L-1 Visas Costing US High Tech Workers Their Jobs (HR2154)

[Congressional Record: May 19, 2003 (Extensions)]
[Page E996-E997]

From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr19my03-36]
 

                            L-1 VISA REFORM

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JOHN L. MICA

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 19, 2003

  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, today I have introduced a bill which seeks to close a loophole in immigration law by prohibiting the outsourcing of L-1 intracompany transferee visa holders, similar to a provision contained in the H-1B visa program.
  The L-1 visa allows companies with subsidiaries abroad the ability to transfer employees

[[Page E997]]

from foreign countries to the United States as long as the intracompany transferees have been employed with the company for at least six months. Once in the country, those employees can then be outsourced to American firms at a significantly lower wage. As a result, many Americans have found themselves in the unemployment line. Simply put, this is a back door to cheap labor.
  In 1998, as the economy was soaring and demand for IT workers was rising faster than supply, Congress passed S. 2045, the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act. This legislation temporarily increased the cap on H-1B visa holders allowed into the country. In doing so, we also protected American jobs by adding restrictions to the program. However, the L-1 visa remains unchecked, unrestricted and unfortunately, abused.
  Unfortunately, thousands of Americans are unfairly losing their jobs through the abuse of the L-1 temporary work visa program. There are currently over 325,000 L-1 visa holders in the United States. In my 7th Congressional District of Florida, there are hundreds of cases of the displacement of American workers. In many of these instances, American workers are forced to train their own L-1 replacements or suffer the loss of their severance pay. Examples of similar replacements of American workers by lower paid foreign workers arrive in my office daily. This situation is deplorable. Mr. Speaker, during this time of economic downturn we need to be creating jobs for Americans, not putting more of them at risk by allowing firms to replace American workers with foreign nationals who are not subject to the same wage restrictions as holders of the H-1B visa.   Finally, I want to point out that American companies will still be permitted to employ L-1 visa holders. However, those employees will have to transfer from their own subsidiaries, not from a third party outsource.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge prompt consideration of this legislation.

By the way, the bill is HR2154. Received on Fri Jun 13 2003 - 05:30:51 CEST