Submitted by Train H-1B Replacement?, Jan 3, 2008 10:19

S. Kolger wrote: "when American workers are no longer required to train their H-1B replacements"

(1) From The Grassley Visa Tax The Wall Street Journal Editorial, Nov 2, 2007

(a) Last week Mr. Grassley, the Iowa Republican, slipped an amendment into a spending bill that would tax businesses that hire skilled immigrants an additional $3,500 per visa to a total of $5,000 each. According to the National Foundation for American Policy, this represents a $3.1 billion tax increase over five years on some of America's fastest growing companies.

(b) Citing anecdotal evidence -- "People have called our office," a spokeswoman tells us -- Senator Grassley says the fee increase is necessary to combat abuse and fraud.

(c) So while even European bureaucrats are wising up to the importance of attracting global talent to keep an economy competitive, a Republican Senator is joining liberal protectionists to move the U.S. in the opposite direction. Go figure. If Congress can't see its way to fix our broken immigration system, the least it can do is not drive more jobs offshore.

(2) From Investing in America, Making Things Worse By Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) | Wall Street Journal, Nov 8, 2007

(a) Your editorial asserts that the number of foreign workers on H-1B visas is so minimal that we shouldn't care if Americans are in fact displaced. I challenge the Journal to wave their labor force figures in the face of one of the hi-tech workers who have had to train their own replacement who is an H-1B visa holder. That's a smack in the face to the American worker and hardly an issue to take lightly.

(b) Big business cannot continue to ignore the home-grown American talent who should be getting at least a good portion of these jobs.

(3) Page 9, Driving jobs and Innovation Offshore The impact of high-skill Immigration Restrictions on America, National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) Policy Brief, Dec 2007

(a) A key premise of critics is that companies hire H-1B professionals to the exclusion of Americans. But this makes little sense. Almost all companies that utilize H-1B visa holders have U.S. workers representing 85 percent to 99 percent of their workforce. Any businesses with more than 15 percent of their workforce on H-1B visas is considered "H-1B dependent" under the law and must adhere to a stricter set of labor rules.

(b) An allegation sometimes made is that companies lay off Americans to hire H-1B visa holders in their place. Presumably the only reason any company would even consider doing this if they could get away with paying the H-1Bs much less than the legally required wage – which would be against the law.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act it is unlawful for any company to layoff an American and replace him or her with an H-1B visa holder found to be willfully paid less than the required wage.

(c) The National Foundation for American Policy sent a letter to Senator Grassley's office requesting a list of the names of "hi-tech workers who have had to train their own replacement who is an H-1B visa holder."

To date we have not received such a list from Senator Grassley's office.

(d) Senator Grassley recently stated, "Unfortunately, the H-1B program is so popular, it is now replacing the U.S. labor force rather than supplementing it." There does not appear to be any basis for this statement.

There are approximately 152 million people in the U.S. labor force who are not on H-1B visas. The number of new H-1B visa holders in the United States accounted for 0.07 percent of the U.S. labor force in 2006.

(4) From Grassley Is Off the Mark Wall Street Journal, Nov 10, 2007

No successful business hires an H-1B visa holder just to fire an American worker. Because of the shortage of trained and competent workers, high tech workers are paid the prevailing wage rates. Sen. Grassley is overlooking the term of the H-1B visas.

No business wants to train a worker who will leave in a short time. Successful businesses are built on the expertise of long term experienced workers. H-1B workers are attractive because there are not skilled Americans available.

Sen. Grassley should consider the interests of the country as a whole instead of pandering to special interests and he should consider legislation to improve the performance of Americans instead of making false accusations to polish his image.

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