Michelle Malkin's Immigration Rants

As one of the comments at Huffington Post said involving the Dunkin Donuts ad, "Why is malkin such a racist? I know she isn't white." to which one of the response was "The two aren't mutually exclusive. There is no such thing as reverse racism. Racism is racism." This may be true but while not all right wing whites are anti-immigrants but so far all anti-immigrants have been right wing whites. Michelle Malkin is the only exception and the reason she is given so much visibility by the right wing media is because she lends credibility to the notion that it's not just whites who oppose (illegal) immigration. Some would even call her leading a PAC "Immigrants against Immigration". It might be interesting to note that Malkin is of Phillipino heritage and as some of the very right wingers who seem to echo her would call, "an anchor baby".

I do not support illegal immigration and I certainly oppose public welfare for the illegal immigrants but I believe the US needs a whole lot of unskilled labor and needs to find a solution to the current problems to maintain their lifestyle. The reason I bring this up is because there are particular elements in the lunatic right wing who are implicitly racist by demonizing immigrants of a particular region and especially target their rants on issues involving immigrants from South America, Asia and Africa. Not many Middle Easterners immigrate to the US but they tend to club all these immigrants and their issues together in their self-feeding rants. To them being illegal or legal is a small difference that gets ignored in their rants. I believe while they may not show that they oppose legal immigration, they will do nothing to improve it but will do every thing to attack the racial aspects of illegal immigration and there by implicitly malign all immigrants with those backgrounds.

EU Blue Card Update

A while back I posted about the 'Blue card' visa program from the EU to compete for the high skilled brains of the world. I recently came across one of the best analysis of this program here. You would think what is the motivation for the EU economies for such a program considering their large native population and generally better off economies? Well, here are some reasons:

85% of unskilled labor migration goes to the EU and 5% to the US, whereas 55% of skilled labor goes to the US and only 5% to the EU.

Imagine the scenario where even 25% of the world's skilled labor goes to the EU. What would that do to the US competitiveness?

In 2007, 270,000 high-skilled Europeans emigrated to the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

So, the region is experiencing a brain drain for better options but that only leaves openings for people from the rest of the world to fill in. I have to remind the readers that the looking at the June 2008 visa bulletin, you can see how much more quicker it is for people from Europe to get US permanent residency compared to the people from over subscribed countries like India or China.

1 EUR = 1.57 USD (as of today)

If salaries were a deciding factor, this equation above fixes a lot of the disparity. (As a side note, I just heard that a bunch of European tourists with their fatter wallets have landed in Martha's Vineyard for the summer. It's cheaper for them to vacation here than in Europe.)

In times of immense competition for the world's talent, only the most competitive immigration policies will attract the best talent. The US was the preferred destination for many of these but faced with the long and difficult immigration policies of the US, many of these would opt for the easier and better rewarding options in the EU.

Development of Immigration Legislation Proposals on the Senate Side

From attorney Mathew Oh's blog

• Thus far, it is the House that has been active in introducing immigration bills, particularly the employment-based immigration bills and the Senate has remained in low keys. However, according to the AILA, there was some movement on the Senate court as part of the Emergency War Supplement Bill. AILA reports that the following bills were introduced and added to the bill in the form of amendments to the Supplement Bill in the yesterday's mark-up session of the Senate Appropriation Committee:
  • AgJobs bill, introduced by Sen. Craig and Sen. Feinstein
  • H-2B bill on 3-year returning worker extension, introduced by Sen. Mikulski
  • Bill on recapture of unused EB immigrant visas, and early adjustment filing, introduced by Sen. Gregg and Sen. Murray
  • Bill to reauthorize the EB-5 Regional Center Investment Program
• The movement in the Senate side took a strategy of attaching the immigration bills to another bill unlike the House approach to legislate the immigration bills as independent bills.

[Update: This bill passed the senate on 5/23/08 without any of the immigration related amendments fearing a veto from the White House.]

With H-1B in limbo, Congressional backers push Green Cards

Efforts to increase the H-1B cap have been stuck in a legislative swamp, but U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) has introduced three bills in the last few weeks to help foreign nationals already working in the U.S. to obtain permanent residency. She announced her latest legislative effort late Wednesday.

