-1Bs are not used primarily to fill vacant positions. They are used by employees that already work at the company on other visas such as J-1.  He said, "most H–1Bs are for specific employees who actually already work for the employer."

Lynn Shotwell, director of government relations at ACIP made the remarkable statement  that she has not heard any serious discussions about raising the temporary-visa cap again. She said that many corporations want instant Green Cards like the proposal made by the IEEE-USA  that gives immigrant workers permanent green-card visas instead of temporary visas that have many restrictions, including the ability to switch jobs. This is one of many reasons the IEEE is on this Skunk page.

Shotwell also said that 45% of claims H-1B visa fraud "couldn't be verified in India because the claims were part of a group singled out precisely because they seemed suspicious." ^[70] She didn't explain how else you would investigate fraud. 

More recently, Lynn Shotwell hasn't changed her spin for more H-1Bs. You would think that she might change her attitude since tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs, but she remains an adamant shill for more H-1B importation. At the end of October, 2001 she said "Even so, despite the current economic turndown, "I think the arguments are just as strong [for H-1B]."^[115]

ACIP advocacy of H-1B is mostly for their own self serving interest in cheap labor. The Wall Street Journal said that many of the top 20 users are ACIP members. ^[97] 

The Association for Computing Machinery claims to represent 80,000 computer professionals. Since H-1B hits these workers harder than any other profession, you would expect them to oppose H-1B. Instead they try to dodge the issue and say very little about it - at least until recently.

Barbara Simons, recent president of the  said that "the IEEE-USA was absolutely wrong to oppose the H-1B bill, which is catering to xenophobia."^[5] This statement almost makes me want to remove the IEEE from the Skunks.org page. Simons doesn't understand that the IEEE has been very hypocritical on the H-1B issue or she probably wouldn't have made that statement. IEEE is on her side. 

ACM members Lawrence A. West and Walter A. Bogumil wrote a paper that really exposes what ACM is, another corporate shill that could care less about their US members that are being replaced by H-1Bs.  

They said that the economies of countries that don't have H-1B programs will not be able to compete with those that do. He wrote, "Instead of competing with armies and navies, though, nations in this modern contest for economic prosperity are competing with visa quotas". He seems to be saying that the United States must raise visa quotas to win the war.

Their views are very globalist because they want programmers to become a nomadic band of laborers that go wherever on Earth they can make a living. Their vision of the world is a dream come true to all companies hoping to squeeze workers for lower salaries. They wrote, "Meanwhile, the ability of the U.S. to attract foreign workers reflects an unprecedented mobility in the worldwide IT labor force giving rise to "labor liquidity" in which individual workers can seek out demand and demand can seek out available workers. ... The result of this situation is a worldwide market for IT professionals in which government policies reinforce or hinder the competitiveness of a country's firms and economy." Notice how they warn the government not to impede this international labor trade. 

One of the most suspicious claims they made is when they wrote, "The tight IT labor market is not unique to the U.S. A recent Microsoft study found that Western Europe has a current shortage of 850,000 IT sector jobs". The reason that's a dubious claim is because the META Group used that exact shortage number for the U.S. in the year 2000. They could of at least changed the number to be less obvious.

They further insult programmers by reducing them to an "input". They wrote that Prosperity depends on creating a business environment, along with supporting institutions, that enable the nation to productively use and upgrade its inputs." What ever happened to calling workers "units of labor"? Surely that's better than being a mere "input". ^[77]

If all of this wasn't bad enough, the ACM hires H-1Bs for their operations. Talk about getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar! ^[2]

The American Electronics Association  (AeA) masquerades as an electronics professional organization. They claim that AeA has been the accepted voice of the U.S. technology community. That's odd since most engineers don't even know who they are. They would be more correct to brag that they are a corporate funded lobby group that shills for liberal H-1B policies.  

Dont't confuse the AeA with the American Engineering Association (AEA), an organization of and by career engineers.

The AeA likes to honor politicians who have been bought off to support H-1B. They inducted Jim Moran (D-VA) into their "High-Tech Legislator Hall of Fame." in March 2000 for his undying support for higher H-1B visa limits. ^[86]

They continue to lobby for higher H-1B visas. Marc Brailov, the public communications director for AeA said, "Increasing the number of H-1B visas is "essential to our industry." ^[87]

Thom Stohler, director of workforce policy, is one of the AeA's champion shortage shouters and H-1B lobbyists. He said that `when you talk to the HR people in Silicon Valley, they say it's very hard finding skilled people.'' ^[98] Stohler is quick to parrot the views of HR people. He should talk to unemployed programmers and engineers in Silicon Valley that can't find jobs because of his hard work to replace them with H-1Bs..

Stohler implies that companies don't have the time or money to invest in American workers since they can import H-1Bs. He stated that, "it would take a massive restructuring in the education system and a tremendous investment in training. We don't have the people to fill those jobs."^[101]

Even worse, the AeA doesn't seem to find anything wrong with the practice of H-1B banking. Banking is a term used when companies apply for H-1B visas even before they need them. This is technically illegal and yet Thom Stohler, director of workforce policy, said that companies have learned to get their visa applications in early. "If you don't get your visas in by New Year's, you won't get processed," he said, pointing out that the unemployment rate for engineers is only 1.6 percent". ^[88] His low unemployment figures are a fantasy that nobody in the industry takes seriously.

