Experts: Immigration reform not dead

Despite rumors to the contrary, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill is not dead. It will most likely be revived in another format or come back in a version created in the House of Representatives.

Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at University of California at Davis, thinks the bill is dead but believes a separate bill dealing only with foreign tech works will be pushed forward.

“My guess is that they will now use the Lieberman/Hagel bill [Skilled Worker Immigration and Fairness Act of 2007] as a base and start adding even more industry-friendly amendments to it,” Matloff told me.

This bill would raise the cap on H-1B visas.

As it stands now, the major change since I last wrote about the bill is the proposed Cantwell-Cornyn amendment.

The amendment would reinstate the rule that says you don’t have to be degreed in a specific job area if you have equivalent work experience. This was eliminated in the current bill.

Matloff sees this as a minor issue.

The amendment also creates a dual system, reinstating the Green Card system that currently allows employers to sponsor workers with specific skills for specific jobs. The Amendment calls for 140,000 employer-sponsored cards in addition to the point system.

Finally, Cantwell-Cornyn seeks to reinstate H-1B exemptions for foreign workers who hold U.S. graduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math, known as STEM employees.

Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, says it is a bad idea.

“Why would employers hire new U.S. Bachelor of Science grads when the market would be flooded with workers with advanced degrees willing to work cheap in exchange for one of the 140,000 green card sponsorships?” Berry pondered.

Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney with Siskind Susser Bland, is in favor of reinstating a Green Card system that allows employers to specify jobs and employees. Siskind believes if this was completely replaced by the point system, it would be a disaster for the U.S. economy.

“While it may fit well in some countries, it would be disastrous for the U.S. System,” Siskind said, explaining the point system was designed to attract bright people to a country.

“We don’t have that problem,” said Siskind. Rather, what the U.S. needs to do is to make sure we have the right kind of people gong to jobs that are needed and where they are needed.

Matloff and Berry disagree with Siskind.

Reinstating the green card on top of a point system expands the employer-based green card system even more than what the Immigration Reform bill would have done.

“This is totally unwarranted as we do not have a shortage of these workers,” said Matloof.

Berry says employment-based sponsorship creates an indentured servant status on the sponsored workers.

As far as a shortage of qualified high-tech workers goes, Kim says American colleges and universities awarded 233,492 undergraduate science and engineering degrees.

Obviously, feelings on both sides are strong, which makes me believe this issue isn’t going away any time soon and that the immigration bill is not dead.