News Link: http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=E9FCCA76-17A4-0F78-31943D83ADDC573B

Visa Bulletin - June 2008

Every month around the 15th day, the U.S. Dept. of State, releases the visa bulletin which lists who can avail of a visa number next month to gain permanent residency. This bulletin breaks down the numbers based on the category and also separates out over-subscribed countries from the rest of the world. When you apply for permanent residency you get a case number and a priority date. If your priority date is earlier than the date listed in the visa bulletin for your application category, USCIS will proceed with your case and in most cases you will get your permanent resident card in a few months. Here are the cut-off dates for employment-based permanent residency categories from the June 2008 visa bulletin:

For persons born in India:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	01 Apr 2004	Advanced by 3 months
EB3	01 Nov 2001	No change

For persons born in China:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	01 Apr 2004	Advanced by 3 months
EB3	22 Mar 2003	No change

For persons born in Phillipines:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	Current	No change
EB3	01 Mar 2006	No change

For persons born in Mexico:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	Current	No change
EB3	01 Jul 2002	No change

For rest of the world:

Category	Cut-off Date	Movement from previous month
EB1	Current	No change
EB2	Current	No change
EB3	01 Mar 2006	No change

Most IT related applicants would fall under EB3. That's retrogressed by over 6 years now for applicants born in India.

Special announcement on EB-3 availability in the future:
Demand for numbers, primarily by Citizenship and Immigration Services Offices for adjustment of status cases, is expected to bring the Employment Third preference category very close to the annual numerical limit in June. As a result, this category is likely to experience retrogressions or visa unavailability beginning in July. Such action would only be temporary, however, and a complete recovery of the cut-off dates would occur for October, the first month of the new fiscal year.

Dollar's purchasing power

Don't want to sound like an economist because I have almost no formal education in that field but from what I have read and understood, prices of everything is going up while the value of the US dollar is going down.

It started with the housing bubble as home prices shot up much faster than income due to greed and some creative financing from Wall Street . As it turned out, without a rise in income, there's no way these mortgages could be paid. The results were mortgage defaults and a fall in home prices. This resulted in a credit crunch were no one wanted to lend money to anyone because of fear of not getting their money back. To stave off a financial breakdown, the US Federal Reserve decreased interest rates to almost negative rates(real rates considering inflation) at a time when Oil was already trading at record highs. The smart money saw what was coming and invested out of dollars and into anything that is real and necessary. Oil, metals and lately food commodities have all risen in prices as a result.

I also don't want to sound political but I believe Oil prices are also a derivative of the Iraq occupation but this is where we stand now. Take a look at the chart below to compare what $1 in 1800 means today and more particularly the steep decline in the recent past.

Decline in the U.S. dollar's purchasing power (1800-2005)
Source: Barron's

So, you may ask what this has to do with immigration to US? Well, it only means that the purchasing power of the dollar is decreasing as each month goes by while the salaries are staying the same (actually going down considering inflation). So, consider this when you make the financial decision to relocate to a new job here.

Bills introduced to replace lottery visas with advanced degree visas

Senator Judd Gregg (NH) introduced a bill "to replace the diversity visa lottery program with a program that issues visas to aliens with an advanced degree." This bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander (TN). Sen. Elizabeth Dole (NC), Sen. John Sununu (NH), Sen. John Cornyn (TX), and Sen. Orrin Hatch (UT). These Senators are proposing to expand the immigration opportunities for Advanced Degree holder foreign workers in STEM or related fields without increasing the total annual number of immigrant visa under the current immigration system. Interesting legislative bill.

Some PR from the Senator who introduced this bill:

Sen. Gregg stated, "Talent is a nation’s most important resource in today’s information age, and our nation’s immigration policies need to catch up to this economic reality. In addition to increasing the number of H-1B visas and employment-based visas for highly skilled workers, I believe that Congress should realign our immigration programs so they better meet our economic needs, including the well-documented shortage of workers with advanced degrees in the math and sciences. By converting a lottery visa program that has marginal skills requirements into one that is focused on the best and the brightest, we strengthen our competitive advantage, spur economic and job growth here in the United States, and deter employers from sending work overseas where highly skilled talent is located. Our visa lottery programs should not just benefit those who are selected, but should have significant positive ramifications for our nation as a whole. I look forward to working with my colleges on this measure and other immigration proposal to keep America competitive."

New bills introduced to address employment based immigration issues

There's new action appearing in the high skilled immigration circles. Some new bills have been introduced in Congress to deal with the employment(skill) based immigration issues. One bill introduced by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D. CA) seeks to eliminate the per country limits on the immigration numbers and to end the spill-over of unused immigrant visa numbers between employment-based and family-sponsored categories. Finally, someone is trying to differentiate between skills and diversity.

