Sanders amendment and the ENSRA

In my last post I wrote of the threat that there would be a Sanders amendment to the Travel Promotion Act.  The amendment would have increased the fees that H-1B Petitioners are charged for that process.  This would have greatly impacted healthcare immigration focused businesses and beneficiaries.   The H-1B has been a bigger part of every company’s immigration strategy since the 2007 retrogression of Schedule A workers.

 

It appears that this threat to H-1B petitioners has been avoided.  Yesterday word circled through the business immigration that Sen. Sanders has agreed to withhold offering the amendment.  Many leading House and Senate members personally reached out to Sen. Sanders.

 

The crux of their argument to Sen. Sanders was that if Comprehensive Immigration Reform is going to take root this fall, then piecemeal legislation such as H-1B fee increase would be counterproductive. 

Unfortunately, this means that efforts to pass the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act (HR 2536) are not likely to be successful this spring/summer.  Representatives and Senators seem to be of the opinion that the ENSRA and other piecemeal legislation can be taken up in a comprehensive package this autumn.  Nevertheless efforts to pass it sooner than the autumn remain underway.

 

-Chris Musillo

Comments

[Analytic]

To Jake,
Chris is absolutely correct. The H1-B visas have still not been filled to capacity compared to previous years. This clearly indicates that H1-B program actually is being used to supplement the US work force and not misplace US workers as some people think. If that was indeed the case then the US government should stop all temporary work related job and shut down their immigration system. The people who follow the rules, who actually pay taxes to the nation just as you do, are the ones being treated unfairly. Just imagine getting stuck at a job for 10 years to get your permanent residence.
Instead the government is trying to give fast-track citizenship to illegal immigrants who never pay taxes to the government.
Instead of cribbing and crying foul over H1-B visa program (which is legal), spend your time is discussing amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Thanks.

[Kavitha]

Hi Chris

When do you expect some moment on HR 2536 in terms of debate and mark up by subcommittee on immigration? Is it so that the bill need to be re-introduced in case it is not passed by Sept 30 2009?

Any chance of the bill getting passed before Dec 2209?

[analytical]

Hi
chris
Is there no single chance of passing ENSRA BILL this summer????
Please enlighten us with the fact, what will happen next????
Thanks

[Chris Musillo]

Hi Jake-
That may or may not be the case, but for the purposes of this Blog the H-1 is being used to bring in Nurses, PTs, OTs, and other healthcare workers into the US. The Dept of Labor acknowledges that there are significant US supply shortages in these occupations.
See: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos083.htm

Also, if H-1s are being used to cut wages, etc. Why are H-1 numbers down so dramatically this year? Aren't those companies just as interested in cutting wages in a falling economy? If your conclusions are correct, we shouldn't be seeing a fall-off in H-1 usage.

Chris

[Jake Leone]

Simple fact is Tata, Satyam, Infosys, and Wipro have U.S. workforces that are 90% Indian. These Indian IT offshoring/outsourcing firms are practicing racial discrimination in the U.S. by using the L-1 and H-1b Visa almost exclusively to fill U.S. jobs, and not even trying to find candidates already in the U.S., unless pressured by Congress.

Hiring only of one nationality is discrimination, pure and simple.

These companies are using the H-1b and L-1 Visa to remove millions of U.S. jobs, so the creation of a few fast-food jobs is nothing compared to the millions of customer support, call center, financial services, and engineering jobs that removed by these Indian IT Outsourcing companies.

We should not be allowing a Visa class to be so abused. The H-1b visa was meant to be used only when a U.S. company could not find a suitable worker for a U.S. job. By not even trying to hire U.S. workers, these Indian IT companies are patently abusing the H-1b and L-1 visa system and openly committing the biggest case of discrimination in U.S. modern history.

[Chris Musillo]

My sense is that any efforts to shoehorn the ENSRA onto the looming healthcare bill will likley be met with the same roadblocks that happened when Sen. Sanders attempted to raise the H-1B rates. That having been said, efforts continue to do just that.

[t-cell]

Hi Chris,

Is there any possibility that ENSRA be part of health care reform instead of CIR because of it has a component of funding grants to educate more Americans to take up nursing?