Thom Stohler also is pushing for ever higher visa limits. Even after the 2000 visa bill was passed he said "We need at least 200,000 visas given current demand." Stohler says he would be surprised if H-1B use goes down in 2001 because companies still need them. Despite the massive unemployment of engineers in April of 2003 Stohler said that the AeA hasn't ruled out lobbying to increase the visa cap so that more H-1Bs can be imported. ^[143]

Stohler also whines that the $1000 visa fee is too high. He thinks it should be lowered back to $500 to allow companies to hire H-1Bs for less money. According to Stohler it's still too difficult and expensive for companies to hire H-1Bs. ^[89] 

AeA members, according to Stohl, such as Intel, Motorola, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard are, "very selective and only use the program to bring in advanced-degree recipients who have graduated from U.S. schools." ^[143] Stohler ignores the fact that many AeA members such as Intel, Motorola, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard are the most notorious abusers of H-1B. Sun even admits they hire H-1Bs that don't have college degrees! If these companies are selective it's only when it comes to hiring compliant workers at low wages, which is of course why rich corporations  are members of the AeA. 

Stohler claims that Peter Schrag’s article on H-1B visas "High-tech workers’ visa – A bad idea gets worse" is misguided and not based on good data.  He goes on to say that "There is also no proof that the hiring of H-1B visa holders lowered wages in the high-tech industry." ^[116]  Stohler's denial of reality may be good public relations propaganda for the corporations he lobbies for but it won't fool anyone that understands the basic laws of supply and demand. It's just not possible to dump that many foreign workers into the US labor market without affecting wages.

The AeA should be held accountable everytime one of their American members loses a job because they were replaced with an H-1B. Members should ask why they have somebody like Stohler asking for ever more H-1Bs to replace them even when he acknowledges that American workers will lose their jobs before H-1Bs do. He admitted that administrative employees and contractors are among the first to go when companies slash their staffs and he said that skilled workers who entered the country under the H-1B visa program aren't likely to be among early layoffs. Stohler went on to say that, "The companies aren't laying off the folks they're hiring with H-1B visas unless they're shutting their doors."^[100]

Stohler's statements on behalf of the AeA sometimes need translation into real English:

William Archey, president of the American Electronics Association, goes even further to say that the high tech industry "has largely been propelling the national economy". He then goes on to imply that our economy just can't do that without H-1Bs. ^[90] Perhaps he should convince the American workers that have been replaced by H-1Bs that it is good for their economies.

The American Engineering Campaign is a propaganda blitz sponsored by the NSPE. They are trying to perpetuate the myth that there a shortage of engineers in the United States. They claim that "Demand for Professional Engineers High, Enrollment Low" ^[31]. This is the kind of misinformation that is typically used by corporate lobbyists such as ITAA to demand higher limits for H-1B visas. 

The NSPE must know that an organization that represents engineers would never put the interests of the corporate H-1B shills  ahead of their engineers. If a shortage really did exist, it would benefit engineers by forcing salaries up. That is not happening because of the glut of H-1Bs that are replacing American engineers. Perhaps the membership totals of NSPE have been dropping because engineers don't want to pay $200 a year to an organization that panders to big money corporations.

Shortage shouters like James F. Shackelford, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Davis and Sam Grossman, President of the California Society of Professional Engineers, warn that the dire shortage of engineers will lead to crisis such as more rolling blackouts in California. Even worse nobody will be around to design fuel efficient cars and appliances without more engineers. They espouse the AEC as a way to fool more students into entering this glutted field of unemployed professionals. ^[114]

The American Federation of Labor opposed H-1B until the year 2000. To learn more about the history of the AFL-CIO and H-1B and why they changed their position  click here.

They said their goal is to train foreign workers who will export the latest industry trends and techniques when they return to their home country. ^[46] Now how stupid is that? They will replace American workers with H-2Bs and then train them so that they can go back home and take our knowledge with them.

American Hotel & Lodging Association claims to be the largest national trade association for the U.S. hotel and lodging industry. They are also one of the largest importers of foreign labor and they have an insatiable appetite for cheap labor. They hired high priced lobbyist John Gay (see EWIC) to shill for more foreign workers to change our bed pans.  Gay says that "There are places in this country where we wouldn't survive without immigrants. The trend is to push our own children into college to be rocket scientists or computer programmers. But who is going to do these hard jobs that we have? Who is going to change bedpans in a nursing home? Or change beds in hotels?" ^[96]

Of course Gay also thinks that Americans don't want to do computer programming either. He never explains what jobs will be left for Americans after all of his open border policies are in place. 

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. ^[6]  AILA 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. "^[7]

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.

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." ^[8]

American Immigration Law Foundation is an immigration advocacy group that has an obvious self interest. These lawyers constantly file lawsuits with the INS to allow more skilled immigrants (H-1Bs etc.) to enter the United States. 