Another bill brought on by the powerful healthcare lobby and introduced by Rep. Robert Waxler seeks to reserve 20,000 visa numbers out of the annual total for exclusive use by Nurses and Physical Therapists in the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act. The healthcare lobby always tries to be non-controversial to mainstream America by demanding new visa numbers but at the same time not increasing the total numbers. This at a time when there's almost 6 years worth of applicants in the queue. Not to mention the fact that each year, there are a lot of visa numbers wasted due to inefficiency in communication between the agencies.

Economy, jobs and year 2008

The housing correction is causing companies across the entire economy to reconsider projections for the next year. If indeed the economy goes into recession or at least slows down as it has already done this quarter, the possibility of wage appreciation is zero. The entire argument that foreign labor depresses wages becomes irrelevant if the economy falters, as there will be mass layoffs and possible wage decreases for newly hired positions even without any immigration. The effect of immigration numbers on wages is really minuscule compared to the overall health of the economy, assuming we believe that such a thing does happen. Far more consequential is what would happen to competitiveness, productivity, innovation and jobs if protectionist laws are implemented during times of economic slowdown. Next year will be interesting.

USCIS As a Business Entity in EAD and Advance Parole Policy

From Mathew Oh:

• The legacy INS and the USCIS had worked on a plan for a number of years to issue a multi-year EAD. It even conceived a plan to abandon a separate Advance Parole document and turn the EAD to function as the employment authorization document as well as overseas travel document for I-485 applicants. Indeed, the USCIS even enacted and released a regulation to issue an EAD card that can extend over a period in excess of one year. However, this regulation has never been implemented because of the alleged internal disagreement within the DHS leadership. Guess what! The sources of disagreement were reportedly "money, money, money!" By issuing such new multi-year EAD, the DHS was destined to lose a huge loss in the revenue of EAD card selling business.
• Now what? Under the new filing fee schedule which took effect after July 29, 2007, issuance of EAD and Advance Parole for the post August 27, 2007 is "free, free, free" for the I-485 filers. Allegedly, the cost is incorporated in the I-485 filing fee of $1,020. The new regulation uses the term of "fee waiver" for EAD and Advance Parole for these I-485 filers. Now, you guessed it! Lo and Behold, the business calculation on EAD and Advance Parole has reversed. The DHS will lose a huge money by issuing single-year EAD and a separate Advance Prole document on a yearly basis over and over since they are free and they will have to keep producing it at no charge every year, which creates a huge workloads consuming its huge human resources and other production costs. This is particularly unacceptable to the agency under the predicted State Department Visa Bulletin for FY 2008 and in the future. Now, from the business standpoint, the DHS may make a huge money by issuing a multi-year EAD which will also function as a travel document. Ahah! No wonder why they are finally coming forward revealing their hidden agenda behind the new fee rule-making and EAD/Advance Parole reform business. Reportedly, Mr. Aytes of USCIS disclosed in a New York AILA conference that the USCIS was currently working on a single multi-year EAD card that will also replace the Advance Parole document. What a smart calculation it was in the new fee rule-making action.
• It turns out that such single card acting serving as EAD as well as travel document for multiple years will serve the mutual interests of both the immigrants and other immigration stakeholders AND the USCIS. One interesting question is whether the DHS/USCIS will go all the way acting purely on business calculation or may extend some generosity and compassion for some I-485 filers as well. The answer to this question will also involve the timing of the change and the card policy. The fee waiver for EAD and Advance Parole applies only to the post July-2007 VB fiasco I-485 filers. Accordingly, the agency will make money from the post VB fiasco 485 filers and lose money from the pre VB fiasco 485 filers if the agency issues a new multi-year EAD card accross the board coving both groups. Even though the post VB fiasco I-485 applicants may outnumber the pre VB fiasco filers, the agency must be using calculators day and night to determine the answer for the agency's maximum benefits in terms of cost saving from the new policy. One option could be that they come forward with a new regulation that such multi-year EAD card will apply only to the post VB fiasco I-485 filers. The other option could be for the agency to set timing of the new policy such that a substantial number of pre-VB fiasco I-485 applicants leave the pipeline of green card process. The bad news for the second option for the agency is the State Department's Visa Bulletin predictions for FY 2008. It thus apepars that they will determine the break-even point or overriding cost saving point considering the pouring-in new I-485 applications in the future and the number of pre VB fiasco filers in its total pool of I-485 applications. The agency is likely to determine the timing of new card policy after a careful calculation of these factors. It will be considered a shameless act, should the agency adopt the first option, which will definitely face a legal challenge in courts from the standpoint of unlawful creation of classes in violation of the nation's Constitution and unequal treatment of the classes as well as a lack of fair play and fairness in administration of justice and government process.
• Please watch carefully the upcoming move of the agency and how the business calculated new policy will unfold "how" and "when."

