Technology Firms Urge Congress to Pass H-1
Visa Bill
July 19, 2000
Washington, DC -- High-tech companies urged Congress to pass a bill that
would increase the number of temporary visas (H-1s) for skilled workers, a
measure that is currently tied up in election year politics.
According to several companies, if they are unable to get more H-1B workers,
they will have to shift production overseas, thereby reducing American jobs.
Currently, 115,000 H-1B visas are allotted each year, and this year’s
supply was exhausted in March.
Proposals to increase the number of H-1B visas have broad support among
Republicans and Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The problem is that there are various versions of H-1B bills pending and
so far there is no consensus on which bill to support.
Unfortunately, the issue has become tangled in political fights in both
houses and Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the delay.
The White House and congressional Democrats are pushing to include in the
measure provisions that would grant amnesty to some long-term illegal aliens and
allow them to seek permanent resident status.
They also want to include a provision they said would redress unfair
treatment of immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti and give
them the same treatment as Nicaraguans and Cubans under an earlier law known as
the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA).
Republicans, on the other hand, just want to address
the H-1B issue now, and leave the other issues to another day.
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