Andrew Prazuch Deputy Director of the AILF wrote a letter ^[9] blasting Dr. Norman Matloff saying "Matloff purports that there have been no conclusive studies that prove there is in fact a labor shortage in the IT Industry. The only "evidence" he provides to support his claim is the high volume of resumes companies receive for any given position and their low hiring percentages of those applicants." I'm not sure what additional evidence Prazuch needs but he obviously hasn't visited Matloff's website or he wouldn't have made such a stupid statement.

I had to laugh that these rich lawyers are asking for donations through their website. I guess they want to file a lot more lawsuits.

Stuart Anderson who used to be the Executive Associate Commissioner for Policy and Planning and Counselor to the Commissioner at the Immigration and Naturalization Service from August 2001 to January 2003. Apparently Anderson quit working for the government in favor of being a highly paid shill for the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) because in 2003 he came out with a biased study for the AILF titled "The Global Battle for Talent and People".  His study is potentially very harmful because he has the BCIS credentials that reporters love to see.

This report is obviously biased but that won't stop the proponents of H-1B from using this study in news articles, and reporters will rarely seek to find out who paid for this piece of trash. Expect to see the Anderson and Zavodny reports to be used often in the near future.  Anderson may become the darling of the Indian press as ZDNetIndia declared that Anderson's report "a shot in the arm for Indian IT professionals." ^[151]

For the record, let's call this report what it really is: A kick in the groin of the American Middle class!

Stuart Anderson's paper  is an unscientific manifesto that hypes the so-called virtues of H-1B.  Anderson thinks that immigrant workers will have to be imported for all jobs in the U.S. - from highly skilled technical jobs to the lower skilled factory workers. Anderson thinks  that immigrant workers should be imported  regardless of the economy and believes that the U.S. cannot be competitive without the issuance of large numbers of H-1B visas.

The American Institute of Physics  have shouted about shortages of physicists since the 1970s.  AIP predicted that the number of physicists now in training (1970) will fall 20,000 short of the jobs available for them in 1970 - this despite the fact that median salaries for graduate physicists in industry rose from an average of $6,100 a year in 1951 to $11,000 in 1962. Such shortages can probably be offset in the future only by an increased pooling of international scientific resources. ^[10] In other words they support H-1B physicists coming into the U.S. to take jobs.

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. ^[11] They claim that they help American businesses looking to expand their workforce with foreigners. 

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists claims that their mission is to advance and support the professional practice of pharmacists. They sound like they are more interested in making sure pharmacies get enough cheap labor and they use much of the same rhetoric as the ITAA.

The ASHP polled 350 pharmacy directors in health systems throughout the United States and of course found out that there is a desperate shortage of pharmacists. This sounds very familiar to the way the ITAA polled high tech companies and came to a similar conclusion that there is a desperate shortage of computer programmers.

John Santell, MS, director of the ASHP Center on Pharmacy Practice Management, and master shortage shouter, claims that there are large numbers of unfilled positions for pharmacists. Like the ITAA, they never did a poll of unemployed pharmacists, so the conclusions of the surveys are obviously self serving and highly suspect. ^[109]

The ASHP was very happy when Clinton signed S. 2045 to increase the H-1B limits to 195,000. They said it will make it easier to bring more H-1B pharmacists in from abroad to ease the current workforce shortage. Of course they use the standard claim that H-1Bs will be used on a short-term basis until they can churn more pharmacists out of US schools.

They claim that the foreign pharmacists will be technicians that are supervised by an experienced pharmacist, so therefore we don't have to worry about getting the wrong drug. ^[110]

The Arizona Software & Internet Association - 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. 

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!)". ^[12] 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.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is another spineless engineering association that won't take a position on H-1B. Any engineering organization that doesn't take a position against H-1B, supports it. Mary James Legatski, Government Relations Representative, said that because the Society has many members who feel strongly on both sides of the issue, ASME has not taken a position on the H-1B visa issue. ^[13] Read her full statement on the Feedback page.

The Association of Staff Physician Recruiters gives detailed instructions and advice for importing foreign medical workers on a variety of visas. This is an organization says that shortages of doctors and nurses can be cured through immigration. They said that the H-1B nonimmigrant visa is the only visa that permits a foreign medical graduate to work in the United States in a position that primarily involves direct patient care. They say that the H-1B visa is an option that should always be considered when attempting to relocate a foreign medical graduate. ^[42]

The Business Round Table consists of CEOS of some major US companies such as TRW, Sprint, and State Farm. They praised President Clinton when he signed the increase in the H-1B yearly limit.

The BRT funded 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 supply cheap labor for the CEOs that run the BRT. The family values campaign worked for Wilson and the voters were fooled, thanks to the huge advertising budget of the BRT.

The Business Software Alliance counts virtually every top software company among its members including Steve Ballmer from Microsoft Corp., Andrew Grove from Intel Corp., and Al Zollar of Lotus Development Corp. 