'Blue Card' Visa Program

European Union recognizing their industry needs is gearing up to create a competing visa system for high skilled workers. This is in direct competition to the H1B visa in the US and work permits in Canada. Individual European nations do have some sort of immigration laws prior to this but the biggest advantage of the new system, one that is key to the foreign workers is the ability to work anywhere within the EU with one single visa. Here's the BusinessWeek article.

Meanwhile, US Senator Grassley is fighting to increase the H1B fees to almost $6000 per applicant to further restrict the use of H1B visas. Here's the new fee structure

• $1,500 American Worker Training Fee ($750 if employs 25 or less employees)
• $3,500 Supplemental Fee ($1,750 if employ 25 or less employees)
• $500 Fraud and Abuse Prevention Fee
• $320 H-1B Petition Fee
• TOTAL=$5,820

That's progressive thinking from Sen Grassley and other LDAs (Lou Dobbs & Associates).

How about other nations impose similar trade restrictions on US goods and services. Here are few suggestions:

1. Impose 500% surcharge on Pepsi and Coke products for a cola worker training fee so they can learn to make good cola without having to import the technology from US.
2. Add $400 to every box of Microsoft Windows imported for a local software development fund. Use the money collected to build software indigenously without having to import US software.

If you think these sound ridiculous, that's exactly how Sen Grassley's proposed fees sound too.

Lou Dobbs and Associates fuming over Immigrants' success

With the limited success the legal immigrant group has had by getting the USCIS and DOS to honor the original visa bulletin, and the media coverage this relatively small group has had, it seems now Lou Dobbs & Associates (loose term for Lou Dobbs and like minded extremists) are venting their frustration on the legal immigrants. It just solidifies the point that these people are pure restrictionists. Have a look at the responses to this article from BusinessWeek has had.

Bruce
Jul 20, 2007 8:40 PM GMT
No one is against REASONABLE number of LEGAL immigrants but the H-1B visa program is essentially a scam. It's simply a way for firms to reduce their labor costs by increasing the number of available candidates for employment. Truth be known, Indians are famous for taking advantage of the H-1B program, for cheating it by not exiting the USA when their visa expires which they are supposed to do according to the law. It's all a scam - just like the now defunct immigration "reform" bill in the Senate last month. Foreign lobby groups pay off US politicians to allow more of their people into our nation. Time for this corrupt practice to wind down.

RG
Jul 20, 2007 8:23 PM GMT
In case you "immigrants" fail to read your H-1B visa, it is called a NON-IMMIGRANT VISA. That means you are supposed to leave the USA when the visa expires. Understand? Not bring a dozen of your relatives here to live with you forever. Why don't more Americans go into such "great" fields as IT? Young Americans now know that that once good field has been so diluted with foreigners, and salaries have come down due to an excess of labor. IT is no longer a desired occupation.

These are examples of hate-radio listeners who are getting so emotional over something that hardly affects their lives. 140,000 immigrants per year in a nation of 302,000,000 people is not even 0.05 percent of the population. Are we supposed to believe that the tiny fraction of the Americans who are against this represent the 300 million Americans? It's a democracy and its the majority opinion that counts and majority of Americans want high skilled legal immigration, period. Amen!

The Gandhi Protests Pay Off

Facing political pressure and legal action, the U.S. government may speed up green-card processing and make more slots available

Read the complete article at BusinessWeek

This post at ImmigrationVoice's forum is worth the read:

I've had it, I am moving to Canada
byeusa:
Dear Friends, I had it... I am moving to Canada in the next 2 months to work for guess who? Microsoft. Came to USA in 1997 for my masters, worked at Legato, Documentum and Opentext. Had to restart my GC twrice, once as the company laid me off and next for career progression. GC is still years years away. Interviewed with MSFT last month and got an offer to work in their Enterprise Collaboration team. MSFT looked at the visa mess I was in and offered me to work in Vancouver. I get my Canadian GC in 6 months and my wife can work from day one. I am abandoning my US dream for good;guess I would be satisfied with touching my 4 year old son's American passport.

