Monday, June 19, 2000 - Valley may lose tech-visa boost
BY JIM PUZZANGHERA, Mercury News Washington BureauPolitics threatens effort to bring in more workers
WASHINGTON -- Silicon Valley is poised to lose one of its highest priorities this year -- gaining tens of thousands more visas for much-desired tech workers from overseas -- because a battle for Latino votes in November's presidential election has stalled legislation.
The problem is caused by two immigration provisions affecting Latinos that the White House wants to add to the legislation. And the conflict threatens to delay passage of a visa increase until the fall, or derail it completely this year.
Either case would severely affect Silicon Valley, which has pushed hard for an increase in the annual number of so-called H-1B visas to fill job vacancies in the booming economy.
This year's allotment of 115,000 visas was reached in March, six months before the end of the fiscal year. The situation will only get worse next year as the number of visas is scheduled to drop to 107,500 under a temporary expansion of the program passed in 1998.
If more visas aren't approved before the new fiscal year begins Sept. 30, the current backlog of thousands of applications will eat into next year's allotment. That scenario would artificially inflate the number of visas needed next year and has exacerbated the visa shortage the past few years.
``This is urgent,'' said Sandy Boyd, chair of the American Business for Legal Immigration Coalition, a group of 400 companies and organizations pushing for an H-1B visa increase. ``This is not political for the people who are there on a daily basis trying to figure out how to staff projects. Companies have been trying to figure out what they should do. Should projects be shelved or moved offshore?''
Congress in standoff
But Republicans and Democrats are now in a standoff with only a few weeks before Congress essentially takes the summer off to attend the national political conventions.
Congress was moving swiftly this year toward increasing the annual number of H-1B visas to about 200,000, with many Democrats and Republicans backing the idea. But on May 11, the White House publicly weighed in with its own proposal, which for the first time included the two provisions unrelated to the H-1B visa issue.
One would extend a current immigration amnesty provision for Nicaraguans and Cubans to others in Latin America. The second proposal, known as late amnesty, would allow illegal immigrants who entered the United States before 1986 to apply to become U.S. citizens. A similar amnesty was passed in the 1980s for people who had entered the country before 1972.
Some Republicans charge that by adding the new immigration proposals so late in the legislative process, Democrats show they aren't really interested in getting them passed. They simply want to force Republicans to vote them down and then tar the GOP as not truly committed to advancing Latino issues.
Both presidential candidates will be appealing to the growing number of Latino voters in key states like California, Florida, New York and Illinois. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumptive Republican nominee, has draw strong support from Latinos in Texas. He has promised to fight for those voters with Vice President Al Gore, who will be the Democratic nominee. That makes Latino issues highly charged this year.
``It's as bad as if they added abortion'' to the bill, said one Republican aide, who did not want to be named.
Democrats said they are not politicizing the issue, just including immigration proposals into immigration legislation. The White House in January began mentioning to members of Congress the idea of correcting what it said were injustices in the existing amnesty provisions as part of the visa legislation, although it did not publicly make its proposal until last month.
``When you're looking to increase the number of temporary foreign workers for the high-tech industry, it makes sense to permit adjustment of status for workers who are already in this country,'' said Maria Echaveste, White House deputy chief of staff.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose, has said she believes the provisions would increase Democratic votes for the H-1B visa increase. But Republicans say it would be offset by lost votes from members of their party.
Two bills in limbo
While the high-tech industry continues to push Congress to get moving, two separate H-1B visa bills remain in limbo in the House of Representatives. In a sense, the question now is which side will blink first in a standoff that involves not only Latino voters but the increasingly influential high-tech industry.
``The ball is in their court,'' Rep. David Dreier, R-Covina, co-sponsor of one of the House proposals, said of the Democrats. As chair of the House Rules Committee, Dreier controls when legislation is voted on. The two new proposals are unrelated to the H-1B visa issue and should be considered separately, he said.
``I'm very proud of the bipartisan package that we worked months to put together,'' said Dreier, who sponsored an H-1B visa bill with Lofgren. ``And I will say that I've been somewhat troubled by the attempt that has been made to really politicize this thing at the 11th hour.''
The resulting delay is frustrating Silicon Valley. Big name high-tech executives, including Intel Chairman Andy Grove and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, pushed hard for an increase during appearances in Washington last week.
The industry prefers the Dreier-Lofgren bill, which would increase the annual number of visas to 200,000 over the next three years. Another House bill, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would allow an unlimited number of visas during 2000 to 2002.
Because Smith chairs the House immigration subcommittee, that bill has advanced farther in the legislative process. It was approved 18-11 by the House Judiciary Committee on May 17.
But the high-tech industry prefers the Dreier-Lofgren bill. Smith's proposal ties the additional visas to a number of requirements the high-tech industry believes will be burdensome, such as a company showing that the median wage paid to its American workers had increased from the previous year.
But in the odd procedures of the House of Representatives, those two bills are likely to be merged into one to be voted on by the full body. That bill would contain the 200,000 limit but add more visas for the current fiscal year. A Senate bill largely mirrors the Dreier-Lofgren bill, increasing the allotment of visas to 195,000 for three years.