This lobby group is not afraid to lavish money on those politicians that will support their H-1B ambitions. In 1998 they spent over 1 million dollars for lobbying campaigns. ^[53]  The BSA praised the Senate's Passage of H-1B Legislation. President and CEO Robert Holleyman publicly thanked Senators Orrin Hatch (UT), Senator Spencer Abraham (MI) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA), for their devotion to the BSA cause of raising H-1B limits. ^[82] Sen Spencer Abraham may be public enemy #1 for his role in boosting the H-1B program but not as far as the BSA is he is a hero. That is why they awarded him the Cyber Champion Award for 1999. ^[83] 

They have quite a voice with president Bush also. White House spokesman Jimmy Orr assured the BSA that Bush understands "the need for expanding H-1B visas." ^[84] 

The BSA has decided that they don't need and don't want the current generation of American  workers. Holleyman says that H-1B is temporary but then says "BSA are willing to do their part to make sure the next generation of Americans are given high tech opportunities." Wouldn't it be better if they were more committed to give the current generation of Americans opportunities instead of replacing them with H-1Bs?

In 1995 Brian Fitzgerald, counsel to the BSA, said that many of the leading U.S. high-tech companies have come to rely heavily on imported foreign professionals for key tasks performed on U.S. soil. "The numbers are small, but these guys are crictical - they bring in technology expertise that can be difficult for us to get in the U.S, especially when it comes to adapting products for global markets." ^[85] He was wrong in 1995 that  the numbers of H-1Bs working in the U.S. was small and the numbers have increased every year since then.

The Indian CEO High Tech Council, (C2MM), claims that they can connect people to over 2700 "power brokers". C2MM works very closely with USINPAC.

Virginia's Governor Mark Warner said that C2MM is "...the singularly most successful association that's taken place in the last decade."

Sandeep Sahai, managing partner of Techspan explained to a C2MM council meeting that Indians need to organize for funds and power. Sahai said that Indians need to learn from the experience of groups like the Jews.  ^[155]

CapNet was started by George Vradenburg of America Online Inc. and Chuck Manatt, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and currently ambassador to the Dominican Republic. ^[117] CapNet is a Political Action Committee (PAC) that lobbies for big money high tech companies before Congress and function as a committee of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. CapNet shouts about high-tech worker shortages whenever they get the chance to be heard by Congress and of course they promote H-1B as the solution to companies problems.

Money buys power in Washington so CapNet rewards what they consider to be "tech-friendly politicians" with campaign cash. CapNet lavished campaign money on Sen. Chuck Robb who not surprisingly is a big time supporter of H-1B. ^[118] Tim Hugo, the director of CapNet, likes to beat his chest with bravado when he talks about the victories they have had on H-1B. Hugo said "We took an aggressive stance. We had two women CEOs in their 30s up on the Hill saying, `Washington is inhibiting our companies.' If we had stood up before a Senate committee a year earlier, they would have said `Who are you?'"

Even more ominous is that CapNet strongly supports all efforts to establish the Trade Promotion Authority. ^[119] For more information on that see the H-1B History page.

The Cato Institute is a lobby group of free market libertarians that believes companies should be able to hire whomever they want without government intervention. Their Center for Trade Policy Studies does most of the H-1B boosterism.

Committee for Economic Development is an organization of business leaders and university presidents. They are promoting the idea of instant green cards to ease the alleged massive shortages of skilled workers in the US. A CED report for 2001 singles out the Mexican immigrants as "undesirable" and a factor indicating "need" for Designer Immigration. ^[14]

Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University conducts studies that seem to favor big business over the long term interests of their students. Paul Harrington, associate director of the CLMS said,  "meanwhile, there is no relief in sight for employers who are having trouble finding qualified workers. The labor shortage will be a permanent part of the economic landscape." "In response, small businesses should focus on education and immigration policies", says Harrington, who headed the study's labor force panel. Temporary programs like H-1B visas, which are granted to foreign professionals for a limited time, will not be sufficient to meet business' work-force needs, Harrington says. ^[39]

The H-1B Hall of Shame recognizes Harrington's statement about permanent labor shortages as an all time classic.

Northeastern University did a study in 2000 called "Threats to Sustained Economic Growth: Science, Engineering and Information Technology Labor Shortages in the Massachusetts Economy".  They concluded that the only solution to this economic threat is to hire more H-1Bs. ^[137]

Their 2002 study on immigration comes to similar conclusions. Susan Traiman claims that without immigrant labor the American economy would have stumbled. She didn't explain why our economy is now in a recession even though, according to them, eight of 10 new male workers in the decade were immigrants. ^[136]

In March of 2001 it was reported that the Cleveland Municipal School District went on an H-1B shopping spree in India because they claimed they can't hire enough teachers. The bodyshop contingent included Kevin Brown, recruitment manager for the Cleveland Unified School District, Carol Hauser, human resources director, and Michelle Rzucidlo-Rupright, kindergarten teacher. They went to India and spent 12 days interviewing some 500 candidates in Bombay, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Madras. They signed contracts with numerous Indians to work as Cleveland teachers. ^[103]

When the first wave of 50 H-1B teachers arrived in Cleveland, the newspaper Plain Dealer said they were greeted with roses and television cameras. ^[102] 

The Catalyst-Cleveland, who claims to be an award winning newsmagazine that covers school reform in Chicago, reported that the schools will have to use substitute teachers until the H-1Bs from India are able to speak English and teach. ^[105] The "teachers" will have to be oriented to how things are done in US schools.

The roses and euphoria that the Plain Dealer reported didn't last long. Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Chief executive officer of CMSD, wrote a scathing letter that criticized the Catalyst of below standard journalistic reporting. She claimed that all of these Indians are veteran teachers that are ready to enter the classroom. ^[104] With a spin worthy of her CEO title,  Byrd-Bennet said, "Yes, they will be new to American classrooms and cultural adjustments will have to be made." Jemima Todika, who moved from Andhratradesh, India, was more specific when she said that "orientation is essential for foreign teachers."  Perhaps Byrd-Bennet needs to go back to the executive training school for CEOs because her attempts at damage control  ring hollow.

CompeteAmerica used to be called the ABLI. They are a lobbyist coalition that has dedicated themselves to pushing for unlimited numbers of guest-worker visas for companies that are hungry for cheap labor CompeteAmerica is funded by more than 200 trade organizations, universities and companies such as Motorola Inc., Intel Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. In addition to lobbying, they are involved with propaganda campaigns that include planting editorials in newspapers.

Sandra Boyd is their current B

Computing Technology Industry Association is an organization of comprised of shortage shouter lobbyists. CompTIA surveyed 878 CIOs and other IT executives last year. Not surprisingly the group found that almost 10% of IT jobs are currently unfilled. Manager of government relations, Grant Mydland, describes this massive shortage of workers by saying "What was once seen as a problem for Silicon Valley, Boston and Austin is now a problem for the entire country." ^[15]

The Chinese Professionals and Entrepreneurs Association , consists mainly of H-1Bs from China and say they are committed to assist alien professionals in their U.S. immigration and naturalization matters. ^[16] It's no surprise that they support H-1B. 

The Computing Research Association is a club of computer science academic departments. It's no surprise that they are shortage shouters since they can increase enrollment with this kind of propaganda. The CRA stated that colleges and universities face a shortage of applicants for faculty positions in computer science and IT because too few students are graduating with doctoral degrees in those fields. ^[34] Dr. Norman Matloff says that at his UC Davis department they have ALWAYS gotten several HUNDRED applicants for 3 or 4 openings. So just what shortage is the CRA talking about? ^[35]

The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) was established in 1986 to provide independent advice to the federal government on technical and public policy issues. The problem is that the CSTB isn't even close to being independent. Its current sponsors include Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, and Time-Warner Cable. With the exception of Time-Warner, all of these firms have been in the forefront of lobbying for expansion of the H-1B program. They oversaw the NRC report to congress (see NRC, NAS) that whitewashed the entire H-1B problem. ^[17]

The  Center for Trade Policy Studies is a front organization for the Cato Institute. This rich boys club of media moguls includes Rupert Murdoch who joined the board of directors. Murdoch is one of Cato's cheerleaders for a "free trade" economy where corporations can do whatever they wish without all those cumbersome government regulations. ^[49] It's not a major surprise that they consider labor a commodity that should be traded across borders.

Suzette Brooks, an attorney and member of the board of directors,  calls the quota limits on H-1B a straightjacket that should be completely eliminated. She says that U.S. companies should be allowed to hire any worker they want to and that any limit on the number of H-1Bs imported into the US is wrong and could hurt corporate profits. ^[50]

Daniel Griswold, associate director of the Cato Institute's CTPS, complains that the "low" H-1B cap is nothing more than a form of centralized industrial policy. He views American workers as a resource and doesn't believe that our government has a right to tell companies how to use their human capital. ^[120]

Griswold rails that American companies can't wait indefinitely for the "public school monopoly" to improve its teaching of math and science. He also doesn't believe that American corporations should have to wait to exploit foreign workers who supposedly are better educated. Griswold repeats the Cato Institute mantra that the H-1B cap should be eliminated so that America's high-technology companies can continue to make enormous profits. He complains that our government sets artificially low numerical quotas. ^[51]

In 1996 director Stuart Anderson wrote a paper that claims he has clear evidence that H-1Bs are not bidding down wage rates by being willing to work for less than the native-born. He then goes on deny the laws of supply and demand by claiming they are paid more. ^[121]

The College and University Personnel Association is a Washington D.C. lobby group that represents more than 6,500 human resource administrators at nearly 1,700 colleges. Since colleges and universities are one of the largest advocates for H-1B workers it's no surprise that they lobby congress for sweetheart deals. Michael Aitken, a CUPA lobbyist was asking for unlimited H-1B visas for educational institutions and got a little loose with the facts when when he said, "The high-tech jobs are going through the roof. Because of the way the economy is going, we couldn't get enough visas if you put the cap at 300,000." ^[67] 

The European-American Business Council (EABC) is a lobby group comprised of over 70 EU and US companies. They are unabashed supporters of globalist labor policies and the WTO.

EABC lobbied Clinton and our Congress for increased H-1Bs. Willard Berry, president of EABC, warned Clinton that if H-1B quotas aren't increased the result will be "lost sales, delayed projects and other setbacks that will threaten the technological preeminence of US industry."^[128] Translated into English that means that European companies will have lower profits if they are forced to pay American workers a fair salary.

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 prognosticator 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. ^[21]

Employment Policy Foundation  is a fancy title for just another group of worker shortage shouters. The EPF wants higher H-1B limits as they signal the alarm that "even that program [H-1B] falls short of being able to fulfill the demand for workers who will emerge in the coming years as labor force aging combines with growing demand for education and skills to tighten the American labor market." The EPF accuses critics of the H-1B program as "stuck  1930s style thinking" and he scoffs at people that claim that the H-1B visa is a threat to job security. ^[65]

Ron Bird, chief economist for the EPF cast a blind eye to the replacement of American workers when he said, "I see no basis for the theory that there's a displacement of American workers for folks coming in under the H-1B program.^[106]

In January of 2003 President Ed Potter said that we are about to have the biggest labor shortage in history. His solution to this impending crisis was to to "build in immigration." Potter went on to say "There are certain things that one knows about the economy."^[142] Statements like that illustrate just how little he knows about the economy.

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. Why would women by dumb enough to believe them?

The Essential Worker Immigration Coalition is a coalition of businesses from across the industry spectrum that includes hospitals, hotels, drug stores, and other businesses. They 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.

The EWIC wrote Harry Reid, Minority Whip, U.S. Senate, and said that the unemployment rate is reaching zero! They didn't stop with that ridiculous claim, they went on to say that "businesses are now finding themselves with no applicants of any kind for numerous job openings. H-1B was designed so trained professionals could work for a limited time in the United States. It has become widely popular, especially in an age such as this, when Microsoft, IBM and other high-tech companies decided they needed people to fill jobs that were simply not being filled."

The EWIC wants illegal aliens to be given citizenship to solve this labor shortage emergency. "This would allow undocumented immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.S. for many years to remain here permanently."

The EWIC is addicted to cheap labor and asked Heid to grant citizenship for illegals from Central America, Haiti, Caribbean countries, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras. to get citizenship. ^[63]

John Gay, co-chair of the EWIC, is a champion shortage shouter. He claims that there are "Severe shortages of lesser-skilled and unskilled workers."  Gay is lobbying both Republicans and Democrats to increase to the 66,000 non-agricultural workers that are imported into the US. Gay also wants Congress to fashion a bill that's "modeled after the existing H-1B program" in order to bring in even more workers.

Gay doesn't stop at just these proposals. He wants to "allow undocumented aliens to earn green cards." ^[95] The EWIC will never stop until companies are able to bring in cheap labor without restrictions. Perhaps they should be called the Open Border Immigration Coalition (OBIC).

The EWIC recently started to lobby for restaurateurs, hoteliers, nursing home operators, landscapers and construction executives. They want foreigners working in those fields to be granted visas allowing them to remain in the United States on a long-term basis.

The Future of Freedom Foundation is a Libertarian think tank of "free-trade" ideologues who that believe open and uncontrolled borders are a matter of morality. They believe that all labor costs should be reduced so that companies can be more profitable and efficient, and that companies should have the freedom to exploit the cheapest labor possible in order to maintain those profits. To the FFF, corporations should have the freedom to do whatever they want without government regulations. 

Steve McPherson, an FFF policy advisor,  has a passionate hostility for American computer programmers because they want to save their jobs. He  said that programmers that used to make $60 an hour are demanding a "Divine Right of Stagnation" ^[148] when they complain that L-1 visas are used to import workers at 1/6th the cost. He goes on to say that programmers should realize the "benefits of rigorous competition and the morality of economic liberty" and therefore shouldn't complain when they lose their jobs to cheaper foreign labor. His moral passion to destroy the careers of programmers by importing cheap labor is hypocritical since he wants to use government programs to force the issue.

McPherson callously disregards the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution when he stated that the L-1 loopholes are one of the few "remaining freedoms" for the corporatists who seek to subvert middle class America by exploiting cheap labor. His hypocrisy becomes very transparent when he says that "jobs aren’t theirs to be protected or defended by government" while at the same time he said that he wants to use a government visa program to destroy those workers. McPherson ignorance of the Constitution if obvious because it's very clear that the government is responsible for protecting the jobs of its citizens. The 14th Ammendment says that:

Perhaps in McPherson's misguided ideological zeal he thinks that the "L" visa only allows L-ibertarians to enter the country.

This radical organization,  proposed on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, the creation of a single labor market in the NAFTA area. ^[149] That is, any person legally in Canada, Mexico or the United States could work in any of the three countries. This open-border concept would force labor costs down since corporations could transport cheap labor across international borders. James Bovard, another policy advisor for FFF advocated this open border policy in the Wall Street Journal when he wrote: "The time has come to deregulate our national borders — to end the medieval pursuit of a "just price" for imports — and to cease allowing government officials to have economic life-and-death power over American businesses. It should not be a federal crime to charge low prices to American consumers." ^[150]

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. ^[22]

The Hudson Institute web site claims that they don't advocate an expressed ideology or political position and they question conventional wisdom. If any of their words were true they would question the self serving propaganda about worker shortages.