I worked for a canadian company in US and now would be working for a US company in Canada. This is globalization. True Globalization. Any for those whiners belonging to IEEE and its propoganda machine, I would like to mention that I drew salries which were above way above the norm. I am sure I would be drawing more than 2 of his programmers combined. Ron- ask your folks to learn to compete and update their skills. They probably studied studied 'history of mathematics' as a math subject in high school instead of calculus. They were happy that they had the coolest Nintendo games while many like me were burning the midnight old figuring out data structures at Berkeley.

I hope Berney Sanders and his club of the CIR days are hearing the developments. Berney, fix the broken education system for job protection rather than building fences to prevent legal workers to come to this gifted country. More companies will leave for nearshore if the mess continues. Fix the system by closing the H1B loopholes that a small percentage of companies are exploiting. Don't bad mouth the H1B system which has given you so much talent that you could have never groomed, the talented individuals who have contributed to the society, social security system and what not. Patch the holes in the fence, do not erect a higher fence for which people need to pay $ 5000 to cross. And by the way if you have the inclination and the time- fix the broken LEGAL High Skilled immigration system.

Fate of U.S. Senator Vitter on the Edge for Involvement in the Madam's List

From Mathew Oh's website: This Senator from Luisiana who vigorously underminded and killed the CIR 2007 by introducing tons of amendments to S. 1639 for the purpose of filibuster turned out to be a customer of the madam services in the Beltway, according to the news report, and reportedly confessed himself that he was the sinner. He is the first term Senator. This has brought him to the edge of a thread for his political future. The madam's phone list has been recently released, putting a number of prominent legislators in the Beltway restless. The politcal enemies are fumbling through the stacks of phone lists to look for the names. Hmm.................................... Wonder who else are there?

Microsoft moves north

Unable to meet its hiring needs because of U.S. immigration policy, the software company is opening an office in Vancouver

MICROSOFT CORP. is expanding in the Pacific Northwest, hiring several hundred software wizards to help develop new products. Instead of landing at the Redmond, Wash., mother ship, however, the new workers will toil in Vancouver, British Columbia. Here's why, according to the company's news release (emphasis added): "The Vancouver area is a global gateway with a diverse population, is close to Microsoft's corporate offices in Redmond and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S."

LA Times link: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-microsoft10jul10,0,3731138.story

A Gift From Gandhi - Floral protest

Washington Post: Frustrated Green Card Applicants From India Use Methods Of Master

The idea for the protest began with the Indian immigration community on the online forum Immigration Voice, a site devoted to issues facing skilled, legal workers seeking permanent residence in the United States. Their method was inspired by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who spent years campaigning nonviolently for India's independence from Britain

Reversal Frustrates Green-Card Applicants

The government's surprise offer, then abrupt reversal, of an opportunity for thousands of skilled foreign workers to obtain permanent residency in the U.S. highlights the problems of the overtaxed immigration system and the frenzy that results from a chance to apply for a green card.

The scramble has put tens of thousands of workers and their families in limbo after many of them and their employers spent thousands of dollars in hopes of securing permanent residency. It may result in a class-action lawsuit against the government by frustrated applicants.

Article link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118359095890657571.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Citigroup to cut 17,000 jobs, but India headcount set to rise

PTI reports World's largest financial services firm Citigroup Inc today said it will eliminate 17,000 jobs or nearly five per cent of its global workforce, even as it plans to move 9,500 positions to India and other low-cost locations.

The company could move a large chunk of its jobs -- which could be in the range of 5,00-8,000 -- to India, especially for equity research, investment banking and back-office transaction-related activities, sources close to the developeent said. The total number of jobs to be eliminated equal more than half of the total number of positions Citigroup added to its workforce in 2006.More than 9,500 jobs will be moved to lower-cost locations, both domestically and internationally, the company said.

ISB student bags $274,000 job offer

From Hindustan Times:

In a world where any job offer is better than no offer, a graduate of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad has walked away with a Rs 1.18 crore (over $274,000) annual package at the end of another great year of placements at the campus. The student from the Class of 2007 attracted the highest international cost-to-company annual package of Rs 1.18 crore, while the average global CTC stood at Rs 59.5 lakh, the school's dean M Rammohan Rao said, announcing the results of the placement season.

IBS as some of you may know was founded on December 20, 1999 by a group of Fortune 500 entrepreneurs in collaboration with Andhra Pradesh's state government. Nara Chandrababu Naidu, the then chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh played a key role in establishing the institution. IBS partners include London Business School, Wharton Business School and Kellogg School of Management.

Signs of changing times?