Politicians like John McCain love to quote bogus shortage studies by the Hudson Institute because they constantly sound the alarm that a massive high tech worker shortage will cause an economic catastrophe. ^[58] 

Ben Wattenberg of the Hudson Institute pleaded with congress to impose the Immigration Act of 1990 by saying "[Let us] look for people with particular criteria, particular merit, higher education. I mean, this is a buyer's market, American immigration. We can pick from tens of millions of people around the world to get the brightest best educated people --educated on somebody else's nickel, by the way-- that the world has." ^[1] Marcus Wiehn, a researcher at the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis added to the cacophony when he said "Without immigrants, the nation as a whole and probably Indiana would be in a recession. ^[61]

Dr. Richard Judy of the Hudson Institute implied that we need a permanent H-1B law when she said that the United States would face an absolute decline in our workforce in the next 20 years without immigration. ^[59] If that wasn't bad enough, Betsy M. Ross, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former lieutenant governor of New York, actually had the gall to say that the GOP must pass further increases in the H-1B quota to "keep the good times rolling". ^[60] Apparently she only cares about the good times companies are having while they replace American workers with cheap indentured workers.

Fortunately not all at the Hudson Institute are so easily swayed by corporate spin doctors.  Alan Reynolds, director of economic research at the Hudson Institute said, "Instead of providing key industries with large numbers of highly educated immigrants, U.S. immigration policy serves primarily to increase the number of U.S. residents who lack even a high-school degree,...America must stop recruiting workers for jobs that do not exist or exist only at the lowest wages." ^[62]

According to outgoing co-chairman Jim Greenwood, "the India Caucus has become one of the most effective caucuses on Capitol Hill." ^[144]. The India Caucus is a group of about 140 Congressional politicians that formed a political action committee to lobby the U.S. government for the interests of Indian multi-national corporations. Their web page explains that they are a "not-for-profit lobbying organization registered with the U.S. Federal Government" to "serve as a watch dog for inaccuracies and bias in media coverage about India or Indians in the United States."  In other words, our politicians are lobbying themselves to destroy U.S. jobs - go figure that!

In April of 2003, five members of the India Caucus went on a junket in Mumbai organized by the CII and NASSCOM. Politicians that  were wined and dined in India included Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Chris Bell (D-TX), and Kendrick Meek (D-FL). ^[145]

The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce is a Washington D.C. lobby group that exists to further the interests of rich Indian businessmen. It's no surprise that they constantly tell our government to raise the H-1B limits. R. Veeramani, national Vice-President of the ICC, said that "There is a need to increase the quota of H1B visas". His reason was that more Indian H-1Bs should be working in the US because in his opinion "it was in the interest of Washington that more H1B visas were issued to Indians". He said it is "wrong to equate them [h-1B visa holders] with unskilled laborers" even though the fact is that many are working in blue collar jobs like chicken processing. ^[72]

This ruthless gang of H-1B shills will stoop as low as necessary in order to defend H-1B. This became painfully obvious when Manjul Batra, president of the ICC of Northern California rushed to defend Lakireddy Bali Reddy, the 62-year-old Berkeley landlord who used H-1B as a ruse to bring young Indian girls into the United States to be used as sex slaves. Batra said she'd known Reddy for 25 years and suggested that if Reddy had sex with any girls [12 to 14 year old], it would have been consensual. ``He's a bachelor,'' Batra said. ``If they want to have fun, and he wants to have fun, no one in the world can stop that.''  ^[73] 

 It's amazing that Batra would even admit to knowing Lakireddy. This gross misunderstanding of mainstream American culture, statutory rape laws, and the flaunting of immigration laws shows that the ICC thinks that nothing is as important as defending every facet of H-1B.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is split into factions; some support H-1B and others don't. Unfortunately most of this organization is ruled by industry insiders that care more about corporate bottom lines than the engineers they are supposed to represent. Most of them are cowards who are afraid of being labeled politically incorrect. If the stereotype of the "wimpy, groveling engineer" was ever true, IEEE has plenty of them. 

In 2000 they embraced a new policy called "Green Cards, Not Guest Workers". This boneheaded policy was drafted to allow immigrant engineers to get instant Green Cards instead of H-1B visas. They wanted to remind Congress and the media that guest workers are not immigrants and hoped to insulate themselves from charges of xenophobia by taking the "pro-immigration high-ground". Only a small minority at IEEE thought that representing American engineers was a moral high-ground.

Quarrels broke out between different sections of the organization over the H-1B issue. IEEE International said that IEEE-USA's lobbying against the H-1B increase in 1998 might be perceived as xenophobic. Pressure also was applied by corporate and academic members who actively employed H-1Bs and didn't want IEEE to oppose their cheap labor program. IEEE-USA gave into the pressure and since then the issue has been soft pedaled by the entire organization. 

In 2000 IEEE hired Washington D.C. lobbyist and insider Paul Donnelly because of his instant green card ideologies. IEEE's connections with  Donnelly's lobbying efforts added to the suspicion that IEEE could no longer be a voice for displaced engineers. The front page of Donnelley's Immigration Reform Website IRC.org  said 

During Donnelley's reign IEEE-USA took a number of steps that seemed to tone down the shortage issues and H-1B. It removed its "Misfortune 500" web page, a compendium of 500 engineers, mainly older, who were having trouble finding engineering work in spite of the alleged high-tech boom. IEEE also removed from the site its report on a 1998 Harris Poll (commissioned by IEEE-USA) which had shown that 82% of Americans opposed the H-1B increase. ^[23]

Donnelly left IEEE after a rather short period of time. There were rumors that IEEE didn't like the way he was making immigration issues more visible within the organization. They preferred to hide from the H-1B issue and Donnelly was making that difficult for them to do. Donnelly took down the IRC website and as of May 2002 the domain was up for sale. For more on Donnelly see IRC. 

Since the Donnelly era the IEEE has gone back to echoing the NSF's theme that the way to  discourage more H-1Bs from entering the country is by encouraging more students to graduate with engineering degrees. That's because they still think employers hire H-1Bs because there is a shortage of engineers. IEEE has a vested interest in getting more engineers to graduate because they hope to enlist more members to bolster their declining number of paying members in order to collect more fees. 

In 2005 the president of the IEEE, Gerard A. Alphonse, reaffirmed the IEEE's commitment to promoting instant Green Cards. This former Haitian national who entered the U.S. with a Green Card saw no conflict of interest with his support for Green Cards, and even wrote: "IEEE-USA supports immigration policies that bring the best and brightest individuals from abroad and encourages them to stay. " ^[157]

Membership fees to IEEE are quite high and yet the career of their engineers do not seem to be as important as appearing friendly to the corporations that are replacing American engineers with H-1Bs. Instead we get an organization of corporate ideologues that don't care about their constituency. They hire H-1Bs directly into their organization so they have a major conflict of interest on H-1B (they have several entries in the LCA Database). There is little hope that this organization will ever change their views. They may feign resistance to H-1B while they continue to hire them onto their staff.

The Immigration Reform Coalition  was another Washington D.C. group founded by Paul Donnelly. The IRC proposed to replace H-1B visas with instant green cards, and sought to redress some inequities in family-based immigration, such as long waits for green cards by immigrant spouses. There was lots of talk about family value stuff here but this organization was a wolf sheathed in lamb's clothing. The IRC said that they wanted a kinder, gentler immigration policy. They actually wanted to make it easier for immigrants to take away our jobs by giving them instant citizenship.

Donnelly's concept was opposed by almost everyone but H-1Bs that wanted Green Cards. Industry opposed him because they like the indentured servitude aspects of H-1B. American workers opposed him because they didn't want the labor market flooded with even more foreign workers. He did a short stint at IEEE but left over disagreements with his instant green card idea.  His organization imploded. Donnelly took down the IRC website and as of May 2002 the domain was up for sale.

Donnelly has been in the visa business for quite awhile. In 1990 he was a congressional aide who played a role in writing the 1990 H-1B legislation. 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. 

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. Infamous immigration attorney and tireless H-1B shill Arthur Fragomen said that the ISA is particularly instrumental in representing the interests of the business community with Congress and the key departments and agencies of the federal government. ^[71]

They have lawyers that defend clients at immigration interviews and hearings and in proceedings before administrative law judges and for appellate review. ^[18] They are a powerful H-1B lobby that influences Congress and the key departments and agencies of the federal government.

The Immigrants Support Network is a militant organization set up to lobby for foreign workers in the US. ^[19] 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.

Many ISN members have said they are entitled to US benefits and believe they have been a "gift" to the U.S. Their gift to us includes the announcement on April 4, 2001 that "The Godfather of the Indian Mafia", Kanwal Rekhi, would help the ISN to pressure Congress for more handouts to H-1Bs. The ISN said that Rekhi is a prominent Angel investor most famous for his investment in Exodus Communications. ^[79]  He promised to use his clout to bend the ears of politicians about the plight of H-1B visa holders. ^[78]  

H-1Bs are not American citizens but that is not stopping ISN from lobbying Congress. They claim they are transforming their organization into a political action group and that they are ready to fight for legislation. The scary thing is that Congress is listening to them. The ISN met with Rep. Anna Eshoo's (D-CA) office on June 1, 2000 for a full hour. ^[80]

ISN's high powered lobbyists include the lawyer Rick Swartz. The San Francisco Chronicle said that Swartz was working pro bono ^[80] but an ISN newsletter of October 21, 2000 revealed that Swartz usually charges $350/hr for corporate clients and $250 per hour for non-profit organizations. He was charging them a fee of $100,000. It's obvious that the ISN is getting some big lobby dollars to play with. 

ISN member contributions probably did not cover that sum, as ISN said only 762 members had actually contributed money for the lobbying efforts. Dr. Norman Matloff was on a TV panel with ISN board member Murali Devarakonda in the year 2000. Matloff said that Devarakonda bragged that ISN would get huge funding from a prominent Indo-American entrepeneur. ^[81] Perhaps the Godfather of India is funding them with extra cash?

Harris N. Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America
Age: 49
Education: Undergraduate degree University of Pittsburgh; graduate degree Yale University
Family: married, two children
Send love letters to: hmiller@itaa.org

Jeff Lande, a vice president of ITAA, was the lead lobbyist to raise the H-1B visa cap. In 2001 he made this outlandish statement: "We have a shortage of skilled IT workers that is well over 800,000 in the U.S. right now, and that figure is expected to grow". ^[133]

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.^[27] I think what he is saying is that we should declare war over all workers that want a fair wage.

The Information Technology Training Association is composed of companies involved in the IT Training Industry. During the recent National High Technology Summit on Capitol Hill, almost every speaker (from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to Microsoft